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A friend recently told me about an incident when travelling in Brazil. A full plane waited on the tarmac for a seemingly interminable period as the flight attendants breathlessly announced that a VIP would be joining the flight soon . . .“we apologise for the delay”. As the clock ticked and crossword puzzles were completed, passengers speculated on their imminent company. The President? The Pope? Koffi Annan? The mystery passenger was long retired Formula One icon Emerson Fittipaldi, like his deceased Brazilian compatriot Ayrton Senna, little short of a cultural divinity in Latin America.

During the 2001 Formula One (F1) Grand Prix in Melbourne, race marshall Graham Beveridge was tragically killed by a wheel flung from Jacques Villeneuve's disintegrating car.¹ A full coroner's inquest was held, followed by a review by motor racing's governing body Federation Internationale De L'automobile (FIA). One death was deemed worthy of a full investigation involving an international review team, front page reportage, and endless speculation about whether the 2002 race would be safe for spectators and officials. But what of the millions of deaths that will occur among smokers around the world across the next 30 years who will be exposed to a different sort of motor racing hazard? Yet again,² it is worth recalling Stalin's axiom that a single death is a tragedy, but a million deaths are a mere statistic.

Grand Prix motor racing is the most watched event after the Olympics …