Lotus Renault Car Livery Against the Law in Canada?

Lotus Renault GP will likely face livery problems when heading to Canada this year, if we are to trust the latest reports coming from the Toronto based Globe and Mail newspaper. According to the media, the new new black and gold livery might fall afoul of strict anti-tobacco advertising laws in the North American country.

As you all know, the Enstone based team was rebranded a month ago, when Lotus Group purchased Renault's share in the organization and set up a new color scheme for the F1 car. The team decided to revive the historic colors of Lotus in the '70s and '80s, when the black and gold used to promote Imperial Tobacco's John Player Special cigarette brand.

The new livery of the Lotus Renault car was revealed earlier this month, at the Birmingham auto show, and shortly after reports in Canada started to appear on the potential conflict with the local law on tobacco advertising. And, despite Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar playing down such issues and insisting the car livery will not have “negative implications with potential tobacco advertising,” a Health Canada spokesperson revealed otherwise.

According to the aforementioned spokesperson, in case an F1 car does resemble a cigarette pack on the Gilles Villeneuve race track later this year, “tobacco inspectors would need to fully review to assess whether a violation of the Tobacco Act has occurred.”

“It is categorically against the law to present any likeness to a cigarette pack,” added an Imperial Tobacco spokesperson. “If I were Lotus (Renault) ... I would be concerned – I wonder if they are aware of the law in Canada.”