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Ferrari recently removed Mission Winnow from their list of sponsors, weakening their ties with parent company Philip Morris International. The team, however, has long been associated with PMI's sub-brand Marlboro, forming the longest-lasting partnership in F1. To understand this change, one must look at the history of Marlboro and Ferrari.
The historic partnership began in 1973 after Marlboro had become the best-selling cigarette company in the world the previous year. Initially, the famous cigarette logo only appeared on the team's helmets and racing suits, but soon featured on the main livery in 1984. It became the team's title sponsor in 1997 and the partnership lasted throughout the highly dominant years of Michael Schumacher.
Tobacco brought in a reported $350 million a year in 2000s, eventually resulting in a ban in 2006. Despite this, the sport has reportedly earned millions of dollars worth of tobacco-sponsorship revenue in recent years, earning criticism from big names such as the New York Times.
The team has dropped Mission Winnow, which according to parent company PMI is a "way of promoting new technologies," but it is still unclear what exactly the initiative is. The move was criticized in 2018 as a way to get tobacco sponsorship back into F1 despite the immense harm the product causes worldwide.
Team principal Mattia Binotto, however, claims the team is looking to extend ties with PMI in the future. He told The Race:
“There are many opportunities on which we may collaborate with them [PMI], keeping them as partners. We have various options on the table at the moment and we are still talking, and hopefully, that will remain as a strong partner, but it will take some more days and some more weeks.”
Ferrari to drop Weichai and UPS along with Mission Winnow
The legendary Italian team has also decided to drop its partnership with Chinese diesel giant Weichai and shipping and logistics giant UPS. To compensate for this big change in funding, it has taken aboard Velas, a Swiss blockchain company, and rekindled its partnership with Santander.
As part of its partnership with Velas, Ferrari will also create digital products for fans. This will give them a chance to buy NFTs which can be collected and traded at different rates. Velas will also be the title sponsor for the the team's Esports wing, which will be a part of the official F1 Esports series. The team said of Velas:
“In addition, Velas will be Title Sponsor of the Ferrari Esports Series, the online mono-brand series of the Prancing Horse, and of the esports team that will compete in the F1 Esports Series, the official digital championship competed in by all teams participating in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.”
2022 is set to be an exciting year for Ferrari with reports of a possibly competent car already making its rounds within the F1 fraternity. Only time will tell whether the team can be successful in the new season.
