Pictures: McLaren reveal new car and orange livery

2017 F1 cars

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The first pictures of the new McLaren MCL32 for 2017 have been revealed.

The team unveiled their car for the first time at the McLaren Thought Leadership Centre in Woking.

Compare the 2017 McLaren with last year’s car
McLaren say their new racer “follows in the evolutionary footsteps of its two immediate predecessors, MP4-30 and MP4-31, but it has been overhauled in every area as the design team has looked to capitalise on a series of new aerodynamic regulations introduced for 2017.”

They describe the MCL32 as “an extremely elegant but aggressive-looking race car, fitted with Honda’s latest-generation power unit, the RA617H, which has been thoroughly revised by the company’s team of talented engineers.”

The car’s livery marks a departure from the black designs used for the past two seasons and a return to McLaren’s heritage orange colouring.

McLaren’s executive director Zak Brown explained this was in response to demands from the team’s supporters. “We went through a variety of designs and ultimately it was in response to fans,” he said. “We’ve had so much outreach from the fans, ‘we want to have some orange’.”

McLaren has gone four seasons without winning a race and Brown stopped short of saying this will be the car that ends their drought.

“We’re going to get there,” he said. “This team’s highly frustrated that we’re not winning races. We’ve got a new package and with these things it takes a little bit of time.”

“2015 was obviously a very difficult year, ’16 wasn’t a great year by McLaren standards but it was forward progress. And I think that’s what we want to see in 2016 is that forward progress and once we get there we’ll be pretty hard to knock back down.”

McLaren MCL32 launch video

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    Keith Collantine
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    199 comments on “Pictures: McLaren reveal new car and orange livery”

    1. Ooh…I think I just peed a little. But in all seriously, it looks like the Virgin car from 2010.

      1. More like the 2007 Spyker!

        1. In the presentation, it looked like the Virgin for sure, but it looks more like the Spyker in the studio photos.

      2. @mashiat I’d say it’s a 2010 Virgin with a 2002 Arrows colour scheme

        1. Indeed! And I like this colour scheme.
          Hmmmz, orange Arrows… Jos Verstappen was once a F1 driver at Arrows. Is McLaren trying to lure Max Verstappen? ;-)

      3. No no no! It IS a McLaren – the 1996 McLaren F1 GTR! I love this colour scheme on a McLaren: http://www.legacydiecast.com/product_images/hpi8268.jpg

        The livery desing is BRILLIANT. It’s the first one to actually make the shark fin look cool and aggressive.

          1. That spyker had a better tone of orange for my taste… If only they had copied that fake MCL32… http://encdn.f1i.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/McLaren-orange-wide.png

            1. The orange McLaren have used is the McLaren Orange though

          2. @asanator Except that there’s no sense of direction as to how the orange had been layed out on the black in this car. The design is terrible. Also, it that car is so ugly that all other considerations seem pointless.

            1. @damon LOL, you have to admit that there are striking similarities. It wasn’t a comment about the cars design or performance, just it’s colour scheme.

            2. The fact that the same 2 colours have been used doesn’t even remotely mean the liveries are alike. That’s like saying the Ferrari looks like the 1988 Marlboro McLaren because it also uses red and white. It doesn’t.
              I totally get your point, mate, but I think it’s only based on orange+black not being a popular pair of colours.

      4. the drivers are photoshopped in…badly

    2. Virgin Racing McLaren Honda.

      1. My very first thought! would have liked to see the orange more dominant!

        1. Dear McLaren, please make it all orange. Pretty please. Fans didn’t want to see “some orange”. The car doesn’t look bad, but the livery is quite disappointing.

          1. Speak for yourself. This fan thinks all orange would look boring.

            1. He’s speaking for me too. But, black is the new stealth launch colour.

    3. It looks good, but maybe it would have looked better had it been all orange with a bit of black or white. Moreover, it looks more red than orange, I was hoping for the papaya orange from their 2006 car.

      1. A lot of that is about the light @mashiat, I think we might see the brighter colour better when it gets out on track.

      2. I think the black was added to obscure some important bits of aero.

    4. Oh dear… A few things…

      Is this the world council of 2057?
      Is this a Manor, Virgin, HAAS, or McLaren car?
      Where are the drivers?

      The whole reveal looked very odd and clinical…
      Bye bye Ron, Bye Bye McLaren.

      1. ha ha world council 2057….just spat my coffee over my computer.

      2. Oh dear indeed.

        Of all the options, of all the colour combinations, they seriously chose this? And they think it looks good? It’s like they couldn’t decide on a colour to use or how to apply it, so they just stuck different bits on and hoped it looks good.

        Take me out of the oven, because I am done.

      3. Yes, disappointing! usually the drivers are there to unveil the car.

        1. LOL! “@boli” I think this is what they were going for..

          http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/trailer/senate1.jpg

    5. Looks interesting. Lets see how well that Honda PU works.

    6. The Front wing struts leading into the other elements looks crazy, and the bargeboards are looking good too.

      Seriously needs sponsors though, and the racesuits aren’t orange enough

    7. Ok, disapointing livery… Looks lika a Marussia or a Virgin… But that doesn’t matter!

      Sidepods don’t look very sculpted, but the air intakes look really small! Even the one above the driver’s head. Maybe they don’t need that much cooling with this new engine.

