Mercedes Ponders Exiting Formula 1 And Laying Off 10,000 Staff

Yup, MB not going anywhere soon.

A lot of people watch F1. Numbers are up YOY. With 1.9 Billion viewers, the sport does not depend on the USA for its existence.

For the third year in a row, Formula 1 has seen its audience figures grow across both TV and digital platforms compared to the previous season.

The total global TV cumulative audience stood at 1.922bn, the highest since 2012, which represents an increase of 9% compared to 2018. This is the third consecutive year of growth. In the top 20 markets (based in ranking of TV audience) it reached 1.781bn, with the same increment year-on-year.

As they were last year, the top five markets by cumulative audience are Brazil, Germany, Italy, UK and the Netherlands, all with audiences higher than 100m. Among the top 20 markets, meanwhile, there have been exceptional increases; in Poland (+256%) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (+228%,) mostly driven respectively by new contract arrangements and Robert Kubica’s return to F1, and the new agreement signed in 2019 with MBC Group. Greece (+75%), the Netherlands (+56%), Italy (+29%) and Germany (+23%) were the countries with the highest increases, while the audience continues to grow in the United States (+7%) and in China (+5%).

Love F1, too bad that it's just like soccer in the US with very few fans.

Yes.
Hint: You are not the world.

IF they leave NOW with the cost cap coming in 2021, (even engines will be a lot cheaper due to new testing regulations) it will just cement the view that Mercedes can only win if they outspend everyone.
So I would be surprised if they leave. But they would have to let go halve the employees of the F1 team anyway.

Also Mercedes owns only 70% of the shares.

Also: IF they leave, I see no problem as long as the sell the team and do not just close it down. Toto Would be unhappy, because a shutdown would render his 30% share worthless.

Also: This might be a „trick“ to make Hamilton forget that he asked for 66,000,000,- PER year for a contract extension.
??

I'm still bummed that Toyota left F1. $500m is a lot to spend each year I agree, but they should be there always. Le Mans too. Sport is Life.

F1 is an utterly pointless venue.

1.92 Billion people say your wrong.

Eat feces...5 billion flies cannot be wrong.

Faulty logic, idiot.

Wish there was real stock car races like NASCAR use to race decades ago. They were genuine street cars set up fof the track using factory cars and engines. Race 'em on Sunday and sell'em on Monday was the slogan.

Those were really enjoyably races back in the day.

skytop: 100% agree