Have the Health Police "seriously damaged the health" of British motor racing?

[alfaman]

As Britain becomes increasingly politically correct and more of a nanny state do you think that national motor racing has suffered because tobacco sponsorship has been driven away?

I think the likes of Marlboro and JPS did so much for UK motor racing in the 1970s and 80s.

Would Eddie Irvine have reached Formula 1 if he hadn't got the Marlboro money at that crucial time? And Marlboro cash brought many talented overseas drivers to race in FF1600 & F3 like Bertrand Gachot, Mika Hakkinen etc.

JPS even sponsored the Champion of Brands FF1600 series with a Formula 1 test drive with Lotus as a prize to the winner! (I know Karl Jones didn't get it but politics took over....) Who sponsors the equivalent series now?? Exactly...

And the argument that young, impressionable teenagers will get addicted to cigarettes because they see the product advertised in the glamourous world of motor sport just doesn't work with me.

As a youngster I watched the Marlboro McLarens, the JPS Lotuses, the Rothmans Williams and the Silk Cut Jaguars but that didn't get me rushing down the newsagents to buy a sneaky packet of fags! And even my friends who smoked didn't buy Marlboro because of motor racing they bought the cheapest and those, in those days, were Embassy.....

Maybe if there was tobacco money still around in the lower formulas Marc Hynes might not be struggling to get a F3000 drive and end up 4 secs off the pace at Silverstone. Or Westley Barber might be racing here still rather than racing in the States and driver coaching in the UK...

Just across the water the annual Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort is a feast for F3 with the addition of the Ferrari F1 cars and teams from bike racing. Without Marlboro's enthusiasm and money do you think that would still be such a strong event??

The biggest shame here is that no other industry has replaced that tobacco money - the dotcoms had potential but where are most of those now?

Lots of questions but unfortunately few answers....