      The rear is covered so, no opinion…. I like the front, and I like that they created shark gills to go with the fin! :D

      1. @gordess they appear to be small intakes, but some pictures are giving me a different idea.

        Lets check if someone is seeing the same as I do, because it is a very weird design approach, if my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me

        in this pictures: https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/24/pictures-new-2017-mclaren-car-finally-appears/c5bpf67wcaapvtl/

        the bottom of the air intake in the sidepod appears to end in the floor, it doesn’t meet the body work in the cockpit, in other words, the entry is shaped like the letter P, that is a big big opening. Or am I seeing things

        it appears to be the same in this one: https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/24/pictures-new-2017-mclaren-car-finally-appears/c5bpg8hwcaafxr4/

        Black on black doesn’t help, but I can’t look at it without seeing it that way. Am I the only?

        The car overall looks very simple, but there are already differences between the car in the presentation and the studio pictures. I’m therefore expecting some changes until the first test.

        1. You know what, @johnmilk, I think you might be on to something… it does look like the letter P! Good catch! And it’s great seeing them doing something different.

          I think with these new regulations we are seeing a lot of different solutions, specially in the area in front of the sidepods and the sidepods themselves! And I think diversity is always a great thing! Now let’s just hope that all these solutions work so we can have great racing this year!

          1. Ok, got it @gordess

            there is this odd diagonal light reflection where the bottom of the air intake meets the body work that is giving me that sense of the opening.

            I was seeing this: https://postimg.org/image/z5navc44h/ / https://postimg.org/image/vq25obx1n/

            But once I saw this : https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/24/pictures-new-2017-mclaren-car-finally-appears/screenshot-2017-02-24-11-06-02/

            I understood what my brain was doing (fatigue from seeing all this car launches)

            you are right @bascb, just normal intakes

            1. Hmm.. not really convinced! Still think you might be right about the “P” intake @johnmilk

            2. was @keithcollantine there? maybe he can shed some light

              I want to be right (just because it would be a very different feature), but after that one picture I don’t think I’m. But those really are some odd reflections, and the shape on the sidepod gave me even more the impression of the opening.

        2. What you see is the front part o the bargeboard that is merged into the side of the nose (where Mercedes has its “whiskers”) to form a tunnel like form, not the lower part of the side pod.

          1. that is what I thought at first @bascb, it has to be the bargeboards, but they are clearly in front of the sidepod, I do see the tunnel that you mention (where the johnnie walkers letters are). I’m telling you I cannot look at it without seeing that opening, and I’m trying to.

            especially in this one: https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/24/pictures-new-2017-mclaren-car-finally-appears/c5bpf67wcaapvtl/

            I have an headache already

            1. pretty sure that is a panel / access opening below the sidepod.

            2. don’t think there is a panel there, at least not on the place where I was seeing things, like I said above the light reflections gave me that false perspective.

              funny thing is, now that I think I saw, I still struggle no to see the opening ahah. Lets chug down a bit more caffeine, that’s where the problem is, I’m running low

          2. I have the feeling this is one of those blue/gold dress kind of thing and I am seeing the wrong color

      2. +1 for shark gills, that’s great name for them.

        So far it has all the trademarks of a Peter Prodromou car, very elaborate front wing and a fair bit of rake. Unfortunately the rest of the car doesn’t look as far along in development as the Mercedes or Ferrari, as you say the side pod openings look big and not very sculpted.

        1. Are you mad? The side pod openings look tiny!

          We also have to remember that this is a press release car not necessarily the one that will race. I would expect other elements to be hidden for the press releases (ie floor holes, diffuser and other complex aero detailing)

          1. Sorry, didn’t really mean opening more front on silhouette. They seem to be wider and with less of an undercut than others.

    8. Yes, Mclaren, you gave us orange. But that’s a ridiculous livery. For a team that gloats perfection, hiring a competent graphic designer shouldn’t be too hard.

      What a horrible mess of a livery.

      1. Agreed, it’s a pretty shockng piece of design. That upward swoop onto the sharkfin nearly ruins the whole thing, doesn’t work with the lines of the car at all

        1. piece of design? where? i don’t see any design at all.

      2. I’m hoping it’s just test livery

      3. Pretty much everything is wrong. The shade of orange used is just disgusting. The shapes are unimaginative, dull and cheap. This was not done by a graphics designer. I just don’t believe it. I could have done better in mspaint in an hour. What a travesty.

      4. It’s disgusting isn’t it. What a mess. I’ve seen so many concepts over the past year, some amazing, some not so good, but almost all of them better than this mess

      5. WHAT?! The livery design is FANTASTIC! It flows so beautifully and adds to the shape of the car, even making the shark fin look fantastic.
        Just look e.g. at the white streak on the sidepods – this is a genius idea by someone who has a high level awareness of geometry and aesthetics. Very subtle, but does so much for that particular part of the car.

        BRILLIANT! I’m in awe!

        1. I think you are the only one here who likes it, but you’re so enthusiastic I’m starting to think it’s just sarcasm. It would look much better with orange sidepods and the white streak should be black.

          1. @maroonjack
            The design is awesome because it uses very simple shapes – there are basically just 2 curves (!):
            – the first one integrates the shark fin, making it spikey and agressive
            – the other one goes along the entire body, emphasizing the curvature of the nose, also creating an illusion of more weight pushed to the front of the car as if the rear tyres worked as powerful legs pushing the car forward (compare it to a jumping car – e.g. Puma logo).

