Just_a_fan wrote: ↑30 Sep 2021, 14:22
godlameroso wrote: ↑30 Sep 2021, 13:26
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑29 Sep 2021, 14:13
Coming second and third in the drivers' title means the team is likely to win the constructors' title (unless the title winner has romped away from everyone and scored silly amounts of points, of course) and so get the team the maximum return. If one driver wins the title and the other is mid table, the team gets much less in return.
This is why Mercedes have always tried to get both cars as far up the grid as possible. Ferrari took the decision back in the Schuie days to favour one driver but they had a huge budget from tobacco advertising so the constructors' title and the revenue from it was less of an issue. Also, they were Ferrari - the most famous car brand in the world so they hardly needed the marketing.
Because Red Bull is basically a marketing organisation (the drink is a western adaptation of an existing Thai product marketed to western markets) they probably see more capital in having a champion driver than a champion car. After all, having Max's smiling face on an advert is likely to sell drinks to people than a picture of a racing car. Every time Max wins, the Red Bull logo is front and centre as seen here:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... 726%29.jpg
Mercedes, being a car manufacturer that markets their own products, will want to see the car as being as marketable as the drivers.
Red Bull appear to be following the Ferrari model rather than the Mercedes one.
Honda wants some of that glory too.
Shouldn't have left then, should they?
This is an interesting topic that isn't so straightforward to answer. Honda is Japanese, they are an outsider in a European shark tank. Besides Honda leaving brings its own blessings, the Mercedes team knows this all too well. Red Bull is very gracious and thankful for Honda, and so too Honda is also gracious and thankful because of Red Bull's political clout that they are able to compete as they are.
McLaren's political clout is greater now with Zak Brown because he has similar political clout within his organization as he does externally. Ron Dennis on the other hand had no allies outside of his team, focusing on his political clout within the organization at the expense of everything else.
Things are different now, because Mercedes has forced other teams' hands to form temporary political alliances because they're being affected by Mercedes political maneuvers. This is naturally to be expected because the head Mercedes man has made it obvious that he is both top dog in his organization and to the FIA, and politics is always a contest for power. By being so bold one paints a target on their back, some people just have more people to shield them from the arrows sent their way.