An F1 team owned by a rapper? You've got to be kidding, right? Well, he might be, but Sean "Puffy" Combs is reportedly considering buying a team. If car manufacturers, retired drivers, clothing labels and even beverage companies can own F1 teams, why can't a recording artist? In the fast-changing world of Formula One, if you've got the green, you can have the team. And nobody's more about the Benjamins than Puffy.
The notoriously impulsive hip-hop icon made the announcement that he intended to buy an F1 team at a party in London celebrating the launch of his new cologne, where he was seen spending most of the night talking with Lewis Hamilton. We'd be seriously surprised if Diddy actually went through with it, but at the very least this looks like the premise for a movie only slightly better than Soul Plane.
Feel free to post your jokes and speculation in the comments section below...just keep it tasteful, biotch!
[Source: London Times via Jalopnik]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Evotec @ Jul 5th 2007 3:13PM
Puff diddy daddy has a lot of money i guess..
Don @ Jul 5th 2007 3:23PM
Ugh. Well, I guess he's got to find SOMEthing to do with the hundreds of millions he made from being a talentless hack.
John R @ Jul 5th 2007 3:25PM
Just because you hang out with Hamilton from time to time doesn't qualify you to own an F1 team, I don't think.
ugh...I guess it's fine, Cedric the Entertainer owns a CART team or did own a CART team. As long as he doesn't plant his face everywhere, gets too involved and he just bank rolls the effort.
Ever since B.I.G. died Combs has been a real pill.
WillTheThrill @ Jul 6th 2007 10:41AM
So what is the qualification of being a F1 owner? What's the qualification of owning any piece of a large francise?
Money! That's it.
It's called advisors and I'm pretty sure most, if not all, francise owners have them. See, it doesn't matter what background you come from. The only thing that matters is if the owner has funds to pay for a good team. It's not like trying to open up a mom and pop resturant where mom and pop have to know the tricks of the trade and are busting their humps to make a profit.
aaron @ Jul 5th 2007 3:26PM
His interest probably came from Lewis Hamilton's recent winning (Hamilton is also black if you didn't know). "Diddy" (not "Puffy") will probably try to find an African-American driver to race in F1, but then again, F1 has not been so kind to all American racers lately. The one guy from the U.S., Scott Speed, is good but his team/crew is terrible, even if it is sponsored by Red Bull.
John R @ Jul 5th 2007 3:26PM
Just because you hang out with Hamilton from time to time doesn't qualify you to own an F1 team, I don't think.
ugh...I guess it's fine, Cedric the Entertainer owns a CART team or did own a CART team. As long as he doesn't plant his face everywhere, gets too involved and he just bank rolls the effort.
Ever since B.I.G. died Combs has been a real pill.
Drewboy @ Jul 5th 2007 3:30PM
If I had his money I'd definitely be in racing. More power to him.
RoadRunnerSTi @ Jul 5th 2007 3:42PM
Hahahahahhaha.... the first black F1 Driver becomes a star and now p-diddy-bite-size wants a piece of the action... he is such a band-wagon jumper... what a joke.
I can see it now... Lewis Hamilton in commercials for Bad-Boy clothing, or whatever new crappy fad Piffy creates.
dropstep @ May 28th 2008 11:55AM
That's all he knows.
I've been following Lewis Since his GP2 days.
Puffy or whatever I'm told was invited by Flavio B from Renault.
Saw Lewis Ham and decided to throw his fame around.
What a loser.
Carlos @ Jul 5th 2007 3:49PM
Well, they say the best way to make a million bucks in motorsports is to start with ten million...
I wouldn't mind seeing Toro Rosso (the second Red Bull team) being bought by someone just to liven up the grid. Spyker's also pretty pointless.
Bob-o @ Jul 5th 2007 3:54PM
P.S. He goes by P. Diddy now, not Puffy. C'mon Autoblog, get w/ the times. ;)
Pouya @ Jul 5th 2007 5:37PM
haha,. . . well if you really want to get technical, his name is "Diddy" (changed from P. Diddy, which replaced Puff Daddy). Only in New Zealand and the UK does he label himself as "P. Diddy," because of a legal battle with another artist, Richard "Diddy" Dearlove.
See, e.g., (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Combs)
kurt @ Jul 5th 2007 3:55PM
Hamilton's got way too much class to get into a business relationship with Diddy, McLaren has him in a contract and he's loyal to Ron Dennis, so Diddy can forget about getting Hamilton as a driver, for at least 8 years. As far as diddy owning a team, he may be the lead sponsor but owning a team would probably be impossible given the cost and lack of popularity in the US. Not to mention no team probably wants to sell out and even if they did they're not selling to Diddy.
Eriq @ Jul 5th 2007 4:05PM
Why not?
GDUB @ Jul 5th 2007 4:14PM
Why not NASCAR Diddy?
borderguy @ Jul 6th 2007 12:08PM
That actually isn't a half-bad idea...
Brad @ Jul 5th 2007 4:21PM
He might have the funds to come up with a team or part own a team but I don't know if he would be willing to still fund a team that would be constantly running towards the back of the pack.
AGrandioseBlog @ Jul 5th 2007 4:26PM
Say whatever you want about Puffy, but he's a very shrewd and proven businessman. Aside from the music world, he's got some very successful restaurants, an award winning clothing line beating established veterans like tommy hilfiger etc, an accomplished actor, etc. Whatever the man decides to do, he excels at. My money is on Puffy, he invented the remix - didn't he?
tpp @ Jul 5th 2007 4:27PM
I don't think he really understands what it would take to run a Formula One team. I pity the drivers that will sign to his team, if he decides to go with it.
He should really "practise" with a simpler and less expensive racing series team first.
But hey, it's his money to waste.
dropstep @ May 28th 2008 11:54AM
I agree with your comment.
R& D alone for F1 runs in to the Millions.
One must be close to a billionaire and have extreme knowledge of the sport.
cheers