Ferrari is to introduce a new logo next season in response to claims that the current bar code design is subliminal advertising for its sponsor Marlboro.

Ferrari dropped the bar code from its cars in May after a group of doctors called for an investigation into what they regarded as "subliminal" tobacco advertising on the team's cars and overalls and its relationship with Philip Morris, manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes.
John Britton, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and director of its tobacco advisory group, told the Times: "The bar code looks like the bottom half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes. I was stunned when I saw it. This is pushing at the limits. If you look at how the bar code has evolved over the last four years, it looks like creeping branding."

"I think this is advertising," added Gerard Hastings, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research. "Why a bar code? What is their explanation?"

Ferrari subsequently issued a statement rubbishing the claims while company president Luca di Montezemolo said he found the argument "pointless.

"At a time when, on the other side of the Atlantic they are fighting to provide a more equal health service, in the old continent of Europe, so called experts are racking their brains to come up with theories that have no scientific basis," he wrote on the team's website. "I think there are more important matters to think about than a bar code. Therefore, it's best not to waste any more time replying to this sort of nonsense or to those who are instrumental in wanting to stoke up the story."

However, days later the controversial bar code was dropped leaving the engine covers of the F10s plain red.

Speaking to reporters at Silverstone today, however, team boss Stefano Domenicali unveiled the new logo (above) but insisted that the team name will remain the same, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.

Explaining why the logo was unveiled at Silverstone, Domenicali said: "We chose Silverstone because it was here in 1951 that Ferrari took its first Formula 1 win with Jose Froilan Gonzalez. Although revealed today, the new logo will make its debut next season, starting in January and will be visible on all elements of the racing department; the cars, team kit, driver race suits and all initiatives linked to the Ferrari Driver Academy, so that the new design will be linked to all future Ferrari’s racing activities."