As expected, Mild Seven, sponsor of the Renault F1 team and part of Japan Tobacco, has announced its withdrawal from Formula One at the end of the 2006 season.

The Japanese giant's withdrawal from F1 means that only two teams now have tobacco sponsorship, Honda (Lucky Strike) and Ferrari (Marlboro).

Speaking at the launch of his team's 2006 contender, Renault F1 President, Patrick Faure, admitted that despite the fact that the withdrawal was inevitable, Mild Seven - and indeed tobacco companies - will be hard to replace.

"The departure of cigarettes in 2007 is not easy to replace," he said. "They were really paying a good part of the budget.

"I don't easily see one sponsor replacing them," he admitted, "but I think we can find two or three smaller sponsors who can share the kind of space on the car."

As social and governmental opinion on smoking has changed, it was inevitable that the day would come when - after almost forty years - Formula One would have to stub out the habit. However, the question remains, which industry has the cash to take over. At one time it was thought that the internet might provide the answer - and the cash - then came the bursting of the dotcom bubble.

Faure is clearly aware of the problem.

"We are in discussion with Chinese people and you have Indians coming, you have a lot of new countries where companies are big," he said. "Basically, it's going to be very difficult to replace Mild Seven, but it's not impossible if we can show good results and accept having two or three replacing one."