It’s time for one of TLCB’s infamous rants! We know you’ve been missing these…

Mission Winnow. “What?” we hear you ask. Exactly. We all asked that when the world’s most famous (read ‘expensive’) Formula 1 team revealed a car emblazoned with a brand that no-one had ever heard of at the start of the 2019 season.

But Ferrari being Ferrari – i.e. having the morals of a Mexican drug cartel – we knew it was worth digging into. If only to find out what the hell a ‘winnow’ is. What it is, according to the press release, is this;

“‘Winnow’ originally referred to the removal of chaff from grain, but it came to be used more broadly to describe the separating out of the unnecessary, the extraction of the good and distinguishing what is true from what is inaccurate or misleading.” Which is so gloriously ironic that we suspect Ferrari might be taking the piss. Because Mission Winnow is a front for selling cigarettes.

Of course Ferrari have long had an association with tobacco, being title-sponsored by Marlboro since the mid-’80s. However when Formula 1 banned tobacco advertising in 2006 after learning that cigarettes may in fact be bad for you, Marlboro’s owners had to find other methods of promoting their cancer-sticks on Ferrari’s racing cars. Cue the ugly barcode thing that appeared on the rear wing or the big white chevron that featured on the engine cover for a number of years, described by doctors as simply ‘subliminal advertising’ for Marlboro.

A public enquiry and probably a quiet word from Bernie Ecclestone saw the barcode dropped after a time, but that hasn’t stopped Marlboro’s owners Philip Morris International and Ferrari continuing to pursue their partnership marketing tobacco to children.

And thus we arrive at the 2019 Scuderia Ferrari SF90, carrying Philip Morris International’s latest “We’re not trying to sell cigarettes, honest” brand message. In fact the Mission Winnow mission statement is so vague and rambling it could have been tweeted by Donald Trump;

“Mission Winnow has a simple goal: drive change by constantly searching for better ways of doing things. And by committing to learning and knowing more, it’s easier to make choices that improve the future for everyone. To make this happen, we’ll get inside the minds of outstanding innovators and change-makers, to see why and how they achieve excellence.”

By ‘achieving excellence’, we can only assume they mean Selling More Cigarettes.

Oh yeah, we’re a Lego blog… this superb Technic recreation of Marlboro’s mobile advertising board is the work of Mane of Eurobricks, making their TLCB debut (sorry about the rant Mane!). Looking wonderfully accurate, Mane’s Scuderia Ferrari SF90 includes front and rear suspension, a working V6 engine, steering, and DRS on the rear wing, a removable engine cover and front wing, and brilliantly accurate ‘Mission Winnow’ (amongst other sponsors) decals.

There’s more to see of Mane’s wonderful creation on Eurobricks (where building instructions are also available), plus there’s an extensive image gallery at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a closer look, and then go on Scuderia Ferrari’s social media accounts and tell them to shove Mission Winnow up their arse.