**The Dark Side of F1 Sponsorships**

Formula 1, or F1 as it's known to fans, has been in the headlines recently for reasons that have nothing to do with cars or Lewis Hamilton's rakish good looks. In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Haas F1 cut ties with Russian driver Nikita Mazepin and title sponsor Uralkalia, a Russian oil company run by Nikita's father, Dmitry Mazepin.

The car also had a Russian flag livery, which is not a good look at the moment, internationally speaking. So, they definitely made the right decision. Haas, however, has a history of partnering with shady companies. For instance, there was Rich Energy, a company that agreed to a title sponsorship deal with Haas before the 2019 season.

Despite the fact that the company's energy drink was basically not sold in stores, the deal fell apart midway through the season when Rich Energy's official Twitter account tweeted they were terminating the contract because of poor performance. What was really happening was a struggle within Rich Energy, which was trying to oust CEO William Storey. Unfortunately for the company, Storey had control of their Twitter account and was also the face of the deal with Haas.

Storey went on to compare Haas's car to a milk truck and tweeted a Photoshop of himself crashing the team's vehicles. Donut's very own Joe Weber actually bought me a case of Rich Energy off the internet in 2020, and I have to say it's actually pretty good. It helped me write a lot of episodes of Past Gas.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention oil companies here. Who have been prominently involved in the sport since those free gas days? But I'm basically going to give F1 a pass for oil sponsorships and not really talk about them here because number one, every single one does the same shady stuff, so it's not very fun to examine.

And two, oil is integral to the actual sport itself. It's like getting mad if the NFL was sponsored by an MRI machine company. You just can't. On the other hand, I will definitely give it up for the all-time GOAT of awful F1 sponsors, tobacco companies.

Team Lotus's early partnership with Imperial Tobacco paved the way for decades of close collaborations between cigarette manufacturers and racing teams. In 1972, Lotus launched a black and gold livery inspired by John Player Special, another Imperial brand. To many fans, this car proved that a branded livery could actually look good, and I gotta say, they weren't wrong.

The John Player Special freaking rules. Marlboro joined the influx of tobacco brands in F1 in 1973 by signing a deal with McLaren. It then became Ferrari's main partner in 1996, defining an era of F1 cars thanks to the success of Michael Schumacher. But despite the Marlboro car's iconic status, it was an endangered species.

In the late 90s, individual countries began adopting tobacco ad restrictions in the media. At the same time, the expansion of cable and satellite TV made F1 and other Motorsports increasingly reliant on media money. But tobacco companies didn't go down without a fight.

In response to the new rules, companies like British American Tobacco began designing global dark market logos. These logos used the color and design of key cigarette brands but not their names. So they could still be placed on cars. Very clever.

By 2005, a treaty spearheaded by the World Health Organization led to the ban of tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio, and all over the internet. Basically all over the world. In 2006, the FIA finally implemented the recommendation against tobacco advertising. Although it wasn't an outright ban.

This little loophole gave tobacco companies the ability to skirt the new rules with creative twists on their old branding. Which led to super weird liveries like the Marlboro barcode car and the admittedly awesome Bitten and Hisses car that substituted a freaking snake for Benson & Hedges tobacco branding. I gotta say, big upgrade.

Nevertheless, without the ability to actually advertise their cancer sticks, cigarette companies eventually stopped sponsoring F1 teams all together. Or did they? Despite literal international laws against tobacco advertising, ciggy companies are still a big source of sponsorship money.

