Tobacco sponsorship is in the news again as Ferrari are reported to be about to extend their title sponsorship deal with Marlboro.
Links
Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:
Marlboro set to extend Ferrari deal (Autosport)
“Ferrari’s deal could be announced as early as its new car launch.”
Scot Paul di Resta closes in on Force India F1 drive (BBC)
“Liuzzi’s manager Peter Collins said: ‘Tonio will be in F1 this year. Will he be racing? I don’t know.'”
Senna Movie Plays At Sundance In Utah (Speed TV)
“As for the competition, the 11 other films represent a wide range of worthy intellectual subjects, many of them with a political flavour. Aside from Senna, none features sports or celebrity subject matter of any kind, so in that sense it already jumps out. Now it’s down to how the jury reacts. Let’s hope there are one or two petrolheads involved!”
And while we’re talking about the “Senna” movie the DVD and Blu-Ray editions of the film are already available to order in Japan. Daniel Popescu on Twitter notes they will be released in March:
“Another exclusive for you now – the first black and gold truck back from the paint shop. Simply gorgeous??”
Curiouser and curiouser (Joe Saward)
“Our spies in Austria have spotted JPS motor racing-linked tobacco point-of-sale advertising in recent days. This uses a depiction of a grid and the words "The Legend", with a JPS branded cigarette packet featuring racing tyres at each corner. This is going to be seen as linked to the black and gold racing cars that Lotus Renault GP will be running this year, even if the tobacco company and the racing team argue that such a thing should not be the case.”
‘Innovative’ McLaren will provoke ‘lots of discussion’ (Crash)
“It’s always hard-pushed for everyone, but it looks good to me, it looks innovative, I think there are some interesting features on it and I’m sure there’s going to be lots of discussion about it – but I suspect others will be working just as hard as we are.”
Mysterious case of Formula One star Jenson Button’s father and his ‘stolen’ Ferrari (Daily Mirror)
“Motor racing champ Jenson Button’s father feared his 150,000 Ferrari had been stolen – but he may have just forgotten where he left it. Former rally driver John Button, 65, told police he had parked the red 550 Maranello outside his hotel on the Italian Riviera.”
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Comment of the day
A lot of people, including Victor here, reckoned yesterday’s Champion of Champions was the toughest one yet:
This, for me, is by far the hardest match-up yet.
Niki Lauda is, despite my immense dislike for the man, without a doubt one of the best Grand Prix drivers ever. To win a championship, dominate the following year, then almost fatally crash and shrug it off to come back and lose the championship by one point simply due to fear is remarkable. So is winning pretty much immediately after a two year break and winning one’s third championship in a different team against a rising star.
Alberto Ascari, on the other hand, is a legend. Considering that he only really raced for four seasons (his 1954 campaign was hardly a proper season and he was killed at the beginning of 1955) and managed to clinch the crown twice and finish second once, I fail to see how he was worse than Fangio. To win more often than every third time he entered a race is spectacular.
Victor
From the forum
Hairs declares war on parrots.
Happy birthday!
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On this day in F1
Elio de Angelis started his first F1 race on this day in 1979 in Buenos Aires. He brought his Shadow home in seventh place, which didn’t earn a point in those days (never mind six).
After one year with the team he moved to Lotus, with whom he spent most of his career.
traderpilot
21st January 2011, 0:10
The new ferrari logo looks very similar to a half of a marlboro reds lid.
Mike-e
21st January 2011, 2:54
thats what i said yesterday, along with the Ducatti motoGP logo who are sponsored by marlboro too…..
Scribe
21st January 2011, 8:32
I’m really quite baffled as to how Ferrari continue to get away with this. Tobaco is banned, by european law and several other grand prix hosting countries. Everyone agree’d not to have them any more.
Oh wait there Ferrari and no rule is to big to ignore.
Fixy (@)
21st January 2011, 12:45
Yes, and the only link between Ferrari and Ducati, apart from the origins and the red colour, is Marlboro. And both logos are practically identical, both looking like half of Marlboro’s symbol. I don’t see how it can be useful for Marlboro to sponsor some team without actually having their logos on the car, just to hear the interviewer at the end of the race, when he annouces the drivers on the podium, if there is a Ferrari driver, say: “Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro”.
