McLaren livery inspired by striking Monaco Gulf tribute

McLaren CEO Zak Brown has revealed the team's updated livery for the upcoming season was inspired by its one-off colour scheme at Monaco last year.

The Woking-based marque turned heads when it unveiled a striking Gulf-inspired design for the F1 calendar's crown-jewel event.

As the sport enters an exciting new era this season with radically altered regulations, McLaren has taken the opportunity to mix up its colour combination on the new MCL36.

The car features a new shade of the famous papaya, along with streaks of black and flashes of blue, although Brown was quick to downplay further commitments from Gulf.

"We've been evolving our livery since we've gone back to papaya," explained Brown.

"We wanted something that was very vibrant, so we changed the shade of our papaya [plus] it's a darker blue.

"I think that the livery changes that we did last year both in Monaco and in Abu Dhabi, we got a lot of great fan reaction that they'd like to see a lot of energy.

"I think it's got some excellent speed and elegance to it that we thought would go on top of the fast race car that hopefully we've designed this year.

"So it's just a natural evolution and then trying to make sure we give all of our corporate partners good standup on the car, so I think it achieves all the above.

"But Gulf's not increased their commitment to us."

The MCL36 will hit the track when pre-season testing gets underway on February 23, ahead of the first race of the season in Bahrain on March 20.

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