yeah but you're a die-hard F1 (and Hamilton) fan, to be fair. I'd suggest you're not the typical car buyer. I mean, my last car purchase was a BMW and they're not even in F1. I'm just very sceptical about how many people actually make their buying choices based on an F1 driver.
It doesn’t have to be someone going out and buying a car just because they’re a fan of Lewis and he drives a Merc. It’s got to do with the exposure he brings, the championships, the performance, the headlines. You could say that in many cases, the car is so good that even without him they’d be on pole. Certainly that was the case last Saturday and many other weekends, but not today. It would have been a Red Bull pole.
Mercedes was seen as such an “old person who has made it” car. It wasn’t a car that the young exec aspired to. That was BMW or Audi. Mercedes has changed all that, no doubt by the car models themselves being a lot more hip and cool, but the backbone has been the brand presence and performance in F1 and the exposure that they got with Lewis not to mention his fights with Nico.
As amazing a driver that he is, he doesn’t just command that salary on performance alone. Especially not when the car was so dominant. It’s the exposure he brings, the sponsors and advertising. It’s hardly about those few people going out and dropping $70-100K on a car because their favourite driver drives one. Though no doubt it could swing the vote for some. I know when we bought my wife’s AMG, the first choice was actually Audi and second BMW. Previously I had always held a ‘old man’s car’ view of Mercs, but because the AMGs looked pretty cool, nice engine and well, exposure from F1 and helped by Lewis being my favourite driver, we took one for the weekend and fell in love with the interior quality and the syrupy engine.