This has to be the biggest concern. As a publicly traded company, they have to not only be profitable, but demonstrate ongoing growth year-on-year, and the only way to do that is whore the races out to whoever will pay the most - hence half-empty stands in horrible places like Saudi Arabia.
Flipside, I for one welcome the forthcoming sight of Kim Jong-un personally winning DPRK’s inaugural race in his locally-built car…
I believe he designed and built that yesterday evening, and pushed it the last 3 laps after an engineer didn’t squeeze 35 litres of fuel into the 10 litre tank.
Interesting comment from Mr Vettel.
Having driven The Mountain “in anger” in a Touring Apendix J car, I can categorically concur that it is a monster and with a few (albeit costly) mods, it would make a fantastic F1 circuit.
My knowledge is purely virtual from playing racing games, but Bathurst is a phenomenal track, so much fun to drive.
Conjecture: RUS coming from Williams has made him better prepared to get at least something out of a complete dog of a car.
Observation:
Reports on Practice and Qualifying have headlined LeClerc, mentioned Perez, told us where Hamilton and Russell (Russell and Hamilton) are, and… typically not mentioned Verstappen until you get into the accompanying spiel.
Just seems a bit odd to not mention the current championship leader earlier in the reports.
It’s because everyone hates him, his Dad and his whining boss Horner.
Great drive from George, ouch for Lewis, oh bugger for Leclerc, all the derp for McLaren, Perez oddly ate his tyres and had all the long pit stops, it just won’t happen for Carlos….
Snooze fest, unusually for Baku.
Still, Ferrari shot themselves, Alfa, and Haas in the foot.
Not much to say apart from It was great to see Mansell driving for Mercedes.
Hammy looked fucking crippled trying to get out of the Merc - like me getting-out of a go-kart. Felt sorry for him. That bloody car looked as comfy a riding inside a cement-mixer in the cockpit footage.
I’m going to write to Leclerc to apologise for putting him in my F1 Manager team - he’ll be DNFing for the rest of the season now… 
Barring a miracle, this race was the final nail in Ferrari’s 2022 coffin…
Not sure what Latifi will do when Williams eventually drop him? I suppose circuses still need someone to drive the clown-cars?
Meh, with a side-order of Whatevs.
At the risk of sounding like Christina Fucking Horner, he could always just demand Toto’s boys raise the ride height rather than listen to him (Toto) moan like a drain.
He’s also never been to know to milk something for all its worth, so I’m sure his Paul-goes-karting extraction from the car was a genuine reflection of his discomfort and not some secondary-school histrionics.
Oh, and thanks for doubling down an the already-cursed Leclerc choice. Now we’re both in the mud
At a wild guess, the Merc would prolly get airborne/spend a lot of time in barriers if you raised the ride height - I’m guessing most aspects of their chosen aero package are interrelated - change one thing and the rest dominoes into a stack of warm turds? I think we know a man who can provide some expert insight here…
I’m just gonna go ahead and say it: I said George was going to make Lewis’s life wretched this year - advantages of youth notwithstanding - and boy, has he. Trembly lips were bound to result. But take another look at the cockpit footage of Hammy at speed - 50+ laps of that? I bet he prayed for a safety car the whole way round.
But there is no god…
I do love the fact that Russell is kicking his butt, and Hammie is having to drive around, in the pack, like everyone else.
I would love to see them racing in a competitive car, to see what the truth really is, but I rather fear Lewis will have retired / died of old age before Merc sort-out the current crock-of-
They’ll prolly have it sorted by the end of the year. So yeah, he’ll have retired before it’s fixed.
I can see him doing one more season if he thinks the car will be competitive.
He is contracted to the end of 2023
Beating Michael’s WC record and being the undisputed GOAT must be an incentive
I’d be interested to hear the opinion of those that really do know what they’re talking about, but from all I’ve seen Merc may have a car that isn’t a complete driver-crippling embarrassment by the end of the season, but not a championship winner - I strongly suspect that’s going to take a 2014-tier total ground-up reboot in 2023 for that to happen.
If that miracle does come-to-pass, Merc would still need to compel George to suck-up being the supporting act, 'cos Lewis’s age and mental state is going to be against him after two years of frustration…
I like Lewis, and have huge respect for him, but it’s a “nup” from me.
