Formula One Features — May 2005

This week, as has been the case every May since 1995, my invitation to join Team McLaren at the annual three-day Silverstone test, landed on my doormat. I say invitation, but in truth McLaren's supporters club wants me to part with around $180 for the pleasure of going to the event.

Some of the Formula 1 teams seem to be in denial at the moment over the question of tobacco sponsorship. They are talking about seeking clarification from the new British government about the latest anti-smoking legislation which arrives at the end of July this year,

The modern problems relating to tobacco advertising date from a report by the Royal College of Physicians called "Smoking and Health" which was published in 1962. Two years later there the US Surgeon General Luther Terry followed up with an announcement that smoking causes lung cancer.