Stewart Warns Against European F1 Ban

Former World Champion Jackie Stewart has warned against plans of the sport's governing body, the FIA, to scrap races in Europe after FIA president Max Mosley committed to fight a ban on tobacco sponsorship in the European Union.

The European Commission agreed at the start of the month to introduce an EU-wide end to tobacco advertising in mid-2005, ahead of the FIA's proposed worldwide ban at the end of 2006.

Mosley has now sent a letter to the European Commission warning that Formula One could race outside Europe if the ban is brought in, but Jaguar Racing director Stewart suggested that the move could be a disaster for the sport.

"We have to be very careful of jeopardising the foundations of the economics surrounding Formula One," said Stewart. "To remove Formula One from the European mainland would be difficult for any of the teams to be able to deal with.

"Most of them have connections with multi-national companies that have very significant European markets and if they were not in those market places then they would probably not be in Formula One."

Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart, a man whose team does not carry tobacco sponsorship, refuted Stewart's claims and insisted the FIA were right to fight the ban. The teams, in October, unanimously voted to scrap next year's Belgian Grand Prix because the country would not back down on the introduction of a tobacco ban next year and Stoddart insists they will do the same again if necessary.

"It is a global televised sport and if it is run outside Europe then why would there be an impact," questioned Stoddart. "The only impact there would be is, unfortunately, on those countries which do not have Grands Prix any more.

"Some things in Formula One are incredibly unanimous and this is one of them. You can only go on history and the teams were unanimous on Belgium - it was voted in before the question had even been read out.

"We are very well aware of sponsorship agreements at the moment - we have focused on them a lot this year. Why should teams with agreements that reach to 2006 have to seek new sponsorship one and a half years earlier?

"The FIA have put a lot of work into getting an agreement so anything before 2006 is just not cricket. I hope the EU looks at the original agreement and honours it. But Formula One is so globalised that there are many other countries who want to host a Grand Prix and should several Grands Prix drop out it would be sad but we would have no problems filling their spaces."

Formula One will visit eight countries in the European Union next year - including the British Grand Prix at Silverstone - and all of them could be thrown off the calendar in 2005. The plans of a worldwide ban could also be thrown out of the window without the backing of the EU and that would allow teams to continue lucrative partnerships with tobacco companies past 2006.

Five teams raced with tobacco sponsorship last year, however, and one team insider claimed that the popular Belgian race at Spa was just a scapegoat as the FIA tries to force the issue to get their own way.

"It is obvious that he (Mosley) wants to threaten them," said the insider. "The decision on Spa fired a shot across the bows of the European Commission but if you look realistically this doesn't sound totally democratic. This would affect four or five teams but it doesn't affect some of the others and all of them could be threatened by not being able to use a strong European market."