These days, tobacco companies simply disguise their sponsorship dollars. British American Tobacco is now a principal sponsor of McLaren. Only the car says anything, as usual.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Formula 1 orF1 as it's known to fanswas in the headlines recentlyfor reasons that hadnothing to do with carsor Lewis Hamilton's rakish good looks.In the wake of Russia'sinvasion of UkraineHaas F1 cut ties with Russiandriver, Nikita Mazepinand title sponsor Uralkalia Russian oil companyrun by Nikita's father, Dmitry Mazepin.Turns out Dmitry Mazepin was literallyin a meeting with Vladimir Putinon the first day of the Russian invasion.And Haas only really signed Nikitain the first place to get Dmitry's money.The car also had a Russian flag livery,which is not a good look at the moment,internationally speaking.So they definitely madethe right decision here.But it's still just a little surprisingthat anyone drew a line anywhere at allconsidering the state of someother current F1 sponsorsand business partners.Today on Wheelhouse,I'm gonna rain on everyone's parade lapand tell you why prettymuch every F1 sponsoris shady.Thank you to Raycon forsponsoring today's video.Listen up you mother lovers.Mother's day is almost hereand I know flowers are a nice gift,but my mom is a rockstarand rock stars deserve more than flowers.They deserve Raycon Everyday Earbuds.Doesn't matter if she's tech-savvy or not.The Everyday Earbuds are easy to set upand even easier to use.They come in a bunch of fun color optionsto match your mom's personalityand style.Whether she's on the job or on the go,Raycons offer eight hours of play timeand a 32 hour battery lifewith their compact portable charging case.So, she'll never miss a podcast, a songor even a phone call withvivid voice technology.And thanks to Raycon's optimized gel tips,your mom will have a comfortablein-ear fit that will not budge.Staying in, staying in.So get your awesome mom,premium audio qualityand only spend half the priceof the other premium brands.Raycon's everyday earbuds haveover 49,000 five star reviews,making them the perfect giftfor a five star mom like mine.Love you Nolan.I've been using Raycons for a long time.They sound great.The battery lasts a long time.They're super durable.Definitely check 'em out.Give a gift better than flowersand click the link in the descriptionor go to buyraycon.com/donutto get 15% off your Raycon purchase.Tell your mother I saidHappy Mother's Day.(Nolan laughs)(bright music)The fact that F1 has sponsors at all,has long been both a big boosterof the sports growthand somewhat of a bummer.We're all so used toseeing race cars plasteredwith ads that we don'treally even question itbut until the 1960s grandpre cars generally ranwithout any badging at all.Using only national colors.Back then the closest thing F1 teams hadto sponsors were the tireand oil companies thatgave them free suppliesin exchange for a smalllogos on drivers' overalls.Even the mark of each car was limitedto a discreet badge on the noseuntil the mid 60's.When Team Lotus began to print its nameon the side of its cars.Honda and other competitorsquickly followed suit.However, commercial sponsorshipremained outlawed in F1until 1968.What changed?Well before that season, BPand Shell withdrew fromsupplying F1 with oiland Firestone simultaneouslydecided to start chargingfor tires.Faced with a heap of new expenses,the FIA decided to finallyallow teams sponsors.It was either thator sign Jackie Stewartup to drive for Uber.Team Lotus quickly tookadvantage of the new rules.Lotus founder, Colin Chapman,signed an 85,000 British pound a year dealwith Imperial Tobaccoto sponsors Lotus 49.In the season's third race,the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix,Lotus shocked fansby ditching their traditionalBritish racing green liveryfor a red paint jobbased on Imperial's GoldLeaf cigarette cartons.F1 cars have been covered with ads,Post Malone tattoo style ever since.Today, more than 300brands are F1 sponsors.Accounting for over a billion dollars.Pouring into F1's coffers every year.Sponsorships generallyaccount for at least a quarterof each team's income.With some teams relying on sponsorsfor up to 80% of their funding.That's big money.Which means big pressure onteam owners to sign up moreand more backers.So historically they've beenwilling to accept sponsorshipsfrom pretty much anyonewho can clear a check.That illustrious historyincludes extremely confusing sponsors.Like condom manufacturer Durex,x-rated magazine Penthouseand James Humphrey's favoriteband in the world, Abba.Mamma mia, here we go again.To be fair, this is notan F1 specific issue.Rivals like IndyCarand NASCAR have both runcars sponsored by Dianeticsand bankrolled by thechurch