planetf1.com

Still no title sponsor? I suspect that this chapter of Ron's biography may be entitled Thrifty Shades Of Grey...

Looks really good.

Laura23 wrote:

I was wrong about the silver, it'll look far more like this. Just as dull as what they had in the first four races.

That was pretty accurate!

Lojik wrote:Taken from Autosport as a quote from a "McLaren spokesman"

The result is a dynamic, predatory, graphite-grey colouration, complemented by McLaren-dayglo 'Speedmarks' and keylines, reducing the reflection issues caused by our latest chrome-silver treatment.

So basically "Go Faster" stripes?

Seanie wrote:

Lojik wrote:Taken from Autosport as a quote from a "McLaren spokesman"

The result is a dynamic, predatory, graphite-grey colouration, complemented by McLaren-dayglo 'Speedmarks' and keylines, reducing the reflection issues caused by our latest chrome-silver treatment.

So basically "Go Faster" stripes?

+50 BHP per stripe

I guess somebody at McLaren missed the stepped noses so much, they decided to create the illusion of one in their new livery...

Looks terrible, I dont like it a bit. Yeah, looks like Hispania or HRT or whatever it was.

As stated before, it ought to blend in with the track and the field just fine... better than the chrome though, I never did like that look. Fortunately, no one has ever done the black look before.


The old fart in me still wishes to see the McLaren Orange on the track with the Ferrari red of old... now that would be cool!

Exediron wrote:

Black_Flag_11 wrote:Can you imagine the publicity an orange or Red/White McLaren Honda would have got? It would have been a perfect advert for that elusive title sponsor.

Sure, if that title sponsor is Marlboro... Otherwise, I don't know if I'd like to have to spend a hundred million to get my name on a car that advertises another company for free.

Yes you do have a point on the White/Red, though they are also Honda's colours in other racing series.

Regarding the actual changes, still very dull however it is a big improvement IMO.

I do quite like the overhead shot, not a fan of that weird double nose thing they have going on, they should have put that first swoosh on the actual nose where the pinstripe is, would have looked much cleaner. Apart from the though the overhead shot looks nice on a white background... Unfortunately race tracks are a dark grey colour not too dissimilar to the paint they've used for almost the entire car.

From the side and front though all that colour disappears, alright from the front you can see some red on the artificial stepped nose highlight, but from the side it's overall just dark grey and as camera shots on TV are almost always from in front or the side and never from directly above this seems like a bit of a flaw in their plan. Not to mention that as shown above it looks exactly like the hispania(?) car from side on.

A lot better. A cross between the HRT and Honda's old (2006?) testing livery.

I just realised where their inspiration came from:






(From Google)

A different and striking livery from McLaren:

#Unique
#One stripe for each champion
#Dark
#Poisonous
#Mysterious
#Continuous

I think it looks pretty good. Guess I'll have to wait to see it in racing conditions before my final verdict..

It is better. I think I could learn to like this scheme (maybe, we'll have to wait and see) but i still don't think it really stands out as a 'McLaren livery'. I don't know how widespread it is but a lot of the casual viewers, at least those I know or work with, STILL call McLaren 'Vodafone'. Those vaguely vodafonish Sidepods probably wont help.

I'm still for red and white. Red and white has always meant McLaren Honda to me. And I kind of think that is why McLaren are refusing to do it. They want to simply be mclaren and minimise the Honda link at least as far as the face of the company goes. That way any success is attributed to McLaren and not Honda.

I don't get the Marlboro argument but that might be attributable to the fact that in Australia every tobacco product must be sold in plain olive drab packages with no logos and lots of gory photos. And I don't imagine McLaren will be keen for a green car with dead people all over it. Obviously being facetious but red and white are not simply owned by one company. They're Honda and Japan racing colours

People need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be orange.

I like the new colour scheme. Hopefully it comes with a significant step forward with the development otherwise why waste the time / money on it?

Seanie wrote:People need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be orange.

I like the new colour scheme. Hopefully it comes with a significant step forward with the development otherwise why waste the time / money on it?

It'll be faster for sure, just look how much more RED it is!

Meh.

Those aerial shots just serve to remind me how badly proportioned modern F1 cars are.

I don't hate it, it's a pretty nice change to be fair. Although the HRT similarity is unfortunate.

Seanie wrote:People need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be orange.

I like the new colour scheme. Hopefully it comes with a significant step forward with the development otherwise why waste the time / money on it?

Why? There are people that would have liked the car to be orange, so what?

Balibari wrote:Meh.

Those aerial shots just serve to remind me how badly proportioned modern F1 cars are.

I'd never noticed before, but looking now that nose looks absurdly long. Like many others my reaction to the livery is pretty much meh too. Really not going to stand out from the crowd at least.

SchumieRules wrote:

Seanie wrote:People need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be orange.

I like the new colour scheme. Hopefully it comes with a significant step forward with the development otherwise why waste the time / money on it?

Why? There are people that would have liked the car to be orange, so what?

Exactly!

I suppose I could say that people need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be chrome/black/grey/neon. It would be just as valid a thought.

