Phillip Morris, once one of the most well-known backers of grand prix racing, is no more - having seen its famous moniker absorbed into new parent company Altria.

The company, best known for its Marlboro brand that has graced the flanks of both McLaren and Ferrari in recent years, will now sit alongside Kraft Foods as part of the Altria organisation, in a move the company describes as 'reflecting the fact that we are no longer the same company we once were structurally, culturally or behaviourally. In other words, it is trying to rid itself of a predominantly tobacco-related image after suffering at the hands of the courts and aggrieved smokers who blame the company for making them ill, and to prepare itself for the impending end of tobacco promotion as it has been for eons.

Marlboro will continue to appear on the engine cover and rear wings of the two Ferraris this season, and until the tobacco advertising ban comes into force for Formula One in 2006 [or 2005 if the EU has its way].

After that, however, Altria - which according to sources, means to 'get higher' - could replace the famous red-and-white logo on the F1 cars - as well as Peugeot's WRC entries and MotoGP's Ducatis - with that of one of its other brands, which include Maxwell House coffee or Philadelphia cream cheese.