Sergio Creates His Own Three Ring Circus With Maserati Joining Alfa And Ferrari In Formula 1

If the numbers are accurate at 20 mil Euro, (assuming the Alfa/Sauber deal is the same) it is a brilliant marketing move by Marchionne. Worldwide exposure for peanuts.

Curious over 24 hours and the usual parade of Sergio bashers haven’t chimed in.

So as not to disappoint you Foncool, Sergio would have been better off putting money into product development versus a cheap pr trick that will not sell any more cars. A man's reach should exceed his grasp...Sergio is just hanging on hoping a miracle saves him in time for his retirement. If not his ego and legacy will take a beating from the next man up at FCA.

Indeed. Maserati an Alfa Romeo should not be in F1. No one is going to buy a Giulia reliability nightmare because an Alfa Romeo decal was on an F1 racer with no relation to Alfa Romeo.

Two Chinese companies wanted to buy from Sergio and he crapped all over the deals.

Hyundai came calling and he purged his colon again.

How far do you think 25 mil will go in product development? Not very! That 25 mil into F1 gives you an average audience of 80 million per race times 20 races over 8 months time frame or a total audience of 1.6 billion worldwide. Oh and the best part is that 25 mil is used to purchase engines from Ferrari, so they are actually paying themselves for the added exposure and at the same time they created a three team voting block for issues related to the direction of the sport. The other F1 engine suppliers (Mercedes, Renault, Honda) don’t have other brands that could benefit from doing the same thing. Only VW could do it and they currently aren’t involved in F1.

If you don’t think that it will sell more cars, please explain why every car manufacturer with sporting intention advertises on F1 broadcasts?

I agree the sooner Maserati and Alfa are spun off away from Chrysler the better. No one wants Chrysler or Dodge, it’s all about Jeep.

BTW Alfa is doing fine in Europe and competitive in their market segments, it (and Maserati) would undoubtedly do better in North America if it weren’t associated with Auburn Hills and it’s substandard dealer network.

Reality: Maserati and Alfa Romeo were NOT worth saving for the North American market. Define "doing fine". I seriously doubt that either brand is any threat to the German trio for sales or desirability or quality or.... If Sergio were an intrepid leader, he would have instantly killed Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and Chrysler. Ram will ALWAYS be a Dodge in the minds of pickup buyers. Fiat should have stayed in Europe and a deal with Hyundai for platforms should have been inked. Now the ONLY part of FCA worth saving is Jeep and Ram.

The goal of Maserati and Alfa was never to challenge the Germans in terms of volume of units sold, but to offer a credible alternative with greater exclusivity in limited segments. Maserati has gone from a company that as recently as 2013 sold less than 7,000 units per year worldwide. Today they do approximately 50,000 units per year, a 7 fold increase in 5 years, a success by anyone’s standards, and with the addition of the new GranTurismo, the Alfieri and Stelvio based small SUV they will achieve their goal of 70-75,000 units per year.

Alfa’s goal is 400,000 units per year which should be achievable once the entire model range is filled considering that there are supposedly 6 additional models coming after the Giulia and Stelvio.

The only reason FIAT is in the North America market is because the previous administration pretty much begged someone, anyone to take over Chrysler from their lastest of many bankruptcies. It also fit into their social engineering plans of Americans needs to drive small fuel efficient cars to protect the planet from global warming.

<,<< Define “doing fine” >>>> here are the sales figures for 2017 H1 for the Giulia http://carsalesbase.com/european-sales-2017-h1-premium-midsized-segment/

Remember that Alfa doesn’t offer the Giulia as an SW which account for 55% of the sales in that segment.