Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto feels that it was “important to stay together” with long-standing sponsor Philip Morris International regardless of the recent changes to their sponsorship deal.
The Maranello team has been linked with tobacco giant Philip Morris for more than four decades, with the PMI brand Marlboro serving as the team’s title sponsor from 1997 until early 2008. However, a clampdown on tobacco advertising resulted in the Marlboro branding having to ve removed from the Italian F1 challenger. After some ingenious work, Philip Morris returned as Ferrari title sponsors with its special Mission Winnow project that was launched in 2018 with a view to a non-tobacco future.
At the end of the 2021 Formula 1 season, the Mission Winnow branding was removed from Scuderia Ferrari’s official entry name as well as the car’s sponsorship deals and of course also disappeared from the Maranello team’s sponsors list ahead of the 2022 championship when the deal ended. However, ahead of the third round of the season, the Australian Grand Prix at the Albert Park circuit, it was officially confirmed that Mission Winnow would come back as Ferrari team partner.
In a recent interview for Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto shared his thoughts on the new sponsorship agreement with PMI and confirmed it was important to continue the long-running relationship, despite the fact that the nature of the deal had changed.
“It’s important to know that it has been a long partnership with Philip Morris, and we are very proud of it, and very happy that it’s still lasting. That was the intention of the two parties, because after so many years, it was important to stay together. Yes, it has changed a bit in the way the partnership is set up, without going into too many details. But in the end, it’s more important to make sure that it was continued.” – the Ferrari boss explained.
As title partner, Mission Winnow’s green logo was displayed on the engine cover of Ferrari’s cars at different races during the previous championship, but was removed for all the Formula 1 events which took place in the European Union. For the 2022 F1 campaign, the Italian side confirmed that Spanish bank Santander had returned as a premium partner, along with Shell, blockchain network Velas, and technology brand Snapdragon.
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The next round of the championship, which takes place next weekend in Miami, will definitely be a very important weekend for all Formula 1 teams, building on the series’ current boom in the United States.
“There is a lot of interest in Miami, I think for us as well, the American market as Ferrari is an important one. But we can see also for our sponsors, really the business overall of F1 is doing well right now. We are all very happy. I think it will be an enjoyable weekend and event.” – the Ferrari boss concluded.
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