Concerns Over McLaren’s Whiskey Sponsorship

The McLaren Formula One team will end decades of tobacco sponsorship after signing a controversial three-year deal with whisky manufacturer Johnnie Walker. The McLaren team's deal was immediately condemned by alcohol concern groups who fear the move will signal the start of alcohol replacing tobacco advertising as a major source of revenue for the sport.

The former F1 champions and British-based Diageo, the world's largest premium spirits group, announced the agreement at a news conference at McLaren's factory in Woking<,England.

McLaren is ending its sponsorship with the cigarette brand West, owned by London-based Imperial Tobacco, because of a European Union tobacco sponsorship ban that comes into force on July 31.

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis conceded that marrying spirits and high-performance cars would be controversial but said he thought the new deal was different from previous relationships with tobacco companies.

"Inevitably, there will be questions asked about it," he said. "There is no way to hide from these issues, and we are not going to hide from them. We are going to deal with them."

The managing director of Johnnie Walker, Charles Allen, said the sponsorship would be used to raise awareness of responsible drinking programmes. Consumers would receive responsible drinking messages from McLaren's formula one driving stars Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya.

"If it's the start of a trend for alcohol to fill the role of tobacco in formula one advertising, then it's something we would be very concerned about," said a spokesman for Alcohol Concern, the alcohol misuse agency.

Johnnie Walker and its logo will appear on the McLaren chassis alongside Hugo Boss, Tag Heuer and Siemens, prominently positioned on the car's air intake behind the driver's head.

It makes its debut at the first grand prix to be staged in Turkey, on August 21. But it will not appear in France, which bans alcohol advertising for motor sports.

Johnnie Walker is not the only alcohol brand to sponsor motor racing. Jim Beam, also owned by Diageo, sponsors America's Nascar racing, while several beer brands sponsor other formula one teams.

Johnnie Walker, which regards its brand values as "pioneering, authentic and masculine", wants to boost sales among men aged 25 to 35 and wants to become as trendy as iPod, the portable music device made by Apple.

The deal gives the whisky exposure to the vast formula one fan base in 200 countries. The sport claims a global TV audience of 2.9 billion people.

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