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Lewis looks like he's blown his F1 champions bonus on clothes! Nico's bonus wasn't so big! 😀
New Force India colours, this is not their 2015 car, or so they say!...
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http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/21/force-india-reveal-new-livery-2015-vjm08/
Nico is wearing Primark for me and Lewis is wearing a Crocodile..
Does nico rosberg often dress up for you, hora?
Force India seem to have a very McLarenesque livery.
I'm guessing that Ron et al will come up with something more imaginative to reflect their new engine partnership?
There's a lot of theorising that it'll look like the Marlborough McLaren Honda (eg Red/White) without actually having the Marlborough chevron design
Or Marlboro even.
😉
That's the one. Well I'll claim it was deliberate to avoid publicising death sticks 😉
There's a lot of theorising that it'll look like the Marlborough McLaren Honda (eg Red/White) without actually having the Marlborough chevron design
They won't do that. Ferrari even had to remove their 'Barcode' logo as it was too associated with Marlboro. Not a chance they'd get away with red chevrons!
Kind of assumed Alonso tweeted this photo of himself as a cheeky clue to the next colour scheme.
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They won't do that. Ferrari even had to remove their 'Barcode' logo as it was too associated with Marlboro. Not a chance they'd get away with red chevrons!
Kind of, Ferrari were (and indeed still are) sponsored by Phillip Morris Tobacco, and the barcode logo was deemed by those looking into the sport to be too close to the previous "non tobacco" tobacco livery the team had run(ie a red and white box with the Marlboro letters removed, as opposed to the "barcode" actually resembling Marlboro when seen at speed)
Ferrari removed the barcode themselves before they were told to, then switching to the swoopy logo they currently run.
This red / white logo is still the same colours as a packet of Marlboro smokes, as is the Lotus JPS heritage paint scheme (which anti-tobacco legislators in Canada complained about), as was the slightly iffy Rothmans style Williams from a few years ago...
McLaren have been running their classics with the Marlboro logos removed for years, it wouldn't be too big a step to move this to the new cars.
Williams have seen the benefit in returning to a decent livery, the publicity and marketing guys will be loving it.
Or it could be the same boring silver as in previous years...
I reckon the silver of the FI says that McLaren are probably moving to a different colour scheme and silver only became a McLaren colour because of Merc engines from way back in the late 90s.
If I had to put money on it, I reckon something like this based on a lot of the teasers featuring red/white and the old red/white cars which wouldn't really tie in if they were going for completely different colours.
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Similar enough to keep the connection without being similar enough to look like they're sponsored by Marlbor[b]o[/b]
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I think the livery will be Red, White and Black but hopefully a lot better than the old Toyota liveries which looked like someone had just tipped some red paint on a white car and stuck some Toyota and Panasonic stickers on it.
How about a Marlboro lights colour scheme instead? White, gold and black?
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Like this?
I do think it'll be a nod to the previous McLaren Hondas, not forgetting the Honda racing colours are white and red.
The team kit should be interesting.
and silver only became a McLaren colour because of Merc engines from way back in the late 90s.
Not so.
The Marlboro livery ran quite happily with Merc engines in 95 and 96, and the silver livery came along with the their new sponsor, West fags in 97
West seems to be more red/black and some grey from what I just checked. I'm pretty sure that the end of Marlboro sponsorship gave the opportunity to get the 'silver arrows' colour scheme (colourway 😉 ) back on the grid rather than it being driven by west.
Edit - looks like silver actually is West's colour so it appears fortuitous that the colours fitted in so well with what Merc wanted.
I do wish that we could have something as beautiful as the Ferrari 640 and McLaren MP4/6 racing these days.
I think the mp4-8 (the one posted above) was about as beautiful as an F1 car as managed to be.
I reckon white and red but only in a legacy Honda not Marlboro sense. So expect rondels etc. Alternatively they'll just run the chrome with Honda logos. Depends if they have new sponsors or not this year.
The Marlboro livery ran quite happily with Merc engines in 95 and 96, and the silver livery came along with the their new sponsor, West fags in 97
I remember Coultard spraying his hair silver for one race as part of the change in colour scheme. Curiously enough he gets to rock that looks every day now 🙂
Could I just add that I type this overlooking the gallery I run as a little bit of my job. In it for the next couple of weeks is the nose and front wing from JB's 2013 car along with his overalls & helmet, alongside Geraint Thomas' 2013 TdF Team Sky Pinarello and an early block model prototype of Seymourpowell's ENV fuel cell motor bike. It's a nice view!
I'd love it if they went back to a proper McLaren Orange
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Their test car before they revealed the silver was orange...
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Imagine the launch will be put back as they won't be able to agree what the arse is doing to their elbow.
