Despite Staring Down the Legal Barrel, Zak Brown & Co. Vehemently Defend Controversial Ally

Marlboro, Gold Leaf, West, Rothmans, Camel—what do they all have in common? Apart from being tobacco companies, they’ve all been title sponsors for Formula 1 teams, their branding featuring on some of the most iconic liveries in F1 history. That was until 2006 when former F1 President Max Mosley announced that the sport would end all tobacco sponsoring by the end of that season. Even so, teams have found ways to incorporate tobacco branding on their cars, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown and his team have come under fire for their partnership with a British American Tobacco brand.

Before the 2019 season, McLaren partnered with Velo, started by the British American Tobacco company, to move away from cigarettes and promote its tobacco-free nicotine products. With its nicotine pouches being as popular as they are, Dutch GP organizers joined other European organizations to ban this promotion, bringing Zak Brown into the spotlight.

Zak Brown & Co. are in the line of fire from Dutch GP organizers

Tobacco and cigarette alternatives are still unregulated in many countries around the world. The Netherlands joined a handful of other European countries earlier this year to ban the advertising, promotion, and sales of nicotine products in the country, seeing how it’s highly addictive, especially for minors. But as F1 returns to Zandvoort next week, the proceedings to apply the ban are still in progress, so nicotine isn’t technically banned in the Netherlands yet.

Even so, there has been criticism pointed toward Brown and McLaren for advertising Velo on its chassis as teams prepare to visit the dunes next week. As a response, a McLaren spokesperson said, as quoted by Motorsport.com, “All branding carried on McLaren race cars fully complies with regulatory requirements and advertising standards of each country we race in.”

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Considering how McLaren’s sponsor isn’t banned in Zandvoort yet, the team has all the right to advertise the brand. For countries and venues where the Woking outfit can’t display Velo on its sidepods, it’s replaced by crypto company OKX. Even though McLaren isn’t going against the Dutch government’s policies, it’s still facing backlash. McLaren’s current situation isn’t the first time a team has been linked to a tobacco company after the ban.

Ferrari’s Saga with Mission Winnow

Much like McLaren’s sponsor, Velo, is a brand under the British American Tobacco company, Mission Winnow is one under tobacco giant Philip Morris International. Ferrari has had ties to PMI since the 1980s, and from 1997 to 2008, it had Marlboro (a brand under PMI) as its title sponsor. Ferrari reintroduced tobacco advertising in 2018 through Mission Winnow, but rather than promoting tobacco usage, it aimed to promote a non-tobacco future. Most venues didn’t appreciate the Mission Winnow logo on Ferrari’s cars and equated it to advertising. 

Although the logo didn’t appear on the car because of the backlash in several races in 2019 and didn’t appear at all in 2020, the branding reappeared in 2021 with a new green logo. Before the 2022 season, though, it was dropped as the team’s title sponsor, but it returned ahead of the Australian GP. While talking about the on-off relationship, former team principal Mattia Binotto said, as quoted by Motorsport.com, “It’s important to know that it has been a long partnership with Philip Morris, and we are very proud of it, and very happy that it’s still lasting. Yes, it has changed a bit in the way the partnership is set up. But in the end, it’s more important to make sure that it was continued.”

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What do you think about tobacco partnerships in F1? Are McLaren and Zak Brown in the wrong with their statement before the Dutch GP?