Seanie wrote:People need to get over the idea that McLaren's should be orange.

Erm... McLaren's what exactly?

I like the new livery, though it is not nearly as exciting as the scheme that came in in 1997. If I recall correctly, those were inspired by the colours of a shark. To me, they remain the most striking livery. The reflective silvery one was good-looking, but not as inspiring as the original one.

I'm a bit underwhelmed I must say. Better than it was, but not very exciting...

Laura23 wrote:They've never looked close to going back to red and white. That was Marlboro. Dennis already said McLaren is Black, Silver and neon red so I don't know why anyone wouldn't expect anything other than that.

The chrome is going because it's too reflective apparently. More likely it's keeping heat too much for the Honda engine's liking.

Yeah sure...
All the new decoration and overalls are white. Honda traditional colours are white first and red second.
This graphite dark grey makes no sense to me.

nixxxon wrote:

Laura23 wrote:They've never looked close to going back to red and white. That was Marlboro. Dennis already said McLaren is Black, Silver and neon red so I don't know why anyone wouldn't expect anything other than that.

The chrome is going because it's too reflective apparently. More likely it's keeping heat too much for the Honda engine's liking.

Yeah sure...
All the new decoration and overalls are white. Honda traditional colours are white first and red second.
This graphite dark grey makes no sense to me.

Me neither personally. Honda's colours are white and red, which leaves me wondering what this car would have looked like with those 'black' bits all white.

Laura23 wrote:

nixxxon wrote:

Laura23 wrote:They've never looked close to going back to red and white. That was Marlboro. Dennis already said McLaren is Black, Silver and neon red so I don't know why anyone wouldn't expect anything other than that.

The chrome is going because it's too reflective apparently. More likely it's keeping heat too much for the Honda engine's liking.

Yeah sure...
All the new decoration and overalls are white. Honda traditional colours are white first and red second.
This graphite dark grey makes no sense to me.

Me neither personally. Honda's colours are white and red, which leaves me wondering what this car would have looked like with those 'black' bits all white.

Like the exact opposite, thats what they are all wearing:


Source: formulapassion.it

Source: foxsports

This livery (just like the old one) makes the Mclaren look like a car produced by a team at a very low point. Much like the Manor car. You see the Mclaren on the track and automatically think "oh dear, they must be struggling". I know it makes no difference to how fast the car goes, but surely they want to make a good impression to people watching - to make it seem like they are a good 'brand'.

I think it's beautiful from on top, less so from the side view and underwhelming from front on. Much like the last one really, but better.

I still think people are hilariously overreacting about how bad it is, though.

tootsie323 wrote:Still no title sponsor? I suspect that this chapter of Ron's biography may be entitled Thrifty Shades Of Grey...

Like it!

But it does make me wonder, without the title sponsor why bother in changing the livery? If they do land a title sponsor in the foreseeable future then would the livery have to be changed again? Three times in a season would not indicate clear planning or thinking.

The sponsor's logos certainly stand out much more than before. I'm sure that won't hurt in their search for new sponsorship.

Underviewer wrote:This livery (just like the old one) makes the Mclaren look like a car produced by a team at a very low point. Much like the Manor car. You see the Mclaren on the track and automatically think "oh dear, they must be struggling". I know it makes no difference to how fast the car goes, but surely they want to make a good impression to people watching - to make it seem like they are a good 'brand'.

Livery will start to look good once McHonda start to win poles and races. The crucial reason why Black&Silver livery of McLaren looked extraordinary back in the 90's was because it won its first race and put two cars on podium. But it lost its magic aura once they started to lose so many races to BMW in 2001. Nevertheless, those red stripes always existed since 1997.

Once a livery start to lead the grid for several races, it starts to look like a machine produced by a team at a very high point.

The main reason why the old Marlboro livery is deemed so "iconic" was because that livery hosted the iconic names "Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda" , through a high level competitiveness that continued for so long...."1984-1985-1986-1987-1988-1989-1990-1991-1992-1993"

If McLaren-Honda can stay in the hunt for WCC titles consistently over the next 10 years, todays ordinary livery will be seen as "iconic" by 2025.

Need4Naiim wrote:

Underviewer wrote:This livery (just like the old one) makes the Mclaren look like a car produced by a team at a very low point. Much like the Manor car. You see the Mclaren on the track and automatically think "oh dear, they must be struggling". I know it makes no difference to how fast the car goes, but surely they want to make a good impression to people watching - to make it seem like they are a good 'brand'.

Livery will start to look good once McHonda start to win poles and races. The crucial reason why Black&Silver livery of McLaren looked extraordinary back in the 90's was because it won its first race and put two cars on podium. But it lost its magic aura once they started to lose so many races to BMW in 2001. Nevertheless, those red stripes always existed since 1997.

Once a livery start to lead the grid for several races, it starts to look like a machine produced by a team at a very high point.

The main reason why the old Marlboro livery is deemed so "iconic" was because that livery hosted the iconic names "Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda" , through a high level competitiveness that continued for so long...."1984-1985-1986-1987-1988-1989-1990-1991-1992-1993"

If McLaren-Honda can stay in the hunt for WCC titles consistently over the next 10 years, todays ordinary livery will be seen as "iconic" by 2025.