Maybe since Ferrari no longer can show Marlboro barcodes, they will go back to sponsoring Marlboro at races where it is allowed, or at least was 3 years ago, like Bahrain and China.
Hamish
21st January 2011, 0:16
Really been craving a cigarette in recent days….
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
21st January 2011, 0:45
Me too… and I don’t even smoke
Mike
21st January 2011, 1:54
JPS or Marlboro? You get to pick!
Hare (@hare)
21st January 2011, 6:05
Did you hear about the Irishman who craved a a JPS cigerette? Burnt his lips on the exhaust pipe.. :)
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2011, 6:29
LOL
Calum
21st January 2011, 7:49
All these subliminal messages on F1F these days, Keith’s been taking bribes from the tobacco companies, for sure! ;)
Ral
21st January 2011, 16:27
I know the link is only Wikipedia, but really, it doesn’t work.
rfs
21st January 2011, 0:31
Last year’s Mclaren looked innovative and interesting but on the track it wasn’t all that special. Unless the MP4-26 gets pole position in Bahrain I’m not taking his words too seriously.
Scribe
21st January 2011, 8:33
YOU MEAN, Pre car release chat might be hyperbole?!?!?!?! NEVER. THAT RENAULT IS BRAVE, THAT MCLAREN IS INNOVATIVE. AN THERE ALL GOING TO CHALLENGE FOR TITLES.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders)
21st January 2011, 0:47
That must be the first time I’ve ever heard a truck described as ‘simply gorgeous’…
MattJ
21st January 2011, 7:50
From that photo my first thought was of a UPS delivery truck
Hare
21st January 2011, 10:03
When it’s actually a JPS delivery truck… ;)
US_Peter (@us_peter)
21st January 2011, 20:33
A UPS livery would actually be kind of cool. Has there ever been a brown livery? Too bad they don’t sponsor a team. It would make sense from a promotional tie-in standpoint as well… “no one gets your package there faster.”
Victorinox
21st January 2011, 21:46
They have one but in NASCAR only :(
http://www.racing.ups.com/
Sush Meerkat
21st January 2011, 8:02
I don’t know, Optimus Prime is a bit of a looker.
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-movie-just-movie-31/optimus-prime-to-combine-with-jetfire-in-tf2-165855/
*swoons*
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st January 2011, 9:29
LOL, yes, I liked his look too.
The truck is a bit too black to be a UPS delivery truck – I like the Lotus Renault GP logo on it, but for the rest it is hard to say: dark with a gold band, inspired by UPS could well be true.
McLarenFanJamm (@mclarenfanjamm)
21st January 2011, 12:25
Really? I think the logo looks extremely cheap. It looks even worse on the factory signage
PJ Tierney
21st January 2011, 12:12
Truck looks better than the car!
US_Peter (@us_peter)
21st January 2011, 1:00
The John Button story is actually a bit sad…
I hope the di Resta news turns out to be true. It’s sounding more and more like it. It’ll be great to see how he fares against Sutil.
Todfod (@todfod)
21st January 2011, 6:55
I thought the John Button story was hilarious. Either he forgot where he parked the car, or it got stolen. Thats quite a funny predicament to be in. Plus its not the end of the world . Jenson boy could replace it for him within a day.
newnhamlea1 (@newnhamlea1)
21st January 2011, 8:53
He’s already found it, it was in the identical looking next town along.
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st January 2011, 9:30
That was exactly what is a bit sad, isn’t it? To me the story suggested he either drank to much after driving there, and forgot, or he is getting old and forgot where he parked it, or he loaned it to someone he doesn’t want to know …
kowalsky
21st January 2011, 10:23
he likes his gin and tonic too much.
CNSZU
21st January 2011, 11:05
He is a pathetic, old retard living the high life on the earnings of his son. A disgusting, old creep and I hope he forgets to attend any future F1 race, I’m fed up seeing his retarded, perma-tan face on my TV. Forgetting where he parked his Ferrari? He’s the only person in the F1 paddock stupid enough, he should be deeply ashamed of his embarrassing, moronic behavior, but I bet he doesn’t feel a thing.
mvi
21st January 2011, 11:34
Well, that’s rather nasty!
Dobin1000 (@dobin1000)
21st January 2011, 12:20
I agree!
