AmateurDriver wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 11:59
Mercedes has clearly stepped back in terms of involvment. Mercedes F1 has not even ever been a department of corporate Mercedes indeed. They are simply not finding anymore the pleasure and fun in the game they used to, and decided to downsize their effort. Ferrari is much different. Ferrari was born a racing team. Enzo stared selling road cars to fund competitions. Mercedes is a car maker that sometimes appears on track. Ferrari is (was?) a full-bloaded racing team.
Different philosophies have no bearing on the fact that it is impossible to spend more money than is limited by regulation. Point is, being richer than someone else doesn't give you any advantage if you can't spend more money than the others.
ps. there a third shareholder mercedes f1 with equal parts by Daimler AG, INEOS and Toto Wolff
Vanja #66 wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 12:12
Worse to drive was a myth, the car got worse due to TD39 which came just 2 races later. In between was Hungary where Ferrari was again the best car like France, but the wall managed to do the most idiotic thing possible and put Leclerc on Hards that didn't work on any single car. Otherwise, it was an easy win
Always wondered why Binotto denied the effect of the TD39 on the car speed and handling, and said it had no effect whatsoever.