[Team] Alpine: The cars are Racing Points

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Do you think now they are done we can go back to calling Alpine, Al Pine, or do we have to keep calling the sportscars Alpeen? Idiotic rubbish

It's just the French pronunciation, that's all. Like calling Renault "Ren-O" rather than "Ren-alt" or calling BMW "Bee-Emm-Vay" rather than "Bee-Emm-double U" and so on.

[Tourer]

For those who haven't seen it, Otmar did a fascinating interview with Jake Humphries that is on YouTube and well worth watching (warning, just over an hour long). A lot of it is of course about Alpine and the colossal cluster-fluff the (then) reporting structure appeared to have. Even allowing for some residual bitterness on Otmar's part, it sounds like an utter mess.

Hopefully the new guy gets a better run at it.

[Gerard C]

Call'em Benz now…

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Do you think now they are done we can go back to calling Alpine, Al Pine, or do we have to keep calling the sportscars Alpeen? Idiotic rubbish

I know exactly how you feel. While your on the "Al Pine" bandwagon, can you switch your spelling over to tire, color, flavor, etc. I can send a list if you want. Also please refrain from using "rubbish" the correct word is "garbage". One last thing... please learn how to pronounce Aluminum correctly. It gives me a shiver up my spine each time I hear it the wrong way. These country specific spellings and pronunciations must go. We just all need to switch to exactly how George Washington intended.

Richard

[morninggents]

Originally Posted by Richard C

I know exactly how you feel. While your on the "Al Pine" bandwagon, can you switch your spelling over to tire, color, flavor, etc. I can send a list if you want. Also please refrain from using "rubbish" the correct word is "garbage". One last thing... please learn how to pronounce Aluminum correctly. It gives me a shiver up my spine each time I hear it the wrong way. These country specific spellings and pronunciations must go. We just all need to switch to exactly how George Washington intended.

Richard

We must also remember to say hood, trunk and gas. I'm sure George said those as well.

[Greem]

Ooh, this is fighting talk where I come from - the land of Breakfast, Dinner & Tea. Supper is something you eat after 9pm. Gas comes through pipes and is used for heating & cooking (and power generation), to tire is to be sleepy, trunks are worn for swimming, hoods are something you put on your bonce when it rains.

And don't get started on aluminium. Why pronounce it aluminum when there are 79 other elements that end in 'ium'?

Honestly, you chuck a bunch of tea in the harbour and think you rule the world.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by Richard C

I know exactly how you feel. While your on the "Al Pine" bandwagon, can you switch your spelling over to tire, color, flavor, etc. I can send a list if you want. Also please refrain from using "rubbish" the correct word is "garbage". One last thing... please learn how to pronounce Aluminum correctly. It gives me a shiver up my spine each time I hear it the wrong way. These country specific spellings and pronunciations must go. We just all need to switch to exactly how George Washington intended.

Richard

I fear that would be somewhat of a wrench.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Greem

Ooh, this is fighting talk where I come from - the land of Breakfast, Dinner & Tea. Supper is something you eat after 9pm. Gas comes through pipes and is used for heating & cooking (and power generation), to tire is to be sleepy, trunks are worn for swimming, hoods are something you put on your bonce when it rains.

And don't get started on aluminium. Why pronounce it aluminum when there are 79 other elements that end in 'ium'?

Honestly, you chuck a bunch of tea in the harbour and think you rule the world.

That would be harbor.

[S griffin]

Alpine or Alpeen, either way it's probably going to keep the name, despite now being less French

[flatlandsman]

The issue also is as I don't really watch much F1, I have to put with Peen in WEC!

I did see an advert on telly recently that told me I have been saying Skoda wrong for decades, apparently now it is Schkoda.

Does that really make it sound any more desirable?

And dont get me started on Hyundai, Hee un day, cmon

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

The issue also is as I don't really watch much F1, I have to put with Peen in WEC!

I did see an advert on telly recently that told me I have been saying Skoda wrong for decades, apparently now it is Schkoda.

Does that really make it sound any more desirable?

And dont get me started on Hyundai, Hee un day, cmon

Given your location flag - do you have concerns with the way the following can be pronounced:

Aoife, Niamh, Órfhlaith, Saoirse, Diarmuid, Eoghan etc...

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

The issue also is as I don't really watch much F1, I have to put with Peen in WEC!

I did see an advert on telly recently that told me I have been saying Skoda wrong for decades, apparently now it is Schkoda.
Does that really make it sound any more desirable?

And dont get me started on Hyundai, Hee un day, cmon

Hyundai is pronounced like that in Korea same as Skoda in Czech (?*koda).

We anglicise the names but there's no harm in using the correct pronounciation.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

The issue also is as I don't really watch much F1, I have to put with Peen in WEC!

I did see an advert on telly recently that told me I have been saying Skoda wrong for decades, apparently now it is Schkoda.

Does that really make it sound any more desirable?

And dont get me started on Hyundai, Hee un day, cmon

Right on! Double down! Curse Skoda for recently changing their pronunciation just to irritate you.

Richard

PS: Sorry for continuing the off topic content.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

We anglicise the names but there's no harm in using the correct pronounciation.

And actually more respectful if you are aware of the pronunciation used in the country of origin.

p.s. why does Kansas not sound like the end of Arkansas?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by Peter Mallett

We anglicise the names but there's no harm in using the correct pronounciation.