            The white stripe is placed in the concavity of the sidepods regulating its shape but also making them look stronger (because of using a lighter colour on a black background). Although you should perceive it a bit differently, because there’s white under the entire orange region as well, right? The white sidepod stripe, therefore, just adds to the white that’s hidden beneath the orange. You can almost see the sidepods in fact being white with the black melting onto the white.
            And it’s all basically made with just 4 swipes of the brush! BRILLIANT!

            1. Those simple shapes are basically what every person would draw on the car on first attempt. If you asked a person to draw a line on an f1 car 60% would draw it like on the mclaren. The rest 40% would draw a straight line on the center of the car from the front to the rear. It is this extremely basic tribalistic shape that is everywhere. There is absolutely nothing special at all about it following the curves of the car. That kind of stripe is done trillion times in F1. It is a cheap trick when you can’t afford to pay a graphics designer. It is a backmarker design by design.

              The white shape is nothing more than boring stripe. It is only used to create contrast between the disgusting orange and dull black. It is not used because it improves it. It is used because without the car would look brown. The color between black and that orange? Brown. Especially in motion. Instead of creating a unique shape the white color is just used to divide the colors.

              And that white patch on the sidepod? Looks to me as some kind of patch that is removed when the car goes out on the track. It looks too angular and badly drawn to be part of the livery.

              The absolute worst thing about the livery is the use of black color. Just too much black. The car should have been orange with white and black highlights. It could have been more true to the original mclaren livery and it would have looked better. If you go look at the old orange mclarens, the only black parts in the M7A for example were the exposed engine, the tires and the wheels. Otherwise it was bright orange with white number plates. The cars after that added more white to the design. This is the most dull version of the historic orange one could think of. This fake art orange tribalistic mess is imho almost an insult towards the original clear bright orange design. Top it off by making the dull black matte. Why? Because for whatever reason everybody is making their f1 cars matte. Again the lack of originality shows here. A bright metallic black could have saved this a bit but no…

              The worst part is that the color combination of orange, white and black could create an amazing looking livery. It could be colorful, aggressive and beautiful. All that we want in F1 (?) instead of these matte black designs. This design reeks of amateur hour design where even the sponsor stickers don’t match neither the contours of the car or livery. To top it off the driver suits barely use the same colors!

              Anyways I challenge you to go to google/bing/yahoo/instagram wherever and find orange mclaren that looks worse. I’m not telling you your opinion is wrong. But I can’t agree with your assesment.

            2. And to top it off it looks like marussia in day light.

        2. No McLaren F1 car is a better looking overall package than the 1989 car. Period.

        3. Hahaha you think this is brilliant and the Ferrari ugly?

        4. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
          25th February 2017, 2:40

          Mate why are you so OTT about this livery? It is pants.

          1. He’s baiting you. He’s posting both love and hate on this page. Just happy to be involved I’d say :)

      6. Exactly, be bold with the orange! Let it envelop the car and ditch the white bits entirely. Make it orange with black sponsor logos and leave it like that. It will look great.

    9. The rendered photographs look a lot more orange than it does on the feed – if it’s that colour on track that’d be better. As it stands it looks a bit too red? Like a McVirgin Honda.

      Front wing looks really interesting, but as a whole it seems a lot less complicated than the Mercedes or the Ferrari. Whether that’s a good thing or not I guess we’ll see.

      1. Didn’t Spyker have that problem with their first shade of orange. It looked so red on some cameras and TV cameras that they were often mistaken for being Ferrari.
        https://www.carsbase.com/photo/Spyker-Formula_One_F8_VII_mp211_pic_43153.jpg

    10. Alonso NEEDS to change his helmet color. His light blue helmet will look hideous in this car in my opinion.

      1. spafrancorchamps
        24th February 2017, 12:18

        It looked hideous anyway imo.

      2. I disagree. The driver can’t look like he’s part of the advertisment that determines the colour scheme. He has to appear as an independent unit that sits in the car, rather than being part of it.

        1. @damon Doesn’t mean that I wanna see a blue helmeted orange car. And anyways, drivers do it all the time. Alonso did it in 2007 and 2009.

          1. I have to agree with Damon here, I’m no fan of helmets matching car liveries. I like when they stand out . Alonso’s blue helmet colours aren’t supposed to match the orange colours anyway. It would be the same to complain about Senna’s yellow helmet on a red and white Mclaren….nonsense.

    11. UNDERWHELMED.

      The detailing on this is seriously basic. BASIC. The race spec better be a step up or it’s another year pootling around at the back for this lot.

      1. So far, it looks like it has the level of innovation and detailing as a Sauber. I’m sure there would be new bits in testing, but overall, the chassis design and aero really isn’t exploiting the rules as well as Mercedes, Ferrari and I’m sure, Red Bull are.

        To be honest it looks like a Spyker or a Marrusia… and just like a Spyker or Marrusia, I expect them to be battling at the back of the grid just as they did 2 years ago.

    12. oh no no no McLaren.. *sighs*
      Car itself looks great.. Livery is such a disappointment.. under those lights at least :\

      They’ve even gone away with the McLaren logo anywhere on the car?
      More Honda McLaren than McLaren Honda?

