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Bottas: "You call that slow? Hold my beer...."
It would not surprise me if another sponsor appears on the airbox intake area at some point... Looks suspiciously empty to me
At first I thought it was last year's livery without the INEOS airbox but actually it's a lot more silver; it's just hard to see because the arena was so dark. Side of the chassis and top of the sidepods is silver which is a nice return to some color. I am surprised the airbox is straight up blank; either they have a new sponsor lined up or this was extremely last-minute with the background INEOS shenanigans. For the purposes of the launch I don't think it would have been that difficult to slap an AMG sticker on the airbox if nothing else.
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1063682/1 ... ad-f1-2025A report in The Telegraph earlier this week claimed that Mercedes were looking to buy the chemical giant out of its stake in the team and were involved in “tense negotiations” with Ratcliffe.
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However, Wolff has rejected the report, insisting that Ratcliffe remains one of the “three amigos” involved in the eight-time constructors’ world champions.
"[It was] never a consideration," Wolff told Sky Sports News at the F1 75 season launch event at The O2 Arena in London on Tuesday.
"Jim Ratcliffe is one of us three amigos - Mercedes, Jim and I. We are never going to part ways. He's been a great sponsor. We have had projects together. Nothing you read in the news will change anything.”
A Mercedes spokesperson told Crash.net: “There have been no discussions at any point of a shareholder change and sponsorship with Ineos is ongoing and stable."
Now that you mention it, I can't unsee it. Also, the Affalterbach AMG logo could fit rather wellcontinuum16 wrote: ↑19 Feb 2025, 19:25At first I thought it was last year's livery without the INEOS airbox but actually it's a lot more silver; it's just hard to see because the arena was so dark. Side of the chassis and top of the sidepods is silver which is a nice return to some color. I am surprised the airbox is straight up blank; either they have a new sponsor lined up or this was extremely last-minute with the background INEOS shenanigans. For the purposes of the launch I don't think it would have been that difficult to slap an AMG sticker on the airbox if nothing else.
Yeh, looks like the sponsorship has been audited & reprioritised maybe. I notice the other partner AMGs presence has diminished over the yrs too. It’s valuable real estate they could offer to paying advertisers, so why wouldnt you. In light of the reported financial healthiness of both Merc Benz group & INEOS, I think it a wise choice to support the profitable venture which would incl surrendering some advertising space to enterprises willing to pay.ScottB wrote: ↑20 Feb 2025, 14:29Feels like INEOS stepping back from directly contributing, or certainly as much, but not wanting to leave behind their dividend / sell their shares. Hell that £75 million for 33% is probably the best deal they've ever done, could be talking, what, more than a billion for that now? I'm sure the estimated value for Merc was 3 - 4 billion. Even if they might be a bit desperate for cash to support Man Utd, it aint gonna be cheap...
Even as an opponent I think HAM may be the biggest tutor to the young pretender. Twice I saw him make b-line towards hamLasssept wrote: ↑19 Feb 2025, 00:32https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GkGoNRPWUAA ... name=large
@ Dave Benett
Ineos and the chemicals industry in Europe is in serious trouble due to the EU sanctions on Russia. Chemical production relies on stable natural gas volumes and prices. It looks like Ratcliffe is trying to cut down costs at his sporting ventures to help balance the books for Ineos. This looks like the wrong strategy to me. He should sell his sporting assets and hunkering down. Cutting some retail jobs at United and taking the Ineos decals off the F1 car isn't going to add up to much. He should be able to sell the Mercedes F1 and Man United stakes to middle eastern buyers. But he doesn't want to. Yet.