Everyone who ever forgets where they parked their car should be ashamed of themselves for being a moron and embarassing the human race.
Even if you step out of a supermarket and have to glance around for a couple of seconds to remind yourself where you parked you should be shot in the middle of the city centre by anonymous internet comment thread poster – as everyone knows they are the master race – in front of a baying crowd, then your remains paraded through the streets with a banner saying ‘Forgot where he parked’.
Dobin1000 (@dobin1000)
21st January 2011, 12:21
*Awaits moderation*
CarsVsChildren (@carsvschildren)
21st January 2011, 14:17
Yes, you definitely have this in perspective.
Why the hate? Did he do something to you or your family? He seems like a pretty nice guy on tv.
Hare
21st January 2011, 19:06
Wow… just… wow. He’s probably one of the nicest guys around.. as is Jenson. He’s 65 years old, he’s allowed to do what he wants.
And if you didn’t know where your Ferrari is, you’d probably call the police too.
kowalsky
21st January 2011, 10:20
if you see it in the cover of autosport, it’s true. They are the ones with the best journalists, with the best info.
topdowntoedown (@topdowntoedown)
21st January 2011, 11:12
They know the real Lotus, after all. ;)
Hey
21st January 2011, 1:25
There’s a lot of conjecture and greyness about “real” Lotus and which team means what, and the original Team Lotus is before my time. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about F1 history during this thing, it’s that Group Lotus have never raced in F1. Never had a team.
So I can see the black and gold on their things, but whenever I do I just feel that what I’m seeing is an average middle-aged bloke, who’s decided that he wants to do something notable, so he’s going to have a crack at being a good long-distance runner like his dead brother used to be. So he’s pulled out his dead brothers old tracksuit and started wearing that so that people might think he’s just like him. But then everyone who see’s him just remembers what a nice bloke his brother was and how they used to see him about, and then they wonder what this sap before them is doing running around in his old clothes.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
21st January 2011, 1:37
Ha! That’s a perfect analogy.
The Last Pope
21st January 2011, 5:43
Yes! That has to be Comment of the day!
NewBoyLewisFan
21st January 2011, 5:58
Seconded, Comment of the Day!!
JustAnF1Fanatic (@justanf1fanatic)
21st January 2011, 6:18
You got a point neither is the real team lotus and its really starting t get to me, all these promotional videos are starting to **** me off. Tried explaining the whole affair to a friend. He just said why dont the FIA just stop them both?
(Good analogy btw, agree with comment of the day :)
Dobin1000 (@dobin1000)
21st January 2011, 12:38
It would be good if Fernandes just broker off completely from the ‘Lotus’ identity, just because he used it to get the team up and running and they performed better than many expected.
Now the team can create its own identity.
Dobin1000 (@dobin1000)
21st January 2011, 12:39
Oh, and COTD too.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2011, 6:31
Hey, great analogy. Fits perfectly.
mateuss
21st January 2011, 15:55
I think they are both the ”real” Lotus, except one is the racing brand and the other is a car manufacturing brand.
This actually gives me an idea – Ferrari wants to run three cars, they could enter as car manufacturing brand as well as the Scuderia racing brand and run four cars.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
21st January 2011, 17:59
They’d have to run their road cars for that team though. Which would still put them ahead of HRT…
F1 Novice
22nd January 2011, 19:54
They could enter the 3rd car as a FIAT
David-A (@david-a)
21st January 2011, 2:05
I just love the way that “Marlboro to continue Ferrari sponsorship” is headed with a big fat picture of fake Lotus. Maybe they should just go ahead and get some JPS sponsorship if someone else has tobacco sponsorship :P
Mike
21st January 2011, 2:52
That’s it… As bad as them getting tobacco sponsorship is, Ferrari does, and if Ferrari is allowed to get it, why shouldn’t anyone else?
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2011, 6:37
The gold rimmed logo already looks like a package (look at the picture in Sawards blog) for all we know, they might already receive funds from JPS.
Icthyes (@icthyes)
21st January 2011, 11:43
Which fake Lotus?
Terreto
21st January 2011, 13:19
Team Lotus is the only fake Lotus.