      1. Look at it again. The McLaren logo thing is all over it!

        1. so small on the tip of the nose and McLaren on the rear wing?
          or am I being stupid here haha!?

          1. Look at it from the top view, the whole front of the car (yes, part is not there but …) and from the side the edges of the black are formed by orange patches that mimick the logo

            1. And from the top, the mirror are McLaren logo’s too @bascb,@nemo87

    13. spafrancorchamps
      24th February 2017, 11:03

      Whoever designed this livery should be fired immediately! Yuk!

      1. Whoever designed this livery should be given an award for the best Formula 1 livery IN YEARS.

        1. Ok, that’s definitely sarcasm. My bad, I misjudged you.

          1. @maroonjack Not, it is NOT. I sincerely LOVE this design. It is brilliant. And I can’t believe how people fail to see it :(

    14. The studio pics make it look better – the lighting at the launch makes the orange look too dark. A cool car: I can’t wait to see what Vandoorne can produce off the blocks…

      1. I usually go with the crowds when it comes to car aesthetics. I think the most beautiful car of all time is Mk. II Jaguar E-Type. My favourite F1 car in terms of looks is either the McLaren MP4/5B or the Williams FW14B (I’ve never been able to decide). Staggeringly unoriginal choices.

        So why do I disagree with so many of you guys on the 2017 cars? Inasmuch as I wasn’t fussed my the bloated and boatish W08, I think this McLaren, and its livery, is a triumph. They haven’t overdone the orange, nor have they been bashful, and it looks great with the white separating out the black spaces. I also think the Ferrari that so sharply divided opinion, has earned a place as a modern classic of Grand Prix aesthetics; I adore it. What is wrong with me?

        1. Lol for me the Merc wins in the appearance department again, as I have felt that for a handful of years now, but overall I think all the new cars are an improvement over the previous format, and I think they’ll all look awesome once racing in anger.

    15. Is it just me, or does the car lack the sort of uniqueness and detail that the Mercedes and Ferrari have?

      1. Not just you..

        1. @mashiat indeed! except for that edgy bodywork in front of the side pods, the whole seems quite basic:
          https://www.racefans.net/2017/02/24/pictures-new-2017-mclaren-car-finally-appears/c5bwl59wuaqtsby/

          In the meantime, more wings and flaps does not imply more performance automatically I guess.
          Could they be sandbagging?

          Also, livery is too much Marussia-like. But its not a beauty contest :)

      2. Agree. The first thought that came to mind was about how much bs comes out of the Mclaren pr department. They were apparently taking risks and introducing ‘surprise features’ and novel ideas…but if you look at the car, it looks like the least detailed, least innovative and absolutely mediocre from every angle of development and aesthetics

    16. The car, especially the nose attachement to the main wingplate looks very intreguing. The lines and general look of the car is beautifull imho but the livery itself could have been better. The orange looks a bit red in the studio lights, but I think it will look better on track.

      1. Also, the nose-proper seems to be curved around the edges wich makes it less ‘lego-like’ than cars from previous years.

      2. The front end has piqued my interest too! It flows nicely and and I like the fact they didn’t incorporate the ‘angular’ nose that featured on last year’s car. I’m a Mercedes fan but I’m pulling for these guys to get back to respectability. Let’s hope the MCL32 helps them achieve that.

      3. @jeffreyj a similar approach was made in the rear wing, it is a very peculiar design, quite interesting to see.

        The studio car is different from the one on the presentation. The studio one has a S-duct

        I can’t get my head around the sidepods, black backgrounds should be forbidden! But they don’t seem to be as sculpted as the other cars. The airbox seem to be smaller too, so maybe the design of the Honda engine has specific requirements for cooling, and that had an influence of both of those features

        And like @nemo87 says above, where is their logo?

    17. Front wing looks pretty interesting. Other than that it’s a complete mess – a fitting theme for this team.

    18. It’s orange, the internet is officially going to wet itself. Though from the launch pictures it looks like they will have the same problem Spyker had when they launched their initially very orange car…orange tends to look red on camera.

      The front wing pylons and the rear wing endplates look crazy, really nice work from McLaren. Whether the MCL32 will be any good still largely hangs on how much Honda have been able to prove their PU…

      1. I think it’s hopefull that they managed to shrink the side pod openings @geemac, and I agree on the detail of the FW pilons and the rear wing.

        Yeah, orange is a hard colour to get to look right on different levels of light and lenses. Makes me curious to see what it will look like once we see it out on track too.

      2. Agree about how it looked during launch. My first thoughts were that I’ve tuned in to an old Marrussia launch.

        Honestly, it’s ironic that they unveiled a car that looks exactly like another backmarker…. Coz that’s exactly where I expect to see them all season long

    19. McLaren fans must be the toughest people in the world to please. People wanted Orange, it has Orange. Give it a chance. I, for one McLaren fan, will be positive and say lets see what they can do on the track. Who cares what it looks like as long as it is a step forward from last year, and it gives others on the grid a run for the money.

      I’m in F1 for the entertainment as a fan of the sport. Im a McLaren fan. Lets all wave the flag a little bit for the team and get behind them.

      1. Indeed. The only thing I really care is the Honda PU performance. The car could be pink (actually I’d love a pink car!) and look like a brick, if it ends on the top step, I’ll be happy!

    20. Designer: “Ok livery almost done…looks a bit messy already – oh I got it!
      I JUST ADD A RANDOM PATCH OF WHITE TO THE SIDEPOD!”

