Faure: Mild Seven will be hard to replace

Japan Tobacco confirmed in a statement this evening that 2006 would be their final year in the sport after backing Benetton and then Renault since 1994.

"The departure of cigarettes in 2007 is not easy to replace," Renault F1 president Patrick Faure told reporters at the launch of the champions' new car in Monaco on Tuesday.

"They were were really paying a good part of the budget. I don't see easily one sponsor replacing them. But I think we can find two or three smaller sponsors who can share the kind of space [Mild Seven has] on the car."

Faure said the team were now in talks with companies who had previously been unwilling to enter Formula One while cigarettes were present. There was also interest from new markets.

"We are in discussion with Chinese people, you have Indians coming, you have a lot of new countries where companies are big," he said.

"Basically, it's going to be very difficult to replace Mild Seven, but it's not impossible if we can show good results and accept to have two or three [sponsors] replacing one."