Mercedes top executive admits: "Never seriously considered leaving Formula 1"

With the announced entry of INEOS within the Mercedes team, the team will fight for victory with an adapted company structure next year. Daimler, INEOS, and Toto Wolff have divided the shares equally and are now all 33.3% owner. In an interview, Mercedes top executive Ola Kallenius elaborates on the team's ambitions for the future, and gives an insight into the negotiations that have taken place within Mercedes. 

Kallenius starts with a small confession: A Mercedes exit from Formula 1 was never on the table as a serious option. Kallenius said, as qoted  by Motorsport.com: “I know there was speculation in the press, but we never seriously considered leaving.”

However, the continuation of the Mercedes team had to be properly rationalised in the negotiations, which, according to Kallenius, ultimately took the form of “four pillars, which we think you have to meet as a sport.”

Four pillars

"Those four are the show, the environment, the financial aspect and future profitability.” Nobody worried about the show during the negotiations, added Killenaus.

Despite the changed calendar, 2020 had plenty of spectacular races, and young audiences are also finding Formula 1 better and better with the help of "esports and social media." Underlying the second pillar, the environment, Killenaus identifies Mercedes' plans to become carbon-neutral within 20 years. 

It was also only necessary to talk briefly about finances, in connection with the announced budget ceiling for teams. Killenaus: "The budget ceiling helps. We were soon in favour of it. It makes sport much more attractive economically, so that element has also been ticked off for us."

As a fourth pillar, the participants in the negotiations saw the possibility of making a Formula 1 team profitable, as happens in other sports. Killenaus said: "The fourth pillar was whether Formula 1 should always remain a cost, or whether it could become a franchise like a club in American Football... And we can now see that people are starting to see it more and more as a sports franchise. The fact that we have been able to attract a strong partner who knows professional sport, such as INEOS, shows that."