Apologies for the long, cut off title for such a relatively quick story here – Ferrari yesterday held their financial presser in Italy, with Louis Camilleri; the current CEO of Ferrari and former Chairman of Philip Morris International.

“In 2018 we achieved the best result since we won the constructors’ championship. For 2019 the goal is to win,” said Camilleri.

Why is this interesting?

It seems that further investment will be allocated into the Ferrari team over the next few years in an effort to finally secure the championship; or at least the constructors championship.

“There will be an increase in expenditure that will reflect this ambition”, announced the CEO of Ferrari.

Long term followers of TJ13 would remember our story covering the huge $160 million per year commitment by principle sponsor, the tobacco giant Philip Morris, made when Santander decided not to renew their relationship with the Scuderia for 2018.

The spaces that used to occupy the Santander logo’s, and in particular the big empty space on the car’s engine cover remained blank up until Suzuka 2018. Since the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, Philip Morris’s ‘Mission Winnow’ logo’s now adorn the made advertising spaces on the car.

This is set to continue into 2019.

It should not be ignored that in the aforementioned TJ13 piece in 2017 speculating about what Philip Morris brand might appear on the cars, a reference was mentioned about Philip Morris and Ferrari pushing their e-cig brand like crazy along with Ducati in Japan and Suzuka during the 2017 MotoGP and F1 races there.

Therefore the debut of ‘Mission Winnow’ 2018, Philip Morris’ cryptic branding of e-cigs, was obviously going to launch in Japan – a principal market.

And for those interested in such Ferrari colour nuances., perhaps we should take note of the colour that 2019 Ducati are running as they too promoted e-cigs in 2017.

Back on point – The chairman Louis Camilleri was an ex Philip Morris chairman, and very much still has an interest in the business.

The interest for Ferrari fans is that there might well be a big push to increase investment going forward, in an effort to move the team into a Mercedes toppling position.

Imagine a Mercedes beaten by a Ferrari with ‘Mission Winnow’ branding.

The presentation of the new car, which will probably wear a livery of a more intense red, is scheduled for February 15th.

In other news, Ferrari published their engine firing up yesterday, you can hear it in the player below.