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        24th February 2017, 11:55

        Sauberitis

      2. This white patch of white is one of the most intelligent patches I have ever seen on a racing car! This is some high level art right there, guys.

        I’m in a shock and total disbelief that none of you gets it… O_o

    21. Peppermint-Lemon (@)
      24th February 2017, 11:14

      Spyker reincarnated

    22. Marvellous. I do like that. The gills on the front/rear wing are interesting, not seen anyone else do that.

    23. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      24th February 2017, 11:15

      I’m gutted because I don’t like it. It’s a tacky use of the colours and doesn’t capture Mclaren’s identity at all. Like others have said it’s just like the Manor’s of a couple of years ago. Orange and black should look so good as well.

    24. I love the shape. The front wing looks bonkers and are those sidepods at an odd angle? The livery could be much better though, especially given the worrying lack of sponsorship. Orange is a great colour to use on cars, but on this occasion they haven’t done anything great with it.

      1. yeah, the sidepods look angled slightly inwards. Weird.

    25. Do I not like orange. Well not done like this, anyway. Looks awful under the lights, and even the orange in the renders is too deep a colour.

      Would also have preferred orange & white rather than orange & black. I won’t lose any sleep over it but seriously, where have all the graphic designers gone?

    26. Ugly!!! Serious guys??? looks like an Arrows…..holly god!!!

    27. Twiddliest aero yet – an arsenal of precision sculpted aero parts, painstakingly engineered to manage the flow of attention away from the engine. Much better colours, they don’t flow with the car like Williams or Sauber though.

      But none of the other teams has a Thought Leadership Centre. They must all be doing it wrong.

    28. a livery befitting of a backmarker

      1. Well put indeed!

    29. By far and away the lovelyest car reveild so far. Nothing more to say on that score.

      Love the front wing..Love the shape….And I’m extatic…They have gone ORANGE!!!!The F1 world is complete

      1. actually – who allowed them to put that shark fin on – or did the tem just add that on since force india launch? – that is a massive shame – lets hope they at least take some form of cutter to it.

      2. @greggriffiths Right on! Thank you!

      3. BEST LOOKING CAR so far…. BY MILES. All of the cars so far have look good, except for the disgusting Ferrari.

        The side view of this McLaren might be the most spectacular side view of any F1 car in history.

        1. agree fully with that love the Mclaren – even down to the bolts @damon – but i dont this Ferrari’s is disgusting – i dont like the livery (in fact if it wasnt for their shark fin – id hate it), but the car is out of the ordinary and that reconciles something for them.
          i still think that the shark fin on the Mclaren lets the shape of the car down a bit – sont you recon?

    30. After all that hype, it looks awful. Like they ran out of orange paint halfway through after doing the nose. They’re just random orange stripes that don’t bear any relation to the shape of the car or any of its sculpted surfaces.

      Just paint the whole thing orange and be done with it.

      1. did you complai when renault went all yellow last year? – if yes – thats a stupid suggestion

        1. I loved last years all yellow to this years cop out. It’s just graphic designers trying to keep themselves in a job.

          1. Sean Bull should join an F1 team and design their liveries. Better still, FIA should hire him and make him design all the liveries.

            1. thats a good suggestion – although he can have a tendency to slightly rash/in your face/complex with his designs and doesnt leave a lot of space for us to enjoy the structure of the car

          2. ok. i will let you have that – and i wouldnt disagree with you that more orrange would be better – but i dont second your oppinion that this looks awful

    31. You all got what you asked for. Don’t complain now. ;-)

      1. @keithcollantine – are you able to move this comment to the top ???

        :):):) so true

      2. Touche.

        I preferred the black and chrome/silver or black and red approach Mclaren have always adopted, but glad the Mclaren fans got a hideous orange looking back marker livery.

    32. It was a bit worried watching the feed as it did look scarily like a Marussia/Virgin. Looking at these pics though, it’s definitely orange, or rather, the classic ‘rocket red’.

      Still though, once again, a team has a blank canvas, a big budget for it, and this is all they can manage… hugely frustrating with all the amazing fan designs you see online.

      Predictable livery rant over, the car looks really promising nonetheless!

    33. I love how pretty much every car so far has been Marmite. None universally loved.

    34. Looks like an Orange Arrows – let’s hope it goes better…

      1. The orrange Arrows liveries of the late 90’s and early ’00 were awesome though, this one has more of a Marusia 2012 feel to it imho

    35. Looks like they can’t decide whether they’ve moved on from Ron Dennis or not, with all that black still on the car. They should try to keep the black portion at the rear to hide the diffuser, but nowhere else and get rid of the white all together. Also, the orange would look so much more awesome in matte in my opinion.

    36. Is it me or is the fin absolutely huge? Feels bigger than on any car we’ve seen so far.

      1. May be the colour scheme

    37. Needs to be sponsored by The Only Way Is Essex. Stick fake tan on Vandoorne and this orange thing might work. But I’ve only seen silver Mclarens so this is a shock.

    38. wrong colour. this one is too mobile phone company, and dont get me started on the manor esque swoops

    39. *shaking my head in despair*

    40. Happy to see orange is back on a McLaren, but from the side it looks like an estate/station wagon. Others have tried to hide the shark fin, McLaren haven’t. Shark fins on F1 cars are horrible. They don’t look like sports cars. From the front, they look sleek and low. From the side they don’t.