1. In 2001 McLaren won as many races as Williams did and finished higher up in the WCC.
2. The 2015 McLaren livery will never be iconic. It's clearly something to keep them ticking over until Ron deflates his ego a bit and they get a title sponsor.

Laura23 wrote:2. The 2015 McLaren livery will never be iconic. It's clearly something to keep them ticking over until Ron deflates his ego a bit and they get a title sponsor.

Did you think the Brawn livery would become iconic? Far uglier cars than this have become iconic, including in my opinion the McLaren Marlboro livery. How people continue to defend that one as anything but looking like a cigarette pack on wheels is beyond me - it's barely even better than this year's Sauber livery.

Exediron wrote:

Laura23 wrote:2. The 2015 McLaren livery will never be iconic. It's clearly something to keep them ticking over until Ron deflates his ego a bit and they get a title sponsor.

Did you think the Brawn livery would become iconic? Far uglier cars than this have become iconic, including in my opinion the McLaren Marlboro livery. How people continue to defend that one as anything but looking like a cigarette pack on wheels is beyond me - it's barely even better than this year's Sauber livery.

The JPS Lotus was a driving fag packet, but that doesn't exactly stop it being iconic and well loved by the majority of F1 fans. It looked great in most peoples eyes.

Exediron wrote:

Laura23 wrote:2. The 2015 McLaren livery will never be iconic. It's clearly something to keep them ticking over until Ron deflates his ego a bit and they get a title sponsor.

Did you think the Brawn livery would become iconic? Far uglier cars than this have become iconic, including in my opinion the McLaren Marlboro livery. How people continue to defend that one as anything but looking like a cigarette pack on wheels is beyond me - it's barely even better than this year's Sauber livery.

I don't think the Brawn livery is iconic on it's own tbh, the entire story of the Brawn team however is because they were successful. Had the 2009 Brawn performed like the 2008 Honda then that dayglo livery would have been remembered in a similar light to the EarthDreams claptrap.

Laura23 wrote:

Need4Naiim wrote:

Underviewer wrote:This livery (just like the old one) makes the Mclaren look like a car produced by a team at a very low point. Much like the Manor car. You see the Mclaren on the track and automatically think "oh dear, they must be struggling". I know it makes no difference to how fast the car goes, but surely they want to make a good impression to people watching - to make it seem like they are a good 'brand'.

Livery will start to look good once McHonda start to win poles and races. The crucial reason why Black&Silver livery of McLaren looked extraordinary back in the 90's was because it won its first race and put two cars on podium. But it lost its magic aura once they started to lose so many races to BMW in 2001. Nevertheless, those red stripes always existed since 1997.

Once a livery start to lead the grid for several races, it starts to look like a machine produced by a team at a very high point.

The main reason why the old Marlboro livery is deemed so "iconic" was because that livery hosted the iconic names "Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Niki Lauda" , through a high level competitiveness that continued for so long...."1984-1985-1986-1987-1988-1989-1990-1991-1992-1993"

If McLaren-Honda can stay in the hunt for WCC titles consistently over the next 10 years, todays ordinary livery will be seen as "iconic" by 2025.

1. In 2001 McLaren won as many races as Williams did and finished higher up in the WCC.
2. The 2015 McLaren livery will never be iconic. It's clearly something to keep them ticking over until Ron deflates his ego a bit and they get a title sponsor.

1. I am not talking of stats. In 2001, McLaren started to lose their "super fast machine" image to Williams. The next year (2002) they finally lost the "special aura of shining silver on black" after Montoya's 5 consecutive poles and by losing the 2nd spot at WCC standings.
2. I am talking subconcious effects of a possible reality inflicting on audience by giving example of the past. You talk about Ron's ego and title sponsor. That "much waited" sponsor won't change this livery dramatically.


I didn't enjoy writing this reply. Sometimes it is best to stay in the dark,


like the new McLaren-Honda.

Laura23 wrote:I don't think the Brawn livery is iconic on it's own tbh, the entire story of the Brawn team however is because they were successful. Had the 2009 Brawn performed like the 2008 Honda then that dayglo livery would have been remembered in a similar light to the EarthDreams claptrap.

And if the McLaren-Honda cars of the 1980s hadn't been so dominant, I highly doubt as many people would remember that livery fondly as seem to do so. Iconic liveries are almost always just whatever a fast car was painted as; heck, the Silver Arrows weren't painted at all to save weight, and somehow even that became iconic. The actual artistic merit of the design clearly has nothing to do with it.

Need4Naiim wrote:2. I am talking subconcious effects of a possible reality inflicting on audience by giving example of the past. You talk about Ron's ego and title sponsor. That "much waited" sponsor won't change this livery dramatically.

You lost me...

Jenson's Understeer wrote:

I guess somebody at McLaren missed the stepped noses so much, they decided to create the illusion of one in their new livery...

That new red stripe screams 1986.