Hammy regains top spot as World's most marketable athelete despite no wins

[John S]

Must be the Ferrari profile and the involvement with F1 movie that have put Lewis back on top.
I thought all along that his move to Marenello from Merc was more about money than WDC chances, seems there may be summat in that. 

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/1084925/1/lewis-hamilton-reclaims-top-spot-worlds-most-marketable-athlete

[Dare]

If Major League Baseball was followed like F1 Shohei Ohtani
would b2 number one hands down

[Jericoke]

I always find it weird that American sports (NFL football, NASCAR, Baseball) are basically regional sports, just in a very large region.  The 'big four' (NFL Football, MLB Baseball, NBA Basketball and NHL Ice Hockey) are just the default when I think of 'sport'.  Even though I love F1, it is still treated like a 'bonus sport', like soccer (football).  It's a sport, but it's not going to be the headline on the sports cast.

I find it even more surprising that Basketball is the 'regional' sport that has really become internationally popular.  I believe four of that top 10 are basketball players!

Back to Hamilton, we can argue about who the best driver is in F1, historically, recently, currently, but when it comes to debating who the 'greatest' driver is in terms of cultural impact, it would be hard to put anyone ahead of Hamilton.  He understands modern sports branding more than any other driver (except maybe Lauda... and remind me who was Hamilton's mentor at Mercedes?).  Most drivers think being the best in the car is what matters.  Hamilton understands that F1 is a business, and his job isn't winning races, it's bringing money to his employers/partners.  Sure, winning is one way to do that, but he's shown that it's not the only way.

[lkjohnson1950]

Yes, know what your job is. The late football coach Frank Kush gave an interview while head coach at Arizona State and said, my job is not to win games, or championships, or even guarantee graduation, it's to put the butts in the seats. That's why he always emphasized offense. He also said, lose a game 3 to 0 and the fans go home grumbling, lose it 45 to 42 and they go home talking about what a great game it was. Then he said anyway most teams they played couldn't score 30 or 35 points if you spotted them 20.