      1. Panel Van racing FTW!

    41. I’m glad the Orange is back…but the livery just feels simplistic. Red Bull did something different and interesting last year with a matt finish, Mercedes use of sweeping lines in the livery and graduated colours does a fantastic job of making the car look quick when it’s standing still. The McLaren is just bland polished block colours…very disappointing.

      Having said all that there are some nice aero details around the nose and side pods. All the cars seems to be taking a different approach to the aero details this year which makes a nice change. It’ll be interesting to see how many different ideas get tested and how similar the cars become by the time the first race arrives.

      1. You are aware that both Williams and Renault also had a matt finish to their cars last year?

    42. Was a bit worrying watching the feed where it looked scarily similar to a Marussia/Virgin. Looking at these pics though, it’s definitely orange, or rather, the classic ‘rocket red’.

      Still though, once again, a team has a blank canvas, a big budget for it, and this is all they can manage… hugely frustrating with all the amazing fan designs you see online.

      Predictable livery rant over, the car looks really promising nonetheless!

    43. The livery almost goes out of its way to accentuate and highlight the most unappealing, unaesthetic feature of the car: the shark fin.

    44. I have to say, as a McLaren fan I’m a little bit…..underwhelmed. I won’t say disappointed because the car looks good overall.

      I’m probably guilty of buying into the hype which isn’t normally like me but with Zak Brown coming in and making lots of noise I was hoping for a bit more. That said, I can understand that this car was conceived under Ron so I wouldn’t expect a radical departure for McLaren on the design front. The only think Zak Brown could have realistically influenced on this car was the Livery (we know he signed it off because he said so) and unfortunately it’s much like McLaren’s overall history of the last five years, superficially innovative but deep down, not really very imaginative.
      When I first saw the Ferrari this morning I was shocked (I still can’t make sense of that sidepod inlet/turning vane arrangement) because it was so different – and totally out of character for Ferrari (recently anyway)! That used to be McLaren’s USP. They were bold and brave (U-shaped sidepods, octupus exhaust etc.), yeah it occasionally bit them in the a** (octopus exhaust spectacularly so) but at least they tried something different and more often than not it worked well for them.

      While the MCL32 looks good, it’s got some extra gills and strakes here and there and a nice front wing etc., but I’m struggling to see any details which I have yet to see on any of the other cars released so far.

      I could be completely wrong and the MCL32 will turn out to be a great car. But McLaren just seem to have lost whatever it was that made them great in the first place. They’ve become almost…conservative. And that’s not the McLaren I became a fan of through the late 90’s and 2000’s, not to mention the dominant McLaren of the late 80’s, whose achievements we all still revere.

      It’s amazing how something as superficial as the livery, can encapsulate everything I believe that has been wrong with McLaren for the last few years.

      *If the MCL32 is as quick as I hope then I reserve the right to retract the above in it’s entirety and claim I had every faith that McLaren would get back to winning ways.

      1. I couldn’t agree any more with your statements.

        After watching both the Ferrari and Mclaren launches today, I honestly felt a little disillusioned. For years, I’ve respected Mclaren for innovating and pushing the envelope. They invented the F-duct in 2010, tried L shaped side pods in 2011, were the only car in 2012 without a stepped nose and even tried some ridiculous butterfly rear suspension in 2014. Whether their innovations worked or not is besides the point, but they always tried to think out of the box, innovate and push the limits to gain an advantage. That’s what I really respected about Mclaren.

        Ferrari on the other hand rarely came up with anything spectacular. Their formula was always going for the tried and tested approach or imitating the competitor who found the silver bullet. Which is a reason why Ferrari rarely finish below P3 in the constructors. They play it safe, and rarely take a risk that would embarress them.

        However, in today’s launch I was shocked at how Ferrari have gone really aggressive with their entire chassis design. Their side pods, tuning vanes, bargeboards really looked like a clever interpretation of the rules. They were the only car to reveal the t wing on the shark fin, and I’m pretty sure that they’ve tried something with their diffuser area as well. Mclaren on the other hand released a car with a fancy looking front wing, and the rest just looks like a Sauber.

        I honestly feel that this is the beginning of the end at Mclaren. They have a marketeer who doesn’t know any bit of engineering on the car and is responsible for signing off on ugly liveries as a sign of ‘change’ from the Ron Dennis era.

        When I see a Mclaren in their back marker livery battling the Saubers for 17th place, I think I would have lost all respect for the team.

        * If the Mclaren finishes any higher than they did last year in the constructors… I will eat my socks and post the video for all Mclaren fans to bash me.

    45. Could someone with the necessary skillz change the black on the car to white, and vice versa?? I have a feeling it would look much better this way (harking back to the 80’s paint jobs) and stop it from looking too much like a virgin/manor/marrussia

    46. Wow…
      With all these wings what is it going to sound like. An angry vacuum cleaner

    47. Best looking car to date. The futures bright the future is orange. I’m off to buy a can of Tango and get a spray on tan.

    48. Not sure about the livery although I am pretty sure it matched their signature orange color. Why the heck would they out any other tone than what they already use on other Mclaren cars! But I can definitely say that aerodynamics wise this is the most detailed, intricate and engineered car till today’s launch. You have to give it to McLaren engineers that much. Let’s hope that the simulation data matches on track performance and Honda has done a tremendous job to help bring back Mclaren where they truly belong! Fingers scorssed! Go Mclaren! GO Alonso!

