For the opening race in Australia, the Scuderia Ferrari team were forced to remove their Mission Winnow title sponsor name from their car. This was because Australia have very strict anti-tobacco laws which even forbid advertising.

Mission Winnow is a brand under the Philip Morris company name. Since Philip Morris is a tobacco company, any brand associated with it will be under the scanner. To combat the issue, Ferrari instead had a new logo emblazoned on their car, celebrating 90 years of Scuderia Ferrari. The Ducati MotoGP team is also sponsored by Mission Winnow and Australia comes later in their calendar.

Now, with Australia done and dusted, there is nothing holding Ferrari back from putting Mission Winnow back again. On Friday, the FIA published a revised entry list for the remainder of the season with Ferrari bearing the Mission Winnow name again.

For a fairly long time, tobacco advertising has been a big no in Formula One. Even the WHO have, “urged governments to enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship at sporting events, including when hosting or receiving broadcasts of Formula 1 and MotoGP events.”

The statement further read, “WHO also urges all sporting bodies, including Formula 1 and MotoGP, to adopt strong tobacco free policies that ensure their events are smoke-free and their activities and participants, including race teams, are not sponsored by tobacco companies.”

Also, McLaren, who tied up with British American Tobacco, have elected not to display their “A Better Tomorrow” brand. Now, with Mission Winnow reappearing  from Bahrain onwards, it remains to be seen how the situation plays out for Ferrari and McLaren.

In the meantime, the Formula One paddock will be heading into the second race of the 2019 Formula One season. Mercedes‘ Valtteri Bottas leads the championship after an emphatic win in Australia last week. Can he repeat that or will it be Lewis Hamilton this time around? Will Ferrari banish their poor performance last week from their minds and win in Bahrain? Or will Max Verstappen deliver Honda’s maiden victory?