Over 160 Organizations Call on Formula 1 to End All Tobacco Sponsorships and Stop Promoting Addiction to Kids
Groups also urge F1 Partners Disney, Lego and Hot Wheels to Demand Action
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the Formula 1 racing season starts this week, over 160 public interest organizations from around the world today sent a letter to Formula 1 calling on the sport to update its prohibition of tobacco product sponsorships to include nicotine pouches and stop helping the tobacco industry market its products to F1’s millions of young fans.
F1 ended cigarette sponsorships in 2006. However, tobacco companies Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) are now promoting one of their newer tobacco products, nicotine pouches, through sponsorships of F1 teams – PMI is sponsoring the Ferrari team to promote its Zyn pouches, while BAT sponsors the McLaren team with its Velo brand. Product logos are prominently featured on the cars and race suits of these teams’ superstar drivers, including 2025 F1 world champion Lando Norris and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. The sponsorships are also promoted on social media to hundreds of millions of followers.
Tobacco companies are sponsoring Formula 1 teams at the same time the sport has aggressively worked to expand its global youth audience, including recent partnerships with Disney, Lego and Mattel’s Hot Wheels. These partnerships include appearances by Mickey & Friends at F1 races and exclusive Lego and Hot Wheels merchandise for kids. F1 has stated that more than four million children aged 8-12 actively follow the sport just in the EU and the U.S., while 54% of the sport’s followers on TikTok and 40% on Instagram are now under 25 years old.
“By sponsoring Formula 1 teams, tobacco companies are seeking to reach the same young people Formula 1 has worked hard to attract. Formula 1 must not be complicit in these efforts. To protect the health of its young fans, it is imperative that Formula 1 act quickly to update its existing prohibition of cigarette sponsorships to include other types of tobacco products, including newer products like nicotine pouches,” the groups wrote in the letter to Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.
Separate letters to the CEOs of Disney, Lego and Mattel urged these companies to join the call for Formula 1 to prohibit all tobacco sponsorships.
“Tobacco companies want their brands on Formula 1 race cars and celebrity drivers because they know kids will see it,” said Yolonda C. Richardson, President and CEO of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Marketing tobacco in the same venues as Disney, Lego and Hot Wheels is part of the industry’s ongoing strategy to addict kids to products that harm them, while simultaneously claiming that their products are only for adults. F1 must protect kids and immediately end its relationship with the tobacco industry and ensure it is not a vehicle for marketing harmful and addictive products to young fans.”
Nicotine pouches pose serious risks to the health of young people. These products expose young people to high levels of nicotine, which is extremely addictive, can harm the developing adolescent brain, which continues to develop until about age 25, and can prime the brain for addiction to other drugs. Nicotine pouches are the only type of tobacco product to see an increase in youth use in the U.S. in recent years.
The letter to Formula 1 was signed by 162 organizations from 57 countries. Read the letters to Formula 1 and to Disney, Lego and Mattel: tobaccofreekids.org/Formula-One-partners
