Barely a week after Mission Winnow’s mysterious absence from Ferrari, Mercedes recently updated its sponsor list for the 2022 season. And like the Reds, the Silver Arrows seem to have ended their relationship with one of their greatest partners.
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As always, INEOS and Petronas have presented themselves as Principal Partners and Title Partners of Mercedes, respectively. While we looked at the list of team partners, a few big names were missing; Epson and Bose.
Why Mercedes ended the partnership with Bose
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Indeed, it is impossible to find out the real reason for Bose’s exit from Mercedes, considering the conversations mostly take place behind closed doors. Therefore one can only speculate and here we play our part. Bose and Mercedes actually went well as partners and had barely encountered any bumps in the past three years.
There was one odd moment, however, that could have sparked a potential fluctuation in the duo’s soaring partnership. It was the first Saudi Arabia Grand Prix to be held in the second half of the 2021 F1 season.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were fighting for the lead when the former allegedly did a “brake test” when Hamilton crashed into the rear of the Red Bull and damaged its front wing. Let’s not go into the incident itself, let’s move on to the live reaction of Mercedes’ Toto Wolff.
I don’t understand why #Bose would decide against extending its supplier contract with #Mercedes. You could have come up with a Toto Wolff line of durable, unbreakable headphones. “We can withstand all kinds of pressure … even if you don’t.” pic.twitter.com/pirRaAjIqP
– Yuri Baraza (@ArcherMishale) January 4, 2022
On live TV, an angry Wolff crashed his Bose headset by slamming it on the table. As a result, the headset broke in half, with a wire barely holding the fragments together.
Not a good sight for Bose, is it? And most importantly, that moment may have been viewed as disrespectful to the brand.
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Could this be the only reason?
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Unlikely! This is certainly not a sufficient reason for Bose and Mercedes to end their quite successful partnership in Formula 1. Instead, it would be best to say that Wolff’s reaction at the Saudi Arabia GP could be “one of the reasons” for the demise of the Mercedes-Bose team.
Formula 1 F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia – Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – December 5, 2021 Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff will pool over REUTERS / Andrej Isakovic during the race. seen
In addition, that scene in Jeddah helped Bose make about $ 25,000 worth of profit on social media; a blessing indeed.
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But let’s hear from you – do you think the infamous Jeddah incident could have caused Bose to give up on the eight-time Constructor champions?
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