McLaren deny black livery rumours

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In today’s round up: McLaren stay silver, “Senna” release date and Renault’s livery launch.

Links

McLaren on Twitter (TheFifthDriver)

“Black livery? Er, no: the same Rocket Red & chrome finish that you’ve grown to love since Vodafone McLaren Mercedes was born in 2007. That’s official, by the way!”

Via the Live F1 Twitter app

F1 Fanatic on Twitter

“The “Senna” movie officially opens in the UK on June 3rd – read the F1 Fanatic review here: “Senna” movie review. Sorry but no new information on USA/South Africa/other releases of “Senna” but that may change after the Sundance Festival.”

Via the Live F1 Twitter app

Bahrain to hold classic McLarens display (ITV-F1)

“A collection of McLaren’s historic Formula 1 cars ranging from the late-1960s to the present day will go on display at the season-opening grand prix of 2011 in Bahrain.”

Thanks to LAK for the tip!

Renault to unveil 2011 livery at ASI (Autosport)

“The expected black and gold design will make its first public appearance on January 13 at the Autosport show in Birmingham.”

Find this date and other important 2011 F1 dates in the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.

What were the top sporting moments of 2010? (CNN World Sport Blog)

Fernando Alonso was in pole position for the title with Vettel’s fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber just behind. But it was the German who ended up as the champion, although he didn’t know it until after the chequered flag.”

Comment of the day

KaIIe voted for Alain Prost in yesterday’s Champion of Champions round – but clearly has a lot of respect for Keke Rosberg:

Being a Finn it’s hard to vote against Keke, but clearly Prost wins this round. However, based on pure entertainment value, Rosberg should win this. The overtaking moves he managed to pull off, the incredibly difficult races he won (International Trophy at Silverstone ’78, Monaco ’83, Dallas ’84 etc…).

And to me Keke is one of the most deserving champions of all time. Why? Because he won his championship in a much inferior car. Not many drivers managed to win their championship in a car that didn’t win the constructor’s title as well. Saying that the title was gifted to him is in my opinion completely wrong. Eleven drivers managed to win a race that year – that’s more than twice as many as 2010. 1982 was probably the craziest season ever in F1.
KaIIe

Keep an eye out for the next round of Champion of Champions on the site today.

From the forum

Icthyes suggests an alternative to Champion of Champions: Bridesmaid of Bridesmaids.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Sparckus!

On this day in F1

Ferrari launched their F2008 on this day three years ago. It is the most recent Ferrari to have won a championship title, taking that year’s constructors’ championship:

Image © www.mclaren.com

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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91 comments on “McLaren deny black livery rumours”

  1. I don’t think there was ever any substance to the rumour that McLaren would use a black livery. I think people just saw it and jumped to the wrong conclusion. No doubt they’ll find a way to subvert TheFifthDriver’s comments and find a way to deny them – and then get very upset when the MP4-26 is launched without a black livery. I’m willing to bet that when the car is launched, one of the first comments on the blog will be demanding to know where the “promised” black livery is.

    1. Well for people who didn’t read the story perhaps, but for the rest of us it would seem pretty clear

      1. I’ve always quite liked the chrome and red but I do reckon it’s time for a shake up. Stale liveries are boring, maybe just play with it a little bit, don’t be afraid to change it back if it’s crap. Maybe change your livery according to the design of your car, or something but really. So much corporate boring.

        1. I wouldn’t mind if they introduced just a little bit of black into it. You know, some minor variation from season to season. At least Williams change their design from year to year (I still think the 2007 design looked best), and they’ve got the most bland design on the grid.

          1. I wish they read these posts id love some carazy ones like pink or somthing, itd get the back markers noticed lol. I saw on the foroms a while ago a white and red mclaren that some one did, thought it was great!!!

          2. I would love them to introduce some orange into the livery to represent were they have come from.

          3. Except orange and red clash horribly.

          4. Yer they do, but I was just thing some orange on the nose or something small like that.

          5. Saward mentioned that they have deliberately kept a similar looking car ever since they lost their Marlboro sponsorship as they suddenly realised they had lost their identity and hadn’t created a brand. They have now, so to change the livery would ultimately be a bad idea – although, like others I do agree that a few smaller changes would look good! I’ve never been a fan of the silver/chrome that they use, much preferred it with the silver/grey colour from the late 90’s

  2. I seem to remember the all-black Sauber from about 1993/1994-ish looking pretty awesome.

    But McLaren are known for their chrome looks now, I’d say its probably getting almost as iconic/synonomous as their Marlboro livery, so I’m glad to hear its staying. Having said that, I had no idea there was talk of an all-black scheme.

    1. The first Sauber with the factory mercedes block was all black with white wings. 1993 if i’m not mistaken. I think they were blue by ’94.

