'Unusual' Yamaha livery announced.

Following the controversial news that Yamaha would be including two brands of tobacco in its 2004 team names, it has now revealed exactly who will ride in what colours this season...

As revealed in the updated entry list, the factory team with Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa will now be known as 'Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha' and the Tech 3 outfit of Marco Melandri and Norick Abe called 'Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3'.

However, putting two brands on each bike (as the names suggest) would be a clear escalation in the sensitive issue of tobacco sponsorship, and Yamaha has instead decided to run one rider, in each team, in the colours of each brand.
This is still an increase in brand exposure - since a rider's team name is regularly referred to and seen on TV - while the livery itself would be illegal under F1 rules (which MotoGP seems destined to follow) since they state that both team cars must look predominantly the same.

The justification behind the F1 rule is that it helps 'casual' fans know which drivers are in the same team, and prevents - for example - two different coloured Ferraris.

Yamaha now seem to have, quite legally, taken advantage of the fact that no such team livery restriction - whether voluntary or imposed by the FIM - exists in MotoGP, and have used it's absense to split the Altadis brands.

Therefore, 2004 will see Rossi ride in the blue of Altadis' leading international Gauloises brand, while team-mate Checa will sport the red and silver of Altadis' Fortuna, the market leading tobacco brand in Spain. Similarly in the Tech 3 team, Melandri will ride in Fortuna colours with Abe in Gauloises.

Yamaha state that: "The unusual move suits Altadis' marketing strategy with Rossi representing their leading international brand while Checa stays linked to Fortuna for a second year.

"The Fortuna brand is also present on the Italian market and hence Melandri's 2nd year in Fortuna colours while Norick Abe is important for Gauloises in the Japanese market where the brand was recently relaunched in autumn 2003."

But does this mean that JT International (owners of Camel, Mild Seven and other brands) could rename Sito Pons' outfit as 'Camel Mild Seven Honda'? Or that Phillip Morris (Marlboro, L&M etc) could change Ducati Marlboro to 'Ducati Marlboro L&M'?

How many brand names are allowed? Would a team need to run one machine in each brand (as Altadis will do) or could they simply add a brand to the name? How about one Ducati in Marlboro Light livery?

Such suggestions may seem petite, but as an example of how sensitive the issue of tobacco advertising is, the official Phillip Morris website states: "There is no information about, let alone promotional images of, any particular Philip Morris International brand on this site, other than an alphabetical list. We've included that list for information purposes only; it contains no marketing material."

Which is why many are surprised at the Altadis/Yamaha decision to add a brand to each team name, in tobacco advertising terms it's a big step.

Only time will tell if the Altadis/Yamaha plan's are acceptable to the FIM (currently there is no restriction within the rules), governments under pressure to reduce tobacco advertising in motorsport and fans who want team-mates to look like team-mates...

More interesting, the four Yamaha riders will start their 2004 testing programme with three days at Sepang from 24 to 26 January. The test will be Rossi's first on the YZR-M1.