Or as Ron would say they are having operational challenges establishing a clear differentiation mechanism to discriminate between the radius/ulna/humerus interface and the gluteus maximus.
+1 for orange McLarens.
MP4/30 will be decent car I think, hopefully beating the little upstarts Red Bull and the old enemies Ferrari and Williams.
Lotus stick with black and gold...
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/26/lotus-reveal-first-images-new-e23/
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little upstarts Red Bull
I reckon that 10 years in F1 and 4 world champs to their name gets them past being upstarts 😉
Anyway, the Lotus looks like it's fitting in with what the FIA/F1 TWG wanted the noses to look like. Won't look so good once Pastor gets his hands on it though 😀
Interesting Lotus that is a massive intake in the Airbox I guess it will be for the inter cooler and oil coolers trying to minimise the sidepod size.
little upstarts Red Bull
Ahhhh, Red Bull, the little team that could.
Or was that Jaguar?
Or Stewart?
I'm too old fashioned for F1, I still believe that the teams should be owned by small garagistas or OEMS, with the majority of sponsorship coming from fags or the car industry. I really don't like the idea that the advertiser owns the team (and yes I know that's contradicting myself, at least the OEMs had trickle down technology back to road cars)
I give that Lotus 2 corners in the 1st race before Pastor makes a meal out of the front wing. 🙂
oooerr its here the honda mclaren
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Looks like work in progress on the livery
I see peter prodromu has borrowed the from wing from the rbr 2012
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Well that's rather disappointing (in terms of the colour scheme at least)
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We've gone back to 1999
I like it.
So Honda had no influence on the colours then!
Just hope it's fast, because that colour scheme is rather pants.
I'm very surprised that they are not trying to get away from the Mercedes Silver they've been associated with since the mid-90s
Sounds as though Ron is meddling with the marketing people still! 🙁
Just look how fresh Williams looked in 2014 with some motorsport nostalgia painted on the side - all F1 fans of the mid-90s or earlier suddenly remembered why they loved Williams
However, it could all be a big scam - there is no title sponser on the car and they're up to something with the following video
It's better than I hoped, last year's car really was a "don't fancy your's much" with it's poorly resolved nose and front wing interface (aesthetically, at least).
I'm relieved that they didn't try to recreate the old red and white scheme.
Will it be fast? Honda stumbled during their last comeback and McLaren have been lacklustre for a couple of seasons. That said, it would be good to see Williams and McLaren battling racing each other at the sharp end of the grid again.
It appears the present front wing designs take their inspiration from one of these:
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OK, here's my theory (aka wishful thinking).
They uploaded a vid to youtube yesterday with JB and FA doing a Back to the Future routine (with added cheese).
So here's McL going back to the late 90s.
Next step will be the the full reveal, going back to the 80s and red/white colour scheme.
It would at least fit in with the rumours which suggested a black car (well almost) today followed by the proper launch later on.
Fingers crossed.
Ahhhh, Red Bull, the little team that could.
Or was that Jaguar?
Or Stewart?
Yes, the upstart team that is entering it's 19th season of F1 ... makes me laugh every time I hear that they went from nothing to winning the title in a few years.
That McLaren doesn't have many sponsors does it. Although supposedly Ron refused to lower the cost of sponsorship, which I suspect is a killer for a mid-table team. If the Honda works out tho I would imagine people will flock to them
Interesting change in design philosophy for McLaren
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117500
The arrival of chief engineer Peter Prodromou from Red Bull last year has served as a force for change on this front, and his views on taking a new approach have been embraced by McLaren.The priority is no longer in pursuing theoretical peak downforce figures - it is about achieving maximum useable downforce.
In simple terms, being able to use 100 per cent of 700kg of downforce is better than only being able to use 80 per cent of 750kg.
That kind of fits in with what we've seen with McL for the last few years - a confidence that the car will be good followed by turning up at the track and it not being as good as they expect followed by headscratching and frustration as to why they're slower than they expect. It'll be really interesting to see how that pans out.
The priority is no longer in pursuing theoretical peak downforce figures - it is about achieving maximum useable downforce.
Blimey I'd have thought that was pretty obvious. Maybe the focus on peak theoretical downforce was a limitation of their modelling tools in some way?
Next step will be the the full reveal, going back to the 80s and red/white colour scheme.
Did you notice the date on that Californian licence plate?
I see it says 'Aug' but not quite sure what to infer from that...
New Mercedes testing at Silverstone...
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/01/29/mercedes-w06-revealed-testing-silverstone/
I see it says 'Aug' but not quite sure what to infer from that...
It says 'Aug 86'
Perhaps a clue to the livery style for this year?
Looking sharp! I think the others need to worry...
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