Ferrari has had a very long relationship with tobacco giant Philip Morris dating back to the 1980s, and the Marlboro brand was the team’s title sponsor from 1997 to early 2008.
Laws banning tobacco advertising forced the Marlboro sticker to be removed from the car, but Philip Morris revised its sponsorship through its Mission Winnow initiative launched in 2018 with a view to a tobacco-free future.
Mission Winnow was dropped from both the official Ferrari name and car sponsorship ahead of the 2022 season, and disappeared from the team’s sponsorship platform earlier this year when the deal expired.
But before the Australian Grand Prix in early April it was revealed that Mission Winnow had returned as an official partner of the Ferrari team.
Speaking to Motorsport.com about the new deal with Philip Morris, Ferrari F1 boss Mattia Binotto admitted it was important to keep the relationship going long-term, even under different conditions.
“It is important to know that we have had a long association with Philip Morris, and we are very proud of it and very happy that it is still going on,” said Binotto.
“That was the intention of both parties, because after so many years it was important to continue together.”
“Yes, it has changed the way the partnership is set up a bit, without going into too much detail. But in the end, it’s more important to make sure it continues.”
As a lead partner, the green Mission Winnow logo appeared on the engine cover of Ferrari cars at several grands prix in 2021, but was removed from all races in the European Union.
Ahead of the 2022 season, Ferrari announced that Spanish bank Santander was returning as a ‘premium partner’, along with Shell , blockchain firm Velas and tech brand Snapdragon .
(Before you read on, check out how teams flouted the tobacco advertising ban in F1 history.)
Williams at the 1993 French Grand Prix – the Williams logo replaced the Camel logo on the engine cover
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Williams at the 1994 French Grand Prix: Rothman’s stickers were removed from the car, but his recognizable colors remained, especially on the wing
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Williams at the 1995 French Grand Prix: the following year the same thing happened. On that occasion, rectangles also replaced the Rothmans lettering on the sides of the car.
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Williams at the 1996 French Grand Prix: and for the third year in a row, the same ban… and the same solution
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Ferrari at the 1996 French Grand Prix: At Ferrari, after using a similar process to Williams the previous year, they removed the Marlboro lettering but left the outline of its design, making it easily recognizable
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McLaren at the 1996 French Grand Prix: the team hid the Marlboro ad the same way Ferrari did
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Ferrari at the 1997 French Grand Prix: Ferrari still has to hide Marlboro’s sponsorship in France, and disguised the engine cover ad like this…
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Ferrari at the 1997 French Grand Prix: …and so on the rear wing
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Williams at the 1997 French Grand Prix: Instead of advertising Rothmans, the British team put question marks on the rear wings…
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Williams at the 1997 French Grand Prix: …and on the sidepods.
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McLaren at the 1998 French Grand Prix – here the team simply removed the West logo from the sidepods
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McLaren at the 1999 French Grand Prix: A year later, the team came back with more humour, putting their drivers’ names on the sidepods, stylized as the West logo
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McLaren at the 1999 French Grand Prix: David for Coulthard’s car and Mika for Hakkinen’s
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Jordan at the 1999 French Grand Prix: the Benson & Hedges logo temporarily gives way to the Buzzin Hornets
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BAR at the 1999 Belgian Grand Prix: the team advertising two tobacco brands at the same time had to remove the 555 logos on one side and Lucky Strike on the other side
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BAR at the 2000 French Grand Prix: the Lucky Strike inscriptions disappeared, but the logo remained. On the rear wing they wore the “Look Alike” sticker, a nod to their sponsor
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Ferrari at the 2000 British Grand Prix – the team disguised its partnership with Marlboro in the rear wing design
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Prost at the 2000 French Grand Prix: the French team applied a very similar solution, hiding the Gauloises ad
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Jordan at the 2000 British Grand Prix: that year Jordan continued to replace Benson & Hedges with Buzzin Hornets
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McLaren at the 2000 British Grand Prix: The Woking team also repeated their own decision from 1999…
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McLaren at the 2001 British Grand Prix: … and in 2001 he did it again
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BAR at the 2001 British Grand Prix: instead of Lucky Strike, the words ‘Look Alike’ appeared again on the team car
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Jordan at the 2001 British Grand Prix – this time the Benson & Hedges stickers were replaced not by the “hornets”, but by the “bitten heroes” (Bitten Heroes)
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BAR at the 2001 French Grand Prix – still with Lucky Strike and 555, they modified the logos of both brands
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Ferrari at the 2001 French Grand Prix: Ferrari continued the classic game of impersonating Marlboro, in an almost immaculate red car
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BAR at the 2002 French Grand Prix – the team again slightly changed the Lucky Strike logo
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Jordan at the 2002 French Grand Prix: Eddie Jordan’s team again cleverly tackled local laws, this time simply by removing a few letters from the words Benson & Hedges, leaving the message Be On Edge (“Stay on the edge”)
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Ferrari at the 2002 French Grand Prix – again a combination of white and red associated with Marlboro
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McLaren at the 2002 French Grand Prix: Mika Hakkinen retired and with the arrival of Kimi Raikkonen he changed the name that appeared on the side pontoons
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Renault at the 2002 French Grand Prix: Instead of the Mild Seven logo, the French team wrote a neutral Blue World (“blue world”). With the same font, of course
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Ferrari at the 2003 French Grand Prix – almost half of the Scuderia car was painted white for Marlboro
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Renault at the 2003 French Grand Prix – this time the French team simply removed Mild Seven from its livery
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BAR at the 2004 French Grand Prix: instead of the Lucky Strike logo, a barcode appeared
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Jordan at the 2004 French Grand Prix: Be On Edge again instead of Benson & Hedges
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Renault at the 2004 French Grand Prix: the team copied McLaren’s idea and wrote their drivers’ names on the car instead of the Mild Seven name
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Renault at the 2004 French Grand Prix: the design brought luck to Alonso, who was second in that race
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Ferrari at the 2005 French Grand Prix: they continued to modify the design of their decorations to continue to bring Marlboro present
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Renault at the 2005 French Grand Prix: The livery change was even more visible at Renault, where they added amusing shapes to the sidepods in Mild Seven’s absence!
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BAR at the 2006 French Grand Prix: the Lucky Strike logo was modified again
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Renault at the 2006 French Grand Prix: The French team changed the livery further, trying to fill the void after the disappearance of the Mild Seven ad, as seen in Alonso’s photo
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At Australia 2019, forced to hide the Mission Winnow name that referred to its eternal partner Phillip Morris, Ferrari removed those stickers and placed a “90 Years” on the wings, shark fin and endplates celebrating its 90th anniversary.
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McLaren, in Australia 2019, had to do like Ferrari. His ‘A Better Tomorrow’ sticker referencing British American Tobacco was removed from the MCL34 and team clothing. In its place appeared 7-Eleven, another sponsor
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Photo by: Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images
Next weekend’s Miami Grand Prix will be a key commercial race for all F1 teams, building on the current boom in the category in the United States.
“There is a lot of interest in Miami, I think for us too, the US market for Ferrari is important,” Binotto said.
“But we can also see from our sponsors that really the F1 business in general is doing well at the moment. We are all very happy. I think it will be a positive weekend and a positive event.”
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