Honda made a bold move in deciding to replace the advertising on their Formula One cars with a picture of the Earth to raise awareness of global warming.

Even if cynics suspect that the new look unveiled this week may be more style than substance, it at least makes a change from a team that has regularly promised the earth and then failed to deliver on the track.

They have broken out of the conventional sponsorship mindset which dictates that companies only give money in return for space on the car.

There is no doubt that they want to be seen to be green, even if a Formula One team trumpeting its environmental credentials smacks of double standards.

"Climate change is probably the single biggest issue facing the global community and F1 is not immune from it," said team boss Nick Fry.

"We believe that F1 with its huge global profile and cutting edge technology can play an important role in not only highlighting the issues but also playing our part in developing solutions."

He sounded serious and he had better be. With all car manufacturers under intense pressure to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted by their own products, Formula One does not need any more hot air.

The irony of race drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello flying thousands of miles to attend the presentation before returning to Bahrain for the final pre-season test did not go unnoticed on Monday.

Some critics branded it all so much 'greenwash' but Honda, who have promised part of the revenues generated from donations by fans visiting the www.myearthdream.com website to make a pledge and have their name inserted on a pixel on the car, dismissed any suggestion of a marketing ploy.

"Beneath the paint lies a commitment to supporting the environment and a strong call to action," the team said.

Pop Idol influence

Some F1 regulars suspected that the lack of a title sponsor, following the departure of British American Tobacco's Lucky Strike, had influenced the decision.

The hand of 'Pop Idol' creator and music impresario Simon Fuller, whose 19 Entertainment was hired by the team last year to come up with a new marketing strategy, was seen by many.

If some of the next day's coverage sounded more than a little sceptical, it was because the idea of an environmentally-friendly Formula One car remains a contradiction in terms to most people.

Beneath the RA107s wafer-thin paint lies the same old V8 engine slurping fossil fuel like there was no tomorrow.

There is not a serious racing driver who, given the choice, would willingly take a more environmentally-friendly car over one that was quicker. Even getting them to give up their private jets will be a challenge.

Critics can point to circuits, such as Nuerburgring or Spa, that bring traffic gridlock to areas of natural beauty and to the amount of carbon dioxide generated by flying the whole circus around the world -- not to mention the fans and media.

"Formula One is a sitting duck for the environmentalist lobby and the sport knows it," said the Times newspaper commenting on the launch.

"There is no doubt that Formula One, and the large-scale car manufacturers who increasingly bankroll it, could contribute to progress on the environment," wrote Andrew Baker in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph.

"They could do this by locking all the cars away in a garage, throwing away the key and devoting the billions that they spend on the sport to green research."

Honda boss Fry recognised that Formula One and the environment "may not seem exactly bedfellows" but added that change was inevitable.

"We cannot stop moving around the world, we cannot stop driving cars to some extent, we cannot stop heating our homes, but we have to do something," he said.

(China Daily via Agencies March 2, 2007)