In the round-up: Ferrari are no longer carrying the logos of tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris International, which was behind its Mission Winnow branding.
Become a RaceFans Supporter and go ad-free
RaceFans operates thanks in part to the support of its readers. In order to help fund the development and growth of the site please consider becoming a RaceFans Supporter.
For just £1 per month/£12 per year you will also be upgraded to an ad-free account. Sign up and find out more below:
In brief
PMI’s Mission Winnow logos disappear from new Ferrari
Since 2019, the team have carried the company’s Mission Winnow branding on their Formula 1 cars at select races as part of their nearly 50 year commercial partnership with PMI.
Despite no longer having their branding on the Ferrari livery, PMI claim that their relationships with Formula 1’s most successful team, as well as Moto GP’s factory Ducati team, will continue.
“Ferrari and Ducati have been and will continue be important partners for us,” a spokesperson told RaceFans. “Our relationships with Ferrari and Ducati, which date to 1973 and 2003 respectively, have and will continue to evolve. We look forward to the coming season and will share more details in due course.”
Ferrari never won any of the races in which Mission Winnow branding appeared on their cars throughout the three seasons of the campaign.
F1 Esports total viewing figures double
Formula 1’s official Esports series received a 103% increase in 2021 compared to the year before, Formula One have announced.Online audiences for the Pro Championship increased at each of the four events held over the two month racing league, which saw Mercedes Esports driver Jarno Opmeer successfully defend his Pro Championship drivers’ title against Frederik Rasmussen and Lucas Blakeley.
The Pro Championship accounted for the majority of the 23 million combined views of F1 Esports content throughout 2021, with the Challenger Series and Pro Exhibitions races making up the remaining share.
Villeneuve secures Daytona 500 spot
Former world champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve will compete in Sunday’s Daytona 500 after he secured the 36th fastest time in qualifying ahead of the race.
The 1997 Formula 1 world champion’s lap time of 51.010 seconds was enough to see him secure a place in the prestigious NASCAR Cup Series opener for the first time, after he failed to qualify on his first attempt back in 2008.
Racing with Team Hezeberg, Sunday’s race at the Daytona International Speedway will be the team’s first start in the premier class of NASCAR and Villeneuve’s fifth – his first since 2013.
“It’s not like winning the Indy 500 or the F1 championship,” said the 50-year-old. “But at this point in my career, the last time I tried to qualify here was 14 years ago, just to make the show is incredible.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
Finally! Masi is gone and we can begin to repair the damage done and move forwards.
— Tiff Needell (@tiff_tv) February 17, 2022
Crazy seeing some of the vitriol in replies about Masi. He made a big mistake in a high pressure moment but he's just a regular person like the rest of us. Always seemed like a decent guy when I spoke to him. Just don't think he was cut out for that job, ultimately.
— Nate Saunders (@natesaundersF1) February 17, 2022
To help encourage consistency, their new plan is to interchange the role of race director on a race-by-race basis, do I have that right?
— Steve Matchett (@MrSteveMatchett) February 17, 2022
I. AM. IN. LOVE. ❤️
I can’t wait to be driving this beast.
What do you think ? pic.twitter.com/n7FkqP3tZJ— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) February 17, 2022
Looks fantastic – a nod back to the Ferraris I fell in love with in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the black wings!
Nice to see completely different side pod designs yet again compared to the other cars we’ve seen so far. https://t.co/pfmjr1J0f6
— Karun Chandhok (@karunchandhok) February 17, 2022
- Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory
Links
Motor racing links of interest:
Six key areas for F1 2022: Car design (Aston Martin)
"The drive to improve racing comes alongside the continued push by F1, the FIA and the teams to improve safety standards. The 2022 cars will feature advances based on lessons learned from recent incidents, most notably Romain Grosjean’s incident in the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. "
British F4 rising stars strengthen Formula 1 ties ahead of 2022 season (British F4)
"Newly announced Mercedes junior Daniel Guinchard has joined McLaren’s Ugo Ugochukwu as a member of a Formula 1 academy programme ahead of the 2022 F4 British Championship."
Josef Newgarden Knows IndyCar Is On The Cusp Of Something Great (Jalopnik)
"To me, IndyCar is the most well-rounded racing series in the world. Our cars might not be quite as advanced as Formula 1, but they are still amazing machines that are very physical with a lot of horsepower. Our championship is nice combination of a drivers and manufacturer championship with a variety of racetracks that few other series can match. So, yes, I’m very bullish on IndyCar, now and for the future."