    49. The rear wing looks interesting. I was underwhelmed at first but getting used to it.

    50. I thought the point of liveries was to enhance, strengthen and highlight the look of something. Not the other way around. The livery is so messy I can’t even see the car.

      1. Yes! And it does exactly that! It even makes the shark fin look awesome!
        This might be the best livery I’ve seen on any racing car in the last 20 years.

        1. LOL! Now my sarcasm meter has pinned in the red…er… orange. But, kudos to you Mr. Brown, for toying with the internets.

    51. The title of the article is wrong. It should be: “McLaren reveal new car and semi-orange livery”.

    52. Well, at least we’ll be able to see it at the back now!

    53. Is it just me or the nose looks completely identical to Ferrari? Also its been said before but the livery sucks!!

    54. Why are so many liveries so far leaning towards black? Renault ,Force india and mclaren had an opportunity to make a break away form the black. But the car looks amazing kinda swings and roundabouts on this one.

    55. Completely underwhelmed. It looks like they’ve taken a Virgin Racing or a Manor template for the livery. Personal opinion, but I don’t think the white and orange works at all and to me it just screams ‘backmarker’. I hope for Nando and Stoffel’s sake that’s not the case.

      With hindsight, I wish they’d have gone for the Richard Mille livery now. That at least had an artistic quality.

      Livery aside, the car looks one of the most exciting so far.

    56. Yuck! Wheres the barf bag, as a Raider fan i find anything Orange toxic.

      1. @budchekov What’s a Raider? Is it something from the US? :-) Most of us are not from there, and as you know, apart from the NBA (and some hockey/IndyCar) not many people follow your leagues ;)

        1. Oakland Raiders, American football’s team.

          1. Just win baby! :)

    57. Yellow and orange back in F1 :) Great to see livery change in Lotus/Renault and now McLaren.

    58. 2nd worst looking car so far after the F.I but it’s hard when the stunning looking Ferrari was launched on the same day. See how it goes surely they can get 4th this year and a few podiums with some luck.

    59. I did a search for a picture of the Honda RA617H engine, and found what appears to be it:
      http://members.f1-life.net/report/48843/
      Sorry, the text is in Japanese.

    60. Afters years of slow and painful changes, McLaren completes the final stage of its transformation to backmarker… presenting the 2017 McLaren Marussia Virgin Spyker Honda.

      1. If a car looks like a backmarker, then it usually is. It’s sad what a great team like McLaren has become…

    61. If they perform as good as they look then it will me awesome!
      One of my favorite colors together (black&orange).
      it kills enemys: http://www.unichem.si/_files/352/effect_univerzalni_insekticid_aerosol.jpg?w=170
      :)

    62. I like it, but it’s kind of meh..
      Better than Force India though haha

    63. no rear view?

      1. Nope. That won’t be ready until Monday.

    64. I don’t I’ve ever been stunned before by a new livery. I mean, what the fffflip! McLaren, this is horrendous!

    65. Most underwhelming of all the cars we have seen so far. It is a dash of color and horrible scheme and will love to see what the driver uniforms will be like to match the cars. Kind of psychedelic. Hangover started early this weekend.

      To be honest Sauber tops , followed by Ferrari , then Merc and to take the bottom of the grid Force India and McHonda.

      Lets see what RBR and Williams come up with. Williams tend to be conservative but elegant in their approach.

    66. I’m feeling like a major bah-humbug grouch with my comments over the new cars, but that is a gag-inducingly bad livery. Seriously what is it with the liveries these days?

    67. Would have really loved it if it was orange and white. Or even similar to the driver overalls. Thought those looked better than the car to be honest. At the very least, I guess, is it doesn’t fell dreary or corporate like the Ron Dennis days.

      1. I feel like if you invert the black and the white, they would look more like the overalls. Then you wouldn’t get the Spyker, Arrows references.

    68. “Make it orange! Make it orange!”

      “Okay, here you are…”

      “Aaargh! It looks like an Arrows! Or a Spyker! Or a Virgin/Marussia/whatever.”

      There’s just no pleasing some people. I quite like it. Not the best livery ever, but I’ve seen worse. A lot worse. (For what it’s worth, whatever else was wrong with Arrows, Spyker, and Virgin, it wasn’t their paintjobs. And at least we’re not going to have 20 black-and-silver cars on the grid this year.)

      1. well said Duncan. a very honest veiw for a man with a level head.

    69. McLaren are consistent in one area. Making their new liveries look worse than their previous iterations.

    70. Ugly. Veeeeeru ugly.

    71. I feel like people have really started to underestimate Honda because of the last few seasons, they clearly went the wrong way with the design philosophy behind their engine compared to the other manufacturers. But they were locked into it due to the token system so couldn’t do anything but try to improve it, and even with that massive handicap they still managed to push it’s performance to hit Q3 and finish mid field last year, which is impressive considering the nature of F1.

      They are one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world, and now that they’re not locked into the token system I think they will make massive gains. They will most definitely leap forward once they hit the right design setup with their engine, then it will be up to Mclaren to have the car to deliver.

