03/01/2005
NEWS STORY
In recent days, a number of websites have made much of the comment, made by an Italian doctor, that drug taking used to be rife in F1.
At a time when genuine news was 'thin on the ground', the comment allowed a number of websites to run shock-horror headlines suggesting that most of today's F1 stars are coke fiends.
The thing is, coke is exactly what F1 needs right now. However, we refer to Coca-Cola - which originally contained cocaine - rather than the narcotic itself.
Days ahead of the public announcement that WilliamsF1 has secured a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland, and months ahead of the deadline for F1 to give up tobacco sponsorship, companies such as Coca-Cola are exactly what the teams' sponsorship departments should be hunting down.
The purchase of Jaguar Racing by Red Bull will hopefully lead to other manufacturers being tempted into the sport, which in turn could tempt giants such as McDonald's and Burger King to test the waters.
We've seen some highly creative deals in the past, including WilliamsF1's deal with NiQuitinCQ, the tobacco patch manufacturer, hopefully we will see many more.
Like it or lump it, the days of Formula One's tobacco habit are numbered.