Driverle - Guess the F1 driver (Formula 1 Points)
Have you been enjoying playing Wordle, but wished there was a Formula 1 equivalent? Use the stats clues to guess the driver of the day.
'Williams Believe In Me' | Alex Albon's Return To F1 Interview (Formula 1 via YouTube)
"Hear from Williams' newest signing Alex Albon as he discusses his return to Formula 1, how he's finding life at the Grove team and more."
We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Comment of the day
After FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem confirmed that Michael Masi would no longer be Formula 1 race director following the investigation into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with a raft of changes to how races will be controlled moving forward, @alec-glen feels that stewarding is an area that deserves more attention in the debate over racing rules in Formula 1…
Often with these statements it’s the things that are not said that can be the most telling. In this case Masi had to go, he repeatedly made mistakes that he couldn’t blame on an external process/factor. Setting up the equivalent of a ‘New York’ set up to what the NFL has makes sense, the rules are complicated and sometimes it needs people in a low pressure environment to be able to check/confirm decisions made in the moment at the circuit.
The people not mentioned are the stewards. Isn’t it their role to be the reference point for the rules/regs? Masi repeatedly referred to them when talking to teams to check on processes/rules/regulations and they sit there with access to everything, supposedly being the calm voice well versed in the rules. With this effectively moving that to FIA HQ, we should be asking what will the stewards be doing? Who will have overall authority between HQ and the stewards at the circuit? Who will the people be making judgements at HQ? Will they perhaps need people with driving experience there also? There’s lots we need to be asking.
I think it’s the correct course of action as the stewards are there to support the race director and at a number of races last year they were found wanting, leaving the race director open to criticism from all sides. Although the headlines will be that Masi is gone, it’s the potential replacement of the stewards that I think is the real story here.
@alec-glen
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to _Ben_ and Mike!
Perico
18th February 2022, 0:08
Actually they did:
US Grand Prix 2018
https://www.racefans.net/2018/10/21/2018-united-states-grand-prix-in-pictures/motor-racing-formula-one-world-championship-united-states-grand-prix-race-day-austin-usa-272/
Kribana (@krichelle)
18th February 2022, 0:11
I like the new president’s actions to help the sport. However, what worries me, and Hamilton or Alonso said this last year, is to expect different decisions from different stewards. This could even be worse with race directors. I’d rather have either one race director or three race directors in one group or something similar, maybe 2 race directors. 2021 still haunts me, not because mainly I am a Mercedes die hard fan, but because of how it ended. Horner and Wolff talking on the radio to Masi in Abu Dhabi just gives me a trauma. Another thing that needs to be adressed and I have said this many times, make the rulebook more accurate and precise to avoid multiple interpretations and ambiguity. I really hope the sport can move on. There is too much damage to be done to ourselves looking back.
Mashiat (@mashiat)
18th February 2022, 1:19
@krichelle The FIA communication between the team principals is nothing new, just something that has only recently been broadcast. I’d imagine similar things were happening in races like Brazil 2012 with Ferrari and Red Bull.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
18th February 2022, 1:42
@mashiat Correct.
However the fact they started to be broadcast did change the dynamic. Teams startedusingit as a way to push a narrative & put more pressure on race control.
Similar was seen a few years back when they started airing stuff from the drivers briefing. It changed the way they were conducted in a way that was seen as unhelpful which is why it was something that was dropped despite the initial plan been to air them more often.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
18th February 2022, 1:34
In relation to the COTD by @alec-glen.
Many criticise Masi for the inconsistency of some decisions which he in fact had no say in as incident investigations & decisions on penalties are made by the stewards which the race director not been involved other than sending them things he thinks they should look at.
The race director is only responsible for the running of the event. That does include how things like track limits is monitored & things related to driving standards but even then it’s the stewards who have final say on individual incidents.
I gather the reason they have decided to split the race director role between 2 people is because of the number of races. None of those with adequate experience & knowledge of the regulations were prepared to work 20+ races. They put some feelers out to others who could fit the role in future but the number of race weekends was also raised as an issue with those so they decided to split the role between 2 people.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
19th February 2022, 1:52
@gt-racer given both chosen are currently race directors for WEC and DTM respectively, is it possible that the shared role is simply because of clashes between F1 and those events? (I confess I haven’t checked). Rather than leave those series looking for someone new at short notice, possibly give the FIA the chance to evaluate both and potentially offer them the full time role in 2023?
