Rob W wrote:DC was trying to get PR - and he got it, lots of it. If the car he's driving can't perform he is still good PR because when he talks, people listen. People know his name and respect him (worthy or not isn't the issue).
Ferrari do have a reason to support Kimi over Massa. He is much better PR for Ferrari. People know his name globally far far more than Massa's. Having a champion is one thing, but having a champion who tons of people go "who?" is not nearly as good.
Likewise, the McLaren vs Massa 'story' is not even news compared to a "Kimi vs Alonso" story or a "Kimi leaves McLaren and beats them" or "World Champ delivers McLaren the wins that Kimi couldn't" story.
It really is all about the PR value and Kimi beats Massa hands down in that respect no matter what.
Rob W
While I agree
that DC couldn't have been unaware of the PR aspect of his statement, try as I might I can't quite "get" the latter part of your statement. Funny, though, that after adding "fuel to the fire" David's vehicle dipensed some very spectacular flames after a leak. But ...
... WDCs, whoever becomes one, have the highest profile among the drivers in Formula One. Certain drivers have calculable "brand value", but that is very much a variable rather than a constant. In Ferrari's case especially, the overall brand is far more dominant now than in the days of Schumi and even then the team's and the driver's fan bases were very divergent (which was actually very lucrative for Michael, working "two markets"). It's a complex picture, I admit, but I would say that the victories that Kimi and Felipe can deliver outweigh any other consideration for their team - hands down. Everything else reflects on that. I hope I'm not being too naïve about this.
On the subject of quali fuel strategy between two drivers of the team, Raikkonen said something interesting recently on an
Autosport interview(link) :
Q. Ron Dennis revealed to the press in Hungary that McLaren have a definitive policy about which driver per race is allowed to go for the extra lap in Q3. What is the Ferrari situation, and do you think it is necessary to make that decision?
KR: For sure it helps if you can do an extra lap, but we have some rules about who is going to get it. It depends on many other things, so it is not so clear. It is not like we can decide it before qualifying.
For sure usually we try to do it with whoever has the better chance. Like we saw we thought it would be difficult to get it at the last race but even with all the things that happened there we were able to get it.
It is really very difficult to say, you have it this time and I'll have it next time, because anything can happen. You might miss it, and for sure there is a chance to have both of the cars make the extra lap.
More than commenting on solely his own team's approach, he seems to suggest that either there's something wrong with McLaren's Q3 fuel strategy to begin with or perhaps that he believes McLaren has had to adopt a less than optimal strategy for the quali because of the situation with their drivers.
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