Lee
21st January 2011, 18:32
So a Renault sponsored by Group Louts is the real deal eh? Exactly which part of the Renault is Lotus? Group Lotus are sponsoring Renault- like Vodafone sponsor Mclaren- so that would make it a Vodafone F1 car then yeah?
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
21st January 2011, 2:21
Looks like Paul di Resta is on the Force India.
I hope I can buy that DVD someday.
I lost Ferrari, how can anyone forget where he parked his Ferrari? I would have been dead by then.
f1yankee
21st January 2011, 5:28
if that’s a bad day for him, i’d love to see what he does on a good one :)
Mouse_Nightshirt (@mouse_nightshirt)
21st January 2011, 7:20
Surely if the advertising is banned, Ferrari shouldn’t even be able to announce they’ve extended their “sponsorship” deal?
Rob B (@rob-b)
21st January 2011, 10:33
I have a feeling they could be setting themselves up for problems by publicly announcing the ‘extension’. I had a quick google and it seems the EU law is the Tobacco Advertising Directive.
Q&A from 2005:
“9. For Grand Prix races in the EU some Formula One teams are using colours, shapes and font faces associated with tobacco logos on the cars (but not the actual logo itself). Is this allowed under the Directive? This is something that the Commission and the Member State authorities will need to examine. According to the Directive “advertising means any form of commercial communication with the aim or direct or indirect effect of promoting a tobacco product”. ”
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/274&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
HounslowBusGarage
21st January 2011, 12:56
. . . so if they don’t say anything about the “money from Marlboro”, it’s okay.
But if they make any form of commercial communication (my example would be a press release), it’s not allowed.
Hmmm.
Rob B (@rob-b)
21st January 2011, 13:40
That’s what I gather HBG, If they’d just stuck a diagonally split red/white square on the car, uniforms etc and not said what it was other than ‘the team logo’, as they did with the barcode, then they would be ‘safer’ and possibly within their rights to do so.
Although I’d bet most people would realise pretty quickly what this logo was hinting at – I believe the barcode was a lot more subtle than using half of the packet lid!
I’m no legal expert but by issuing the press release it seems they have fallen foul of the EU’s TAD.
Adrian J (@adrian-j)
21st January 2011, 13:44
I guess it really does come down to what the definition of a “commercial communication” is and whether it would cover the press-release or not!!
Hare
21st January 2011, 19:10
Funnily, you never see anyone at Ferrari smoking do you?
alexf1man
21st January 2011, 10:28
Why are Ferrari always allowed to break laws, rules and regulations that other teams aren’t?
E.G. Germany 2010 “swapgate” between Alonso and Massa, Tobacco when everyone else has got rid of it (at least in sponsorship terms*), testing in Fiorano when no other team did (up to 2008 but please verify if I’m wrong).
* Lotus Renault GP has JPS colours which JPS is using to advertise their tobacco
Adrian J (@adrian-j)
21st January 2011, 10:52
A lot of negativity on here today so I thought I’d point out a positive…
We get to see the first of the new cars next week!!
venom02 (@venom02)
21st January 2011, 10:58
YAY!
Electrolite
21st January 2011, 13:52
Paul Di Resta!!
Ha! I’ve always thought John Button’s a funny guy, although the story is a bit sad.
Adrian J (@adrian-j)
21st January 2011, 13:56
Keith, just a heads up:
The site is running very slowly on my machine today and has caused Google Chrome to stop responding a couple of times.
Only seems to happen on F1F so I’m assuming it’s something on the site rather than my machine…
Snobeck
21st January 2011, 15:51
If only Senna wasn’t playing at 6PM tonight, otherwise I’d drive over to Utah from Colorado this weekend.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2011, 20:01
What is HRT up to? Did the stress finally drive Kolles crazy? Are they starting work on an extreme cardesign for 2012 early, or are they hoping Simon can dream them up an amazing stunt in the next 3 weeks?
Anyway it might be a step towards making them loved in the paddock for crazy ideas, taking the chair dance from last year even further!
from http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/1/11661.html
Glorstensen (@glorstensen)
21st January 2011, 21:10
Yeah, tobacco is banned, and that is ridiculous. Alcohol isn’t(for example Flagman Vodka on R30) and it is a stimulant too, so i don’t see the point in this, except that ecoterrorism is growing bigger and bigger and it becomes a real pain in the @ss…