of Scientology.Speaking of things that arenot real and sponsored F1 cars,Rich Energy may be themost famous recent exampleof a scammy F1 sponsor.The little known company agreedto a title sponsorship dealwith Haas,before the 2019 season.Despite the fact that thecompany's energy drinkwas basically not sold in stores.The deal fell apartmidway through the seasonwhen Rich Energy's officialTwitter account tweetedthey were terminating the contractbecause of poor performance.What was really happening wasa struggle within Rich Energy.Which was trying tooust CEO William Storey.Unfortunately for the company,Storey had control oftheir Twitter accountand was also the faceof the deal with Haas.Storey went on to compareHaas's car to a milk truckand tweeted a Photoshop of himselfcrashing the team's vehicles.Donut's very own Joe Weber,actually bought me a case of Rich Energyoff the internet in 2020.And I have to say it'sactually pretty good.It helped me write a lotof episodes of Past Gas.I'd be remiss if I didn'tmention oil companies here.Who have been prominentlyinvolved in the sportsince those free gas days.But I'm basically gonna giveF1 a pass for oil sponsorshipsand not really talk about them herebecause number one,every single one does the same shady stuffso it's not very fun to examine.And two,oil is integral to theactual sport itself.It's like getting madif the NFL was sponsoredby an MRI machine company.You just can't.On the other hand,I will definitely give itup for the all time GOATof awful F1 sponsors, tobacco companies.Team Lotus's early partnershipwith Imperial Tobacco,paved the way for decadesof close collaborationsbetween cigarette manufacturersand racing teams.In 1972, Lotus launched a blackand gold livery inspiredby John Player Special,another Imperial brand.To many fans,this car proved,that a branded liverycould actually look goodand I gotta say, they weren't wrong.The John Player Special freaking rules.Marlboro, joined the influx oftobacco brands in F1 in 1973by signing a deal with McLaren.It then became Ferrari'smain partner in 1996,defining an era of F1 cars,thanks to the successof Michael Schumacher.But despite the Marlborocar's iconic status,it was an endangered species.In the late 90s,individual countries beganadopting tobacco ad restrictionsin the media.At the same time,the expansion of cableand satellite TV, made F1and other Motorsports increasinglyreliant on media money.But tobacco companies didn'tgo down without a fight.In response to the new rules,companies like British American Tobaccobegan designing global dark market logos.These logos used the colorand design of key cigarette brands,but not their names.So they could still be placed on cars.Very clever.By 2005,a treaty spearheaded by theWorld Health Organizationled to the ban of tobaccoadvertising in the print media,on radioand all over the internet.Basically all over the world.In 2006, the FIA finallyimplemented the recommendationagainst tobacco advertising.Although, it wasn't an outright ban.This little loophole,gave tobacco companies,the ability to skirt the newrules with creative twistson their old branding.Which led to super weird liverieslike the Marlboro barcode carand the admittedly awesome Bittenand Hisses car thatsubstituted a fricking snakefor Benson & Hedges tobacco branding.I gotta say big upgrade.Nevertheless, without theability to actually advertisetheir cancer sticks, cigarette companieseventually stopped sponsoringF1 teams all together.Or did they?Question mark, question mark.Despite literal international lawsagainst tobacco advertisingciggy companies are still a bigsource of sponsorship money.These days,tobacco companies simply disguisetheir sponsorship dollars.British American Tobaccois now a principal sponsorof McLaren.Only the car says, "A better tomorrow"instead of a cigarette name.That phrase is apparentlyBritish American Tobacco'sthought leading programthat hopes to provide"A portfolio potentiallyreduced risk productswhich can deliver a bettertomorrow for our consumers."Similarly, Marlboro actuallystill sponsors Ferraribut their contributions arebranded as Mission Winnowwhich just like A BetterTomorrow is a stupid thingyou've never heard of.This one is funded by Philip Morris,Marlboro's parent companyand seeks to quote,"Create engagement around therole of science technologyand innovation as apowerful force for good."What?Mission Winnows websitealso says it's dedicatedto finding non-smokingtobacco alternativesand that it's experimentingon donated human tissueto see those possiblealternative before human trials.So basically it's a bunch ofguys sitting around figuringout how to make juul pods more addictive.Awesome.And truth be told.I'm not sure what PhilipMorris gets out of advertisinga fake science initiativethat