JULY 5, 1999
Bye-bye Rothmans
It will be interesting to see which BAT brand is used next year as the takeover of Rothmans drops Lucky Strike from being BAT's number two seller to being its fifth, behind 555 State Express, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant and Dunhill.
Rothmans has been sponsoring Williams for the last five seasons - the relationship began in 1994 with drivers AyrtonÊSenna and Damon Hill - and the cars stayed in Rothmans blue and white until the start of 1998 when Rothmans decided to switch to Winfield red.
The end of the deal means that it is virtually certain that Williams will become one of the few non-tobacco sponsored F1 teams. We hear that the team already has a full budget for 2000 with most of the existing sponsors staying on and additional backing coming from BMW Genuine Parts.
We would, therefore, expect to see the cars white with the traditional BMW red, purple and blue stripes.