      1. Your right about 93, they also had a cool gimmick of making the mirrors of their cars either yellow or red depending on the driver, but they stopped that ages ago. In 94 they were black, but they had while polka dots on them too becuase of their Tissot sponsorship. Then in 95 they went dark blue, because of the red Bull sponsorship.

  3. the black livery rumor is due to the new 2011 McLaren merchandise, which has black as one of the main colors, along with white and rocket red.

    1. Yeah, we know. People read way too much into it.

      1. Yep – usual silly season rumours. Can’t see Vodafone being hapy switching from Red to Black!

        1. No, the suggestion was that McLaren would swap the silver for black. Not the red.

      2. I’ve seen a pink Ferrari shirt before, What does this mean?

        1. Too much bleach in the wash :D

        2. Maybe they should do a asturia blue car as for next year, as they had blue T-shirts last season in Spain!

        3. seen a yellow one too, black and a white one.

      3. The Last Pope
        6th January 2011, 2:26

        You have think though, with all the Mclaren team now wearing black shirts that the mechanic and race overalls could follow suit and change to black with maybe a new design red area for vodafone?

        1. Yeah that could look good. Just know how brand conscious Vodafone are. Maybe teams should follow football and have a home and away livery! Marketing guys would love it as they could sell their merchandise twice!

        2. Ferrari already do that:

          At ‘home’ – the factory – the team wear white shirts.

          And ‘away’ – at testing, and races – they wear red shirts.

          1. Yes as do have Mclaren with their Red winners shirts. My point is that Mclaren had white and red as team wear colours, now that they have deleted white from their team clothing it would look rather out of place to have the drivers still in white & red especialy while wearing the new black & red cap.

            The current overall design is 4 years old now and it isn’t very good looking either with that Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes writen down the legs. It needs a refresh.
            Ferrari have had 3 different race overall designs in the 4 years and I think Red Bull change theirs every year.

    2. Personally I don’t like wearing white (England Rugby shirt notwithstanding) and Rocket Red is just vile – it clashes with Whitmarsh’s JustForMen too.

      And I refuse to wear silver until I get my hoverboard delivered. ;)

      So black it is.

      1. Damn, I heard rumours the new McLaren was to be powered by a bright red rocket. Thats the interwebs for you.

  4. I knew they wouldn’t change livery, like I said on the forum it’s all marketing to stop people keeping the similar McLaren tops instead of buying new.

  5. I don’t care so much if it’s black, but honestly I would’ve liked to see a change in the McLaren livery. Someone did a beautiful mockup in the livery thread of the old Marlboro colors with the current Vodafone livery, and it looks fantastic. I’m getting a bit sick of the chrome, and think they should relinquish all chrome/silver colors for the Silver Arrows…

    http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9025/mclarenwhitebysonic2k.png

    1. Not that you suggesting it but to be honest I’d have the same problem with resurecting the red and white as I do with resurecting JPS, it’s bringing back, what might have been a very nice livery, but an old livery, a livery born of advertising tobacco no less.

      Your right though, definatley time for McLaren to shake up their livery. I like the chrome though and Red, Merc don’t get auto dibs.

      1. that livery isn’t Marlboro though, looks nothing like the old Marlboro livery. Its just white in place of chrome.

      2. At least it’s legitimately their livery and not an attempt to fob off someone else’s glory.

        1. I doubt McLaren could claim sole rights to the iconic Marlboro livery – apart from anything else it was used by various other teams over the years.

          Penske used it in Indycar as long ago as 1986 and various F2, F3000 and F3 teams also ran in it. Mika Hakkinen, for example, was run by West Surrey Racing in Marlboro colours.

          McLaren weren’t even the only F1 team to run with Marlboro colours. BRM were the first team to run (and win) in the red/white colours in 1972. Marlboro also sponsored Alfa Romeo (who ran a very similar livery) in the early 1980s.

    2. I’m with you in that I don’t like the silver and red. But I have to say… that white/red mockup feels very… Japanese.

      1. Yes, I was going to say that it reminded me of Super Aguri.

      2. Agree, I think it would be nice to see McLaren do a bit of a new livery combining the Chrome/red and a bit of black with new lines to fit their new car.

    3. Looks great!!

  6. http://www.sporcle.com/games/peh2006/f1teams90to10

    A quiz for all F1 geeks out there: name every Formula 1 team from 1990 to 2010. And some of them are very obscure…

    I got 41 out of 48, but turns out I had heard of them all, my brain just let me down at a bad moment.

