F1 Miami GP: “Now they can bring back Marlboro and slap a warning on that”- Fans react as McLaren slaps a nicotine warning on their livery

McLaren's primary sponsor is a nicotine product-based company

McLaren's new livery with the disclaimer, via Fastest Pitstop

The Miami Grand Prix has been one of the most hyped races on the calendar and one of the most widely promoted thus far. McLaren F1 team’s garage saw themselves graced with Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, who are at the paddock promoting the new ‘Fast X’ movie. However, it wasn’t this that captured the attention of fans.

When McLaren took the track for the first free practice session in Miami, it was something other than their on-track performance that went viral. The team’s primary sponsor, Velo, is a modern oral nicotine product company that produces nicotine pouches. As a consequence of this, they added a sticker to their livery, with a cautionary warning against the addiction nicotine can cause.

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The United States FDA prohibits teams from openly advertising nicotine and tobacco products on their liveries, without having them accompanied by a warning of the addiction it causes. This has been seen before with McLaren themselves, but in 2020 while participating in IndyCar, where VUSE was their primary sponsor. A similar sticker was placed on the livery.

Here is how fans reacted to the disclaimer

McLaren's iconic Marlboro Livery, via The Car Expert — McLaren’s iconic Marlboro Livery, via The Car Expert

McLaren’s FP1 session was one to forget, with Oscar Piastri finishing P12 and Lando Norris claiming only P16. However, their livery’s latest disclaimer addition has drawn fans’ attention away from their meager performance. Fans on Twitter have begun calling for McLaren to bring back their iconic Marlboro livery from their golden period, using the same loophole.

okay now, if they're doing this then bring back marlboro?
— milica?? ⁴ (@preopsirno) May 5, 2023

Soooooo McLaren MarlVelo?

A red / white livery next?
— DoQuercus (@DQuerqus) May 5, 2023

Now they can bring back Marlboro and slap a warning on that
— Hans-Olo_- (@HansOlo83277544) May 5, 2023

Ayy yoo marlboro gonna mad seeing this
— random (@rtr0012) May 5, 2023

At least it’ll be going slow enough that you can read it
— Chris Boyd (@itschr1s) May 5, 2023

They should just go back to advertising cigarettes at this point. Those liveries were ?
— Will ?? (@DINOxACE) May 5, 2023

https://twitter.com/Toby_c16/status/1654567612544581632

sure make the car look worse than it is
— Mike (@botthetop) May 5, 2023

Could been worse, could have read, Russell please don't hit me ?
— Sean Roche Aereco (@sean_aereco) May 5, 2023

The livery has not only raised demands for Marlboro to return as a primary sponsor. Still, it has also attracted the likes of fans trolling them for their speed and berating the livery’s appearance as a whole. Nonetheless, there were some quite funny reactions, along with references to George Russell’s incident with Max Verstappen last Friday.