The extent of Formula One dependency on tobacco is revealed by statistics which show that cigarette companies contribute £100 million to F1 motor racing - a full third of the money used to run the sport.
Ferrari gets £30 million from Marlboro, with Williams and McLaren taking £19 million each from Rothmans and West respectively. Benetton gets £12 million from Mild Seven, while Jordan and Prost get £10 million each from Benson & Hedges and Gitanes respectively. And figures published yesterday suggest why the companies think it is a sound investment
According to Manchester University research, sponsored by the Cancer Research Campaign, boys are nearly twice as likely to become regular smokers if they are motor racing fans. They are also twice as likely to remember the names of leading Formula One sponsors, such as Marlboro and Camel, than boys who do not follow motor racing.
Prof Anne Charlton led the research team, which studied the attitudes of 1,063 boys, aged 12 and 13, in the north and south of England. The boys were asked which sports they most liked to watch on TV, whether they smoked, and, if so, how much. They were asked the same questions a year later to monitor any changes.
Of the non-smokers who named motor racing as their favourite sport, 12.8 per cent were regular smokers by the following year. In comparison, just 7 per cent of boys who did not like motor racing took up regular smoking. The results were published yesterday in the Lancet, the medical journal.
Prof Charlton said: "Any ban on tobacco advertising must include sponsored sport because of the huge numbers of young boys being put at risk. There are currently around 626,400 boys aged 12 to 13 in the UK and, based on the survey's findings, around 72,764 or 12 per cent of these might be motor racing fans. Of these enthusiasts, 9,314 of them could be expected to take up smoking - nearly double the amount of boys who don't follow the sport."
The findings prompted the Lancet to publish a strongly-worded editorial. "An opportunity to deliver the tobacco industry an important blow has passed. With such a dangerous drug as tobacco, the Labour government should have simply said `no'. They failed."
The relationship between the tobacco companies and Formula One is one of mutual dependency, however. British American Tobacco, one of the world's leading cigarette manufacturers, is currently negotiating to buy the Tyrrell team . . . for £300 million.