    1. I got them all, but Onyx and Forti and, oddly enough, Super Aguri were the hardest ones for me to recall.

      1. I only managed 30, never heard of Onyx, Simtek, Forti, Osella, Coloni, Life and Footwork.

        1. Check out F1 Rejects. They’ll tell you everything you need to know.

          1. Yeah if it wasn’t for F1 Rejects I probably wouldn’t have heard of them!

        2. I did quite well I think, I missed things like onyx etc, although I did get life, I love those guys.
          Actually I think I would have got most of them, if it didn’t take me 3mins to realise that the Toro in Toro Rosso had 1 r…..

          Torro Rosso
          Rosso
          Scuderia Torro Rosso
          Red Bull no.2?
          …. you get the idea

        3. onyx used to be a pokemon i think… :P

        4. Most of those i knew from earlier reading of historical F1, drivers and F1 rejects. I missed up on BMW Sauber (had Sauber right) and somehow must have mistyped Stewart GP. Prost took me ages to remember about.

          But still a pretty good score.

    2. Got 40/48 – the spelling of Larousse bugged me but I didn’t get Dallara , Osella , AGS , Coloni , Eurobrun , Life and Modena! Hadn’t read F1 Rejects for a good while which explains that :P

    3. Nice game, got 41 too and I must say, I don’t remember the 7 other teams at all, so I’m not too upset .. but stilll I will look the missed ones up now.

    4. It’s far too easy to spend way too much time on Sporcle. It’s thanks to that website that I can now name every country in the world…

      1. Haha I too have wasted many an hour over the past few weeks naming countries with the longest borders and European capitals and all that. Although, at least if I fail my dissertation I have something to blame

    5. Guilherme (@the_philosopher)
      6th January 2011, 4:00

      Gah, I mind did let me down too. I have heard about all of those teams, but only managed 36. Oddly enough, I completely forgot about Brawn and Mercedes! I guess I need to sleep a bit…

      1. Guilherme (@the_philosopher)
        6th January 2011, 4:02

        Also, I don’t know if anyone noticed, but BMS Scuderia Italia is missing from that quiz.

        1. Yeah, I entered that and thought maybe they were known as something else. Glad I’m not going mad!

        2. BMS Scuderia Italia. Otherwise known as Dallara.

          It’s so confusing when a team is known under two names!

    6. Nice quiz! I got them all. Could be slightly confusing what with the variations of Venturi, Lamborghini, Modena etc which even I get confused with, and the chassis makers like Dallara and Lola being there rather than the actual team name of Scuderia Italia.

      1. I had 32 in that quiz. Missed a lot of the small teams of the early nineties. Most obvious one that I missed: Toyota. Kind of sad that I don’t even remember a team which raced a year ago.

    7. I got 44

      The ones I’d forgotten were: Osella, Leyton House, Eurobrun and March

      Bit surprised I’d forgotten Leyton House & March!

    8. Lola and Modena! How could I forget abou Lola! Doh!

      1. Sound_Of_Madness
        6th January 2011, 11:17

        44/48. No Brabham (doh!), Andrea Moda (doh!), Coloni and Modena.

    9. 39 – but I also guessed but couldn’t spell right:

      Tyrrell and Larrousse

      Can’t believe I forgot Ligier, Prost and Brabham!!

      The others I missed didn’t surprise me.

      1. 43/48

        Missed Osella, Dallara (also looking for Scuderia Italia), Eurobrun, Fondmetal (Even though I went through the entry list from Geoff Crammonds original ‘Grand Prix’ in my mind), and silly BMW Sauber.

        Didnt get Mercedes til the last 30 secs!

  7. Bring back red and white mclarens . Don’t like the silver!

    1. Quantum Electrodynamics
      6th January 2011, 10:06

      Fag is banned in F1.

      1. I’m making no comment whatsoever about Christian Klien’s earring.

  8. keith please do a f1 car version of champion of champions. put every championship winning (WDC or WCC) car against each other.

    like the F2004 vs the FW14b!!!

    1. Thats a great idea

      1. Quantum Electrodynamics
        6th January 2011, 10:04

        The FW14b is the best ever car built. It was a car that was technically very very superior.

        The F2004 is a good car but nothing special about it. Infact its victories came courtesy of both McLaren & Williams BMW failing miserably that season. Infact the F2004 wasn’t even the fastest by midseason after Newey rolled out his B-spec 19 at magny cours.

        The only car that can come even close in terms of technical capability to the 14b are newey’s own creations the mp4-20 & RB6.

        Mp4/4 was a good car bases on the 86 brahbam, but it had a very very powerful turbo honda.

