dialtone wrote: ↑03 Feb 2024, 19:20
Ferrari has taken out a dangerous rival from competition. And F1 brands aren't football teams, they have products to sell and marketing to run. Lewis has been a Ferrari customer for decades, is a driver, in fact potentially the GOAT depending on the next few years, Ferrari would be absolutely mad to not take the whole package, including engineers, that are coming with Lewis and use it for the next decade+ of marketing initiatives having the GOAT driving for you. $100mil/yr is a drop in the bucket.
I bet nobody in Ferrari management could believe what they were witnessing as this was unfolding. For how much they are clowned in memes, Vasseur has been an absolute sniper.
Agreed, Ferrari now has a 7-time champ on their team, not only does he bring skill to the team but a wealth of knowledge, including what he knows from Merc, they have defanged Merc somewhat, arguably will now have the strongest driver pairing for 2025 and if they can produce a car that can at least challenge the red bull, will have a chance to end their WCC drought. The amount of merch sales they will do between Charles and Lewis with tons more of fans now supporting them will be huge(it will be odd to see Silverstone and Interlagos filled with red) along with Lewis and italian/Ferrari fashion wear and probably their car sales going up a bit. He's worth the $100mil to them, and like you said whatever other engineers jump ship with Lewis to Ferrari. Elkann wouldnt have thrown heaps of cash at him if they didnt think their return on investment would be worth it.