Racing fans got a good look at Ferrari's new Formula One cars in the opening Grand Prix of the 2010 season in Bahrain: In one of the dullest races in recent memory, Fernando Alonso completed 49 laps without incident to take the checkered flag, with teammate Felipe Massa close behind.

But as television cameras follow the iconic red cars during this weekend's Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, few of the sport's millions of viewers around the world will be aware that they are the subjects of a hugely controversial, and expensive, subliminal-advertising campaign.

Gaze at the Ferrari cars for long enough, and you'll notice that instead of a brand logo, an anonymous barcode symbol appears behind the drivers' head and on the team's distinctive red overalls.

For this, Philip Morris International Inc., manufacturer of the Marlboro cigarette brand, pays Ferrari between $100 million and $130 million in sponsor fees, according to F1 Racing magazine, despite the European Union's ban on tobacco advertising.

The link between the world's most elite auto-racing circuit and the tobacco industry goes back a long way: Marlboro first appeared as a sponsor in Formula One in 1972, with the BRM team, and the marketing budgets of Marlboro and other brands including Lucky Strike, Benson and Hedges and West continued to flowed into the sport throughout the 1990s.