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Tobacco giant BAT returns to Formula One racing with McLaren

LONDON — British American Tobacco, which had its own Formula One team before selling to Honda in 2006, is returning to the sport under a multi-year global partnership with McLaren. Both sides said in a statement announcing the deal on Monday that the partnership will focus solely on BAT's "potentially reduced risk products" with an emphasis on technology and innovation. "McLaren Applied Technologies will work with BAT on areas including battery technology and advanced materials. The two companies will share best practice, innovation know-how and mutual experience," it added. Tobacco advertising was widespread in Formula One until a ban in 2006 led most teams to kick the habit and seek sponsors elsewhere. Ferrari's partnership with Philip Morris International, whose Mission Winnow initiative focuses on smoke-free 'heat not burn' products and is the team's title sponsor, has been going for more than 40 years, however. BAT, the world's second-biggest international tobacco company by revenue, bought Tyrrell in 1997 and competed as British American Racing (BAR) from 1999 to the end of 2005 when Honda took over. Honda then quit at the end of 2008, handing over to principal Ross Brawn, who led them to victory in both championships under his own name in 2009. In 2010 they became Mercedes, which has won both titles for the past five years.Related Video:

McLaren P1 throwing down the gauntlet with 6:30 Nurburgring lap time?

The magic mark at the Nurburgring once stood in the sevens. Anything that could lap the vaunted Nordschleife in less than eight minutes was considered biblically fast. But with all manner of vehicles clocking lap times that start with a seven, the goal post has moved below the seven-minute mark and into the sixes. Discounting barely-legal track cars from Radical, whose LMP-style pseudo-racers top the time charts, the Porsche 918 Spyder holds the record as the fastest street-legal production car ever to lap the Ring at 6:57. A blindingly fast lap time, to be sure, but the 918 isn't the only new hybrid hypercar in its class. According to official factory statements, the McLaren P1 has lapped the winding German circuit in under seven minutes. And rumor has it that its actual lap time, though not confirmed, was clocked at 6:47. That would already make it considerably faster than the Porsche, but that's not the end of the story. According to an unnamed inside source cited by Autocar, the P1 has actually lapped the Nurburgring in "six minutes 30 something." That would make it nearly half a minute faster than the Porsche, and a good ten seconds quicker even than the Radical SR8 LM. For its part, McLaren has yet to confirm the time, but we're sure it will in due course. For that matter, though Maranello has tested the new LaFerrari to the track, it has yet to announce any official time. But with the gauntlet thrown down, we wouldn't be surprised to see a scarlet-clad test team heading north to Germany in the near future. The last time they did, they clocked a 6:58 lap time with the 599XX, but while production-based, that car was never meant to drive on public streets. Featured Gallery McLaren P1 N?rburgring Run View 11 Photos News Source: Autocar McLaren Coupe Performance mclaren p1

McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept elimination qualifying compromise

Formula 1's failure to change its under-fire elimination qualifying format was sealed when McLaren and Red Bull refused to accept anything other than ditching the shoot-out idea completely, Motorsport.com has learned. In another dramatic twist to the saga surrounding F1's qualifying system, sources have confirmed that the two outfits were unwilling to play ball with an alternative solution that had been put on the table by the FIA this week. And without their support - and the need for unanimous backing for any change to go through - the idea to tweak elimination qualifying was left dead in the water, with no time left to do anything other than keep the system that proved so unpopular in Australia. FIA plan After the shambolic end to Q3 in Australia, teams had unanimously agreed in Melbourne to ditch elimination qualifying and go back to last year's system for the next race in Bahrain. However, a decision was made by the FIA to not go that far and abandon the positive aspects of the change. Instead it wanted to give the shoot-out system another try, albeit in an improved format. This week therefore, teams on the Strategy Group and F1 Commission found themselves only able to vote on a revised format to elimination qualifying proposed by the FIA, where the new-style Q1 and Q2 would be extended, and Q3 would revert to how it was last year. One theory as to why teams were only given this option to vote on was that it would effectively force their hands to accept it, as they would be highly unlikely to reject it and keep the Australian system that was so universally criticised. However, if that was a motivation for not giving teams the option of going back to last year's system, then it failed entirely because McLaren and Red Bull refused to support it and did not vote in favour. Without their support, the vote did not go through, meaning that F1 is heading to Bahrain with the same under-fire elimination qualifying format that was run in Australia – and little prospect of it delivering a better show in Q3 this time. F1 criticism In a week when the GPDA spoke out about F1's 'obsolete' rules structure, and the sport making a bold move away from free-to-air TV in Britain, the inability of F1 to get rid of a hated qualifying format has left it facing further criticism.