  9. Yay I can watch the Senna film on my birthday :-)

  10. Errr, two years ago today, would mean the 2009 cars were being launched. Therefore it would of been the 09′ Ferrari.

    Correct me if I’m wrong

    1. Sorry, three years – changed it.

  11. In my opinion, the chrome and red colours are part of McLaren’s identity as a brand, although it is true that it comes from the past Marlboro sponsorship. On the other hand, considering how competitive everything is nowadays, sometimes you don’t have another choice but renew and refresh yourself with a new image. What I think it is important is that with the new changes they don’t loose McLaren’s strong workforce and do not disappoint their fans.

  12. Quantum Electrodynamics
    6th January 2011, 9:57

    The West livery was the best mclaren livery ever.The EU senators are plain wrong. Did the banning of tobacco advertising on f1 cars bring down cancer deaths? Or have tobacco users shied away from using it? I personally am dead against tobacco products, but the tobacco based livery cars were the best looking cars in history . I think EU must chuck this rule. Tobacco & F1 are synonymous.

    1. Here in the Netherlands the government would cry its eyes out if everyone stopped smoking. They get a whopping 2 euro’s (about 1.7 pounds) of taxes per pack of cigarettes sold.

      Plus did people really start smoking after seeing tobacco sponsors? I mean it’s not like I run straight of to the local car dealer when I see a Renault flash by.

      1. I know what you mean. I never took up smoking after watching F1…

        …I sit here writing this whilst wearing Hugo Boss clothes and sipping Johnnie Walker, later I’ll get in my Mercedes, fill up with Mobil, paying using my Santander Debit card and head to the Hilton where I’ll use my Vodafone cellphone to take part in a conference call about our company’s use of SAP…

        (Okay, so none of that is real, I drive a VW, can only dream of affording Hugo Boss clothes or a stay at a Hilton hotel, don’t drink, bank with The Cooperative and my phone is with O2) ;)

        1. O2, part of the Telefonica family – looks like they hooked you in back when Renault were sponsored by said network – why not change your bank to Snoras Bank… take out a lone and upgrade to a Lotus!!!

  13. To be honest the chrome is good but I was never a fan of the rocket orange.

  14. It might be because I’m getting past it but I really dislike changes of livery. I feel the paint job is part of the teams identity.

    I feel the same about drivers helmetsI dont mind minor stunts (like putting slogans on for a specific race/reason) but think they should keep the same basic design, at least, for a whole season perhaps even for life.

  15. Mclaren should wait until their roadcar company is properly up and running with a couple or 3 models in showrooms before changing their livery.

    Commercially it suits them to tip their hats to the mercedes brand even though they are only customers now.

    Once they have an engine supply associated with their road cars they could then revert to the classic Orange perhaps.

    1. Their MP4-12C starts getting sold this year as a midrange supercar.

      I don’t know whether to call it an F1 replacement – but they are well under way in developing a new £600,000 hypercar – codenamed the P12.

      And the low range supercar – baby Mclaren – for £70,000, is being developed to directly take on the 911 and new Lotus. It’s codenamed the P13.

      So there is plenty happening at Mclaren automotive these days – hopefully a new high performance 4 pot turbo will be getting built too!!!

  16. Er; no, I don’t love the red and chrome livery they have had since 2006, their old darker liveries where way better and also the red and white livery was awesome. The black livery would look way better than the one they have now, so this is a big disappointment

    1. Did you see the mock up someone did on the Forum of the current livery but with a little bit of black added on the lower parts of the car…looked outstanding!!

      1. It sounds pretty nice, do you have a link? I’d like to see it.

    2. McLaren livery is the best on the grid

  17. By far the best looking Livery on the grid for 2010 was Mclaren’s …. and they should have got an award for it, or maybe they did? can anyone answer that for me

    1. The best livery was in my opinion (and pretty much everybody else’s I’ve asked about it) the Renault’s Yellow and Black. It was stunningly beautiful!

      1. IMHO the best livery was Red Bull’s. I don’t know what it is about it, but I love their design.

        2nd best was Lotus Racing – just a very classy design…

  18. I don’t care about the livery, just get a competitive car on the track this year.

  19. F1 sponsorship has never influenced me. Based on the logic that it does then being a hispaña fan means I have to wear nothing. Then slowly put a little bit more on throughout the year

  20. Keith
    I’m having trouble on iPhone voting on the champions. Has anyone else suffered the same?
    Thanks

    1. It’s not working properly on some mobile browsers at the moment – am looking into it.

  21. Honda’s test car in 2007 had a superb black livery I seem to remember. Then they went and vomitted all over it with after some bad tasting earthdreams.

  22. That CNN article is pretty interesting in pointing out that Spain had quite a stellar year in the world sports scene. Nadal won the US Open, Contador the Tour de France, and Spain take home the World Cup. No wonder Alonso was so crushed to not take home the Formula 1 WDC in 2010, as it would have put the ultimate cap on the year for his country.

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