Don't tear down this this example of cultural exceptionalism! Who are these foreign people to decide how to pronounce their own names?!

(Ok, I think I am done poking. flatlandsman either gets it or he doesn't. Either way it is entertaining.)

Back on topic. This article was interesting.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/w...down/10661130/

Quotes are from Renault CEO Luca de Meo

"I wanted to make a French team, the French Ferrari," he said. "I put two French drivers in the bucket seats: they crashed into each other."

"Take a tour of an A524 with me, there is not a single French sponsor. Not one! I knocked on many doors. In vain…"

So trying to make a French national team... Didn't work on a few fronts including lack of sponsors.

"I receive calls every 15 days from financiers, eccentrics. who want to enter F1," he said. "They know that after 2026 it will cost much more."

"If you are given £1 billion today to take the team, they will be able to resell it for double, two years later. It is full of speculators here.

I have refused 50 times. A team will soon be worth between $3 and 5 billion. I am not going to sell; I am not stupid.

Being in F1 is essential for the Alpine brand. We are in a closed club. It gives credibility to the brand among car enthusiasts. We do not need this money."

He knows the monetary value. So he is going to hold onto it as an investment that will appreciate. Plus, it sounds like it's more about marketing than competition. No doubt he would like the team to win, but this is probably a money thing. Do well enough that it works as a marketing exercise but without the investment to really win. Especially as they didn't want to spend the money required to create a competitive engine themselves.

I think this is also a negative commentary on how the price of a team has been boosted by keeping the current team count as we can expect the new Concorde agreement will make the creation of new teams to be quite expensive. Is this creating situations in which some current teams exist first as investment vehicles and secondarily as F1 competitors?

Richard

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

p.s. why does Kansas not sound like the end of Arkansas?

Ok, I am not done.

I don't think there is a definitive answer, but I have read that we can continue to blame the French as it seems like Arkansas might be based upon a French pronunciation. Both are likely sourced from a local native name (as always the locals get screwed by some other external culture who know better). We should just be glad there are not two states in the US with the same name "Alpine" with both using different pronunciations and each claiming they are correct! Maybe one can be "The Peoples State of Alpine" and the other just "The State of Alpine".

Richard

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by Richard C

...we can continue to blame the French...

Reasonable use of the F-word!

[Gerard C]

May be they lack sponsors but I would like hearing the actual CEO tell us why Flavio has been recently called. My thought is that many things happened in Viry at the end of Carlos G reign when he used to say to the motorsport troops "win first, you'll get money later".
As to the french accent I just hope nothing moves to Minnezzzotta!

[Greem]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

That would be harbor.

Bravo, you left-pondian, you

[flatlandsman]

I think we all know these decisions about words are zero to do with trying to appease the state of origin, it is marketing guff and rot to try and make a product sound more cultural and linked to its country of origin even if the vast amount of times the damn car being advertised is either based on something else or never sets foot in the country until it is a showroom!

Remember when Nestles became Nestlay! Toilet roll became Toilet tiss-you, not tish-you. It's all lame, nonsense but also oddly fascinating to me

Even worse is the fake accents the voice actors employ with Renault or the like which hilariously fall apart when they have to read out the terms and conditions really fast at the end. It is this facile garbage that I find fascinating about marketing, especially in cars.

When did you ever see a car being advertised in a city with any traffic, why does the driver if he is male always have a beard, why are they all always smiling, do you smile relentlessly in your car?

Would a supermodel really stop in her tracks and watch mouth agape as a bloody KIA drove past!

I find it hilarious and oddly to link it with F1 hardly any of the people involved in F1 involve it in their advertising as far as I can see which makes you wonder why on earth they spend hundreds of millions doing it!!

I loathed Raikkonen as a man, but his adverts were superb!!

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Would a supermodel really stop in her tracks and watch mouth agape as a bloody KIA drove past!

Yes, of course, it often happens to me. I'm a Uber driver and appreciate the long term warranty KIA offer to pros. Anything wrong with this?

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

I think we all know these decisions about words are zero to do with trying to appease the state of origin, it is marketing guff and rot to try and make a product sound more cultural and linked to its country of origin even if the vast amount of times the damn car being advertised is either based on something else or never sets foot in the country until it is a showroom!

As Alpine (saying this in my best French accent) is nothing more than a marketing effort for external markets. I wonder what the brand is called and pronounced inside France? Maybe "Bob"?

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Remember when Nestles became Nestlay! Toilet roll became Toilet tiss-you, not tish-you. It's all lame, nonsense but also oddly fascinating to me

I think you are remembering not when it "became" but the day you learned the "actual" vs. "local" pronunciation. I think a great example is here in the US with respect to how "Adidas" is pronounced. Most here are shocked when they hear the correct pronunciation.

Overall this has been most entertaining and I think Flatlandsman for continuing to play along or is he being serious?

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by Richard C

Ok, I am not done.
Maybe one can be "The Peoples State of Alpine" and the other just "The State of Alpine".

Don't forget "The great State of Alpine" - now THAT's prime bullsh right there. Or maybe, given current circumstances, it should be "The sorry State of Alpine".

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by flatlandsman

Remember when Nestles became Nestlay!

Not really - it was about 45 years ago!!

And to be accurate, it went from being Nestlé's to Nestlé

[S griffin]

But how do you pronounce Bowie?