Official: Mercedes to stay in F1 Mercedes doesn’t intend to pull out of Formula One racing despite large first-quarter losses by its parent company and massive cost-saving measures. Daimler, the parent company, reported a net loss of $1.7 billion in the January-March period compared with a net profit of more than $1.74 billion in the first quarter of 2008.
“We look into our Formula One commitment every year. But even if we dropped out of Formula One now, we wouldn’t be saving a cent because the contracts are long-term,” Daimler’s chief financial officer Bodo Uebber said Tuesday.
Mercedes supplies engines to the McLaren, Brawn and Force India teams.
Uebber said the car company had “no sacred cows,” indicating that a future pullout from Formula One could not be ruled out.
Helmut Lense, Daimler’s labor union leader who has a seat on the board, said last week the company should pull out of F1 because of the financial crisis. He said employees did not believe the company should support a racing team while they are being ask to make sacrifices.
Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One championship last season in a McLaren-Mercedes car. But the team has been struggling this season and faces a hearing in Paris on Wednesday on charges of bringing the sport into disrepute.
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