What's in the Name? F1 W05 Hybrid...

[Roops_F1]

The latest news from the paddock is that Mercedes have rechristened name of their chassis from F1 W05 to F1 W05 Hybrid.
http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 15793.html

In my view they want to take advantage of their dominance in f1 this season for marketing and branding gains for their road cars which run Hybrid engines. I have also noticed from their latest TV advertisements for road cars, that they are heavily emphasising on word 'Hybrid'.

Question is how much do they stand to gain by this strategy in terms increase of their brand value or sales figures for their road cars? I guess, only time will tell.

[beelsebob]

Hopefully a lot... Because if the answer isn't a lot, they won't be an F1 team for long.

[bhall]

That ought to be worth at least 0.2s. Maybe more.

[turbof1]

That ought to be worth at least 0.2s. Maybe more.

Are you sure? The 6 extra characters should give quite a big drag penalty.

yeah yeah I get the sarcasm

[MOWOG]

I was gonna buy a Mercedes before this announcement, but now I think I'm gonna buy myself TWO!

[WhiteBlue]

The more important point IMO is the positive Image for F1. Joe Saward emphasised that in his blog. I agree with ihm. F1 needs the Promotion.

[langwadt]

The more important point IMO is the positive Image for F1. Joe Saward emphasised that in his blog. I agree with ihm. F1 needs the Promotion.

and you could argue that, if you want the general public to understand what all the F1 regulations are about,
hybrid is the right name to use

[Roops_F1]

The more important point IMO is the positive Image for F1. Joe Saward emphasised that in his blog. I agree with ihm. F1 needs the Promotion.

I am not sure, whether Mercedes (just being in F1 for last 5 years) of all the other teams is really concerned about F1's Image. If we are talking of Ferrari, Williams or Mclaren we can understand that they would care for F1's Image as their own identity has always been tied up with F1's. Mercedes would be far more interested to make the most of these new regulations to be dominant and promote its brand, if it fails to do so then it will go down the same path as Toyota, BMW or Jaguar went (Quitting F1).

On the other hand, I even feel that Ferrari's chassis name F14T had something to do with promoting its parent company FIAT.

[PlatinumZealot]

I love it.
Hybrid just oozes "advancement" and techno-wizardry.

I love it to bed.

[zeph]

The more important point IMO is the positive Image for F1. Joe Saward emphasised that in his blog. I agree with him. F1 needs the Promotion.

Yeah. It's not often I agree with him, but I think he's right about this. F1 has undergone one of the biggest technical changes in history, and they have done f-all to promote it. What the teams have achieved is nothing short of miraculous.

I think Mercedes -prudently- waited to see just how competitive they were before marketing it. Advertising this only makes sense when you are winning.

[Cocles]

The more important point IMO is the positive Image for F1. Joe Saward emphasised that in his blog. I agree with ihm. F1 needs the Promotion.

I am not sure, whether Mercedes (just being in F1 for last 5 years) of all the other teams is really concerned about F1's Image. If we are talking of Ferrari, Williams or Mclaren we can understand that they would care for F1's Image as their own identity has always been tied up with F1's.

It's inaccurate to compare them to BMW and Toyota for several reasons. The most obvious, of course, is Merc's history as an engine manufacturer. Less obvious includes their new seat on the FOM board. And they still use footage of their 1950's F1 cars in their ads. Perhaps they don't care about the image of F1 as much as Ferrari, but they're leaps and bounds ahead of the other recent manufacturers.

[copperkipper1]

This car could turn out to be one of the best/most dominate Formula 1 cars of all time. born in a new era which uses super efficient hybrid power trains.

They can call it whatever the hell they they want. Why not emphasize that it's a hybrid? They should be proud...

[Cam]

There's already a platform for this:
• Porsche 919 Hybrid
• Toyota TS040 Hybrid
• Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Hybrid)

If you wanted to run a hybrid, with a hybrid name, why did't they all just run in LMP1 like the rest? If this is for marketing, surely beating other "hybrids" is a better (excuse the pun) vehicle, for selling consumer cars?

[Lycoming]

WEC is a smaller audience though.

[n_anirudh]

I guess, they should strive to make the engines more fuel efficient while relaxing regulations on engine parts etc. Reduce fuel used by 5-6kg each year until they reach 75kg. And i hope they take this technolog to road cars.