      1. Also I do think if Honda end up with one of the best engines on the grid at some point Red Bull will switch to a Honda engine, as they will no undoubtedly feel that Renault will want to favour their own team once Renault get into their stride and make a competitive car.

      2. I think people have good reason to underestimate Honda. Even when Honda were actively in the sport (with BAR, Super Aguri, their own factory team), they built the weakest engine, and were the least impressive of all the constructors. Then to avoid further embarrassment they bowed out in 2008.

        They returned 7 years later expecting to be at the front again, but messed up their entire engine design philosophy of the 2015 PU. They decided to stick with that flawed design for another season instead of making the necessary changes over the winter. So, after 2 years of fooling around, they decide to copy the Mercedes 2014 PU layout. So, although token system doesn’t exist, they will have to play 3 years of catchup on their rivals in terms of PU development.

        To add to that, Hasegawa mentioned that the PU approach is very risky for this season, and that they will be fighting reliability problems early on. So, if you sum up their track record of disasters along with skepticism from the man heading Honda’s engine development, I feel it gives enough reason for fans to expect nothing short of a disaster for Mclaren this season.

        1. The Honda of the 2000s definitely wasn’t the weakest engine, what nonsense. In fact the power of that engine regularly got Takuma Sato points.

        2. BAR had the weakest engine? Have you even been watching Formula One? Honda was thought to have the most powerful engine in F1 during the 2004 season producing over 950-960 bhp hence why BAR managed to bag a load of podiums, even with a car nowhere near as good as their rivals.

          The reason why Honda got a bad rep was because they failed to produce a good overall package when they decided to compete with their own team, they had always pretty much just been a engine manufacturer. Mclaren produced one of the most dominant F1 cars of all time powered by guess what? A Honda engine..

          You can’t really make an assumption when they’ve only been back in F1 for 2 seasons, look at Renault they’ve had no break from the sport at all and have been in just as dire a situation at times under these new regulations. I would say Honda’s improvement has been far more impressive considering they had to start up a whole new operation again from scratch, whilst other manufacturers were already competing so had everything already setup and in place.

    72. It took a bit to read through this thread. It appears though that 3 people really like this livery. Everyone else seems underwhelmed by it as it could have been so much more. I think I agree, it could have been better.
      But as Mr. Collantine points out, the black is there for a reason. I bet it grows on people, especially if the car has any pace at all.

    73. In case anyone else is wondering, I found this to be the code of the “McLaren Orange”. If somebody knows otherwise, please let me know.

      McLaren Orange / Pantone 165
      CMYK: C 000 M 072 Y 100 K 000
      RGB: R 224 G 097 B 014
      HEX: E 0 610

      It doesn’t look like it on the photographs but it may be the light. It is actually a nice Orange

      Overall I don’t hate the livery, particularly from the side looks nice. I’m not in love with the front, kinda boring but it will be recognizable this year, that’s a give

    74. Arrows is back! Not the Silver Arrows, but that backmarker Arrows. :)

    75. What’s with the white panel? It’s like when you take it to a cheap body shop, and they just patch it up with whatever they have…

    76. No size zero is good, the orange is bad.

    77. Orange is the new black! Just need orange jumpsuits and these lot could be inmates of the F1 asylum.

    78. Am I the only one that thinks the livery is the least interesting thing about a new car launch? I try looking through the comments for something interesting, but no, just stupid arguments about the bloody colours. Seriously, the paint job!? This is why I hardly visit this site anymore, there’s just no intelligent discussion about racing anymore.

      1. I’ve been on countless NASCAR fan discussion sites and this is by far the best site for good opinions, good sports and a few posters who know the technical side of the sport unlike me.

        1. Oh and by the way, In 2017 there hasn’t been a race to talk about;)

          1. Oh, because this site only came into existence seven weeks ago? I’ve been visiting this site for years, and it used to be a great place for discussion, it is not anymore. The main purpose of this discussion board now is to whine and complain about F1. There are problems with Formula 1, and there always have been. However the general consensus seems to be that there isn’t enough passing, races are processional, etc, etc. Formula 1 isn’t fundamentally different than it was when I started watching in the 90s. Teams come into dominance, and then fall out. That’s what it’s always been like, basically. I’m not in any way saying there isn’t a place for dissemination, of course there is, and I have many of my own concerns. I’m just tired of the constant negativity. I can always find interesting things to focus on in every race, and every season. There is definitely a general lack of attention span, and a ton of impatience that I didn’t see at this level 25 years ago. F1 is different, and it is unique, and dominance is part of that. Anyone that expects lead changes in every GP, should go watch something else. It’s not a part of F1, never has been. Stick to NASCAR maybe.

            1. Thanks for that.

    79. Much better than the last 2 years boring black and red. I was wanting more orange with less black but having an orange car on the grid will be a welcome change for me.

    80. Beautiful – what’s not to like? Just because the car’s colors are similar to a Spyker makes it horrible? Silly.

    81. I don’t know how they managed to cock up that livery but, they did. That is one busy nose too!

    82. any color needs a contrast and black is Perfect for that
      it would not be nice With all Orange
      the Renault is the best looking so far

    83. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      25th February 2017, 3:59

      If they can hide the car in the midfield or behind another nicer looking car, it won’t be that bad. We may not have to look at it much. The Honda Pilot looks better in my opinion.

    84. That shade of orange is too dark. The “orange” originally used by McLaren was much lighter.

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