Alonso still F1’s most marketable driver: Survey

Friday, 13 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

LONDON (Reuters): Fernando Alonso will be missing from Sunday’s Australian season-opener but the Spaniard remains Formula One’s most marketable driver, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Germany-based analysts Repucom said the double world champion, who left Ferrari for McLaren at the end of last year, had retained top position in their ranking based on domestic perception.

“In Spain, over 98% of people know of Alonso, 88% of which say they see him as an effective brand endorser and 83% saying they trust the two-time World Champion,” the report said. The Spaniard is absent from Australia on doctors’ orders after crashing heavily in Barcelona testing last month. McLaren expect him to return at the next race in Malaysia. Alonso’s former Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa, now with Williams, was second on the list ahead of four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel and double world champion Lewis Hamilton. Repucom said Hamilton’s recognition had grown to 93% in Britain, with the 30-year-old now ahead of compatriot Jenson Button after winning his second title with Mercedes last season. Dutch 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who will become the youngest ever Formula One driver when he makes his race debut with Toro Rosso in Melbourne on Sunday, was listed ninth. The Repucom ranking is based on public perceptions of the drivers in their native countries, measured against eight metrics to give an overall marketability score.

Rosberg says Mercedes is the best F1 team in the world

Reuters: The reigning Australian Grand Prix champion Nico Rosberg has praised his Mercedes team as the 2015 Formula One season prepares to start with the traditional opening race in Melbourne. The German arrived for a news conference on a city tr

am on Wednesday (March 11) waving a chequered flag and holding the GP Trophy. Rosberg finished second to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the drivers championship and predicted the Mercedes team will dominate in the year ahead. “I’ve been there since day one of this project in the beginning of 2010 so I definitely have a good idea of why we’re so strong now. We really struggled for many years but it’s just been a build up process. More people have joined the team, we’ve built this team into a much bigger team. It’s much more structured now, the communication is better, the competence, we have even more competent people and it’s just we are the best now in F1. We are the best team. We have the best individual departments, we have the best overall team, we have the best engine factory. They’re just doing an awesome job and as in business when there’s one company that’s better than all the others, it’s exactly the same here. Our race team is leading the way at the moment,” he said.