Scalextric (@scalextric)
18th February 2022, 2:54
Driverle daily all (2000 – 2021) 6/10
⬛⬛🟩🟧⬛⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟧🟩🟧🟧🟧⬛🟩
⬛⬛🟩🟧🟧⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
http://www.driverle.com
Just to be annoying
F1 frog (@f1frog)
18th February 2022, 10:47
@scalextric
Love it. Thanks for sharing. I did the 2000-2021 in 3 but I have been going through the 1950-2021 ones and my only wins so far are 3 with Gaston Mazzacane, and 8 with Tony Settember.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
19th February 2022, 21:14
Strange, doesn’t work for me on 2 different browsers, just doesn’t ask any question.
Aussie Rod (@aussierod)
18th February 2022, 4:53
Wow, amazingly different interpretation from Ferrari for their entire rear bodywork. Stick your hand up if you thought F1 was turning into a spec series with these new rules !
The cars look great, the proportions are vastly improved and we’ve seen more innovation and differing approaches from half the field than we’ve seen from the full grid in the past 4 or 5 years.
Big tick so far for the FIA on these new regs.
Now to lighten the cars somehow…
Jonathan
18th February 2022, 6:28
I was definitely worrying about it so I have to put my hand up for that. I’ve also been amazed with the differences this year and we still haven’t seen all the cars in their full glory yet. Only thing I don’t really like is the aero dev handicapping system but at least its not reverse grids or ballast. Will be interesting to see how they race with each other and if brawn has managed to achieve his goals fully.
Martin (@f1hornet)
18th February 2022, 9:17
Yep, I even posted about it somewhere on the site. I am very pleasantly surprised! I wonder if it will mean that some teams have got things very wrong/right?
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
18th February 2022, 10:09
No wonder Ferrari and RBR partnered with the tech giants Oracle and Amazon (AWS) respectively to have access to the powerful computational servers that will enable them to speed up their simulations and to run more combinations in the same amount of time.
The FIA thought that the rules are very restrictive to the point that most of the cars will end up to be closely matched but we’ve seen that the top 3 teams have already very different interpretations of the same rules.
Rob (@)
18th February 2022, 5:14
The Mission Winnow logo has been replaced by an engine that smells like cigarette smoke
Mr Fabulous (@mrfabulous)
18th February 2022, 7:05
PMI/Marlboro are no longer listed as a sponsor on Ferrari’s website. Indeed the team seems to be devoid of a title sponsor this year, at the moment referring to themselves simply as Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team.
Cranberry
18th February 2022, 7:18
I must admit, there has been a surprising amount of variation in designs as far as the side view goes.
All cars look identical from the front, however, because the front wing is standardized.
Aapje (@aapje)
18th February 2022, 11:41
We’ve seen quite a bit of variation in the wings. They are definitely not fully standardized. The noses are more similar, though.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th February 2022, 7:47
Nate Saunders’ tweet is valid & so is COTD. I didn’t think about the stewarding aspect yesterday.
Wallbreaker (@wallbreaker)
18th February 2022, 7:54
That’s not true, they won Austin 2018 with MW livery.
BasCB (@bascb)
18th February 2022, 13:04
Pretty sure they were not using the branding on their car there @wallbreaker, since it was potentially illegal there due to the connection to the tobacco company
hobo (@hobo)
18th February 2022, 22:46
@bascb — Sadly you overestimate the US’s and Texas’ commitment to anti-tobacco and especially anti-vaping at the time. Quick Google search shows MW on car and racing suit.
@wallbreaker is correct.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th February 2022, 15:59
Well, in that case, I am sorry for that mistake, @wallbreaker, you have a good point then. Thanks @hobo
GeeMac (@geemac)
18th February 2022, 8:21
Re the headline:
“In other news, McLaren continue to be sponsored by British American Tabacco…but we’ll ignore that.”
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
18th February 2022, 10:02
Enzo used to be a very superstitious man. This is enough reason to ditch the stupid Mission LoseNow logo.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
18th February 2022, 21:08
I’m not sure why people are upset about Phillip Morris sponsoring Ferrari when other teams and F1 itself are sponsored by the climate-altering Saudi-owned dinosaur juice purveyor Saudi Aramco.
hobo (@hobo)
18th February 2022, 22:48
It’s true, @ryanoceros . If we admit to caring about sponsorship issues, large portions of F1 would die off pretty quick. It’s troubling to think about.
Dale
20th February 2022, 13:49
“Following speculation Ferrari would lose the backing of major sponsor PMI in 2022, the company’s Mission Winnow brand was absent from the F1-75 when it appeared yesterday.”
This was officially announced by Ferrari at the end of 2021, along with the arrival of Santander.
The fact that Will wasn’t aware of this doesn’t inspire any confidence in his credibility as a replacement for Dieter, or in the quality of news we can expect on this page.