no one will ever pay attention to.But hey, what do I know?I'm literally just some guy.F1's continued relationshipwith Big Tobacco is only one of manycontroversial industriesthat the sport currently partners with.So,let's play a quick gameof Bingo, shall we?Here's how it works.I'll look at the current gridand tell you which racingteams are associatedwith which shady industry.In the end, you pick the team to root forthat repels you the least.Sounds fun, right?Yeah, I didn't think so.But here we go anyway.First, everyone gets a freespace for environmental issues.That's because before the 2020 season,F1 announced a long termsponsorship deal with Saudi Aramco.The world's largest corporategreenhouse gas emitter.This single company isestimated to be responsiblefor over 4% of the entire world'sgreenhouse gas emissions since 1965.It's the closest real world equivalentto partnering with Thanos.Great work F1.The new hotness in racing right now,is crypto sponsorships.Not necessarily evilbut definitely an unregulated playgroundfor scammers, spammersand various other ne'er-do-wells.We talked a lot about thisin our metaverse video.So go check that one out'cause I'm actually really proud of it.So let's see.Aston Martin is sponsored by crypto.com.Red bull is sponsored by Tezos.McLaren is sponsored by bitsy.com.AlphaTauri is sponsored by Phantomand Alpha Romeo partnered with socios.com.All right, let's check the Bingo card hereand wow.This might be a quick Bingo.F1 accepted its first evergambling sponsorship in 2020when the 188 BET sports book was installedas the official bettingpartner of F1 Asia.Ahead of the 2022 season,Redbull agreed to a brandingdeal with PokerStars.So, let's add a couple morestamps to the card here.Okay. Let's see.We've got a scams column up there.AlphaTauri is sponsored by myWorld,which is a multi-level marketing schemethat's banned in Norway.It used to be called Lyonessand before that it was called iTimebut they kept changing theirname to avoid lawsuits.Similarly, Aston Martin tooka sponsorship from FuturoCoinwhich was a rebranding of aPonzi scheme called FutureNet.Next up is health.First, we gotta stamp Ferrariand McLaren for the tobacco thought labs.Great, thanks.Energy drinks are alsoknown to cause heartand brain issues.So team Redbull gets a stamp.Monster Energy sponsors Mercedes.Haas gets a retroactive Nolanfor rich energyand Williams also gets onefor a Hungarian sponsor named Hell Energy.Can we talk about this website for a sec?What's in that flask.Why does she have a barcode scanner?Where do these people work?I wanna know 'cause I wanna apply.This looks awesome.(Nolan sighs)Anyway, now we've got theworst category on the board.Human rights violations.Every one of these teamshas raced in China,Bahrain, Azerbaijanand most recently Saudi Arabia.All those countries are run by governmentsknown to restrict civil libertiesand abuse human rights.That hasn't stopped anyone in F1from taking their moneyand legitimizing their leadership.Most problematically,the largest shareholderof the McLaren group is theBahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company.In other words,McLaren is actually ownedby the royal family.The literal government of Bahrain.Staging these racesand accepting these team owners,is in direct conflict with theWe Race As One messaging F1 has been usingthe past couple of years.So let's, let's check thefinal Bingo score here.And it looks like we all lose.Told you this game's not fun.Okay.So, lots of companies are shady.That's, not a very good lesson.Where do we draw the line?It's easy to point outhuman rights violationsin Saudi Arabia or Azerbaijan.It's not like America's perfect.More to the point,are American oil tycoonsreally much differentfrom Russian ones?Any company that's wealthyenough to sponsor an F1 teamis likely to have someskeletons in their closet.That's just the nature ofthe system that we live in.There isn't an easy answer to this problemand Formula 1 isn't theonly sport with this issue.So we're left in a situation,where the action on trackisn't inherently harmful,but we also can't just close our eyesto the money making it happen.- Hi Car is officiallyback from the dead.So naturally we have brandnew Boost Creeps shirtsto welcome it back.Boost Creeps can be scary, I know,but they're perfectly harmless.I promise.So go get your new BoostCreeps shirts today atdonutmedia.com.(upbeat music)- All right, so yeah.Thank you very much forwatching Wheelhouse.Bit of a mixed bag on this one this week.Um,I don't know.Tweet at some, some racing teams.How about that?I think if you've got a problemwith how things are done,hit 'em up on social media.Get in touch with these teams.Let 'em know that you wantto see something different.Be kind, I'll see you next time.