Lando Norris has identified the livery that he wants to see McLaren adopt in the future.
Norris has admitted that he has urged McLaren CEO Zak Brown “many times” to bring back the team’s classic silver and red livery from the late 2000s, stating the appearance was the reason he started rooting for McLaren as a young fan.
He has drawn attention to the well-known red and chrome color scheme, which was last utilized in 2013. The former title sponsor Vodafone, which had a long-standing business relationship with McLaren, had an influence on the livery.
Lewis Hamilton’s stunning victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2008, when he won his first F1 championship, was accomplished using the livery.
The last championship for McLaren was secured by Lewis Hamilton in the MP4-23 in 2008, when he won five races and edged out Ferrari’s Felipe Massa by by one point to win his maiden world championship.
Prior to competing in all silver in 2014 as part of its partnership with Vodafone, McLaren employed the colors silver, black, and red. Nevertheless, a return to a more classic appearance came in 2015.
Since 2017, the squad has been using the Papaya color scheme as a throwback to the team’s origins.
The Woking-based team has since struggled to contend for a championship while looking for a method to recapture its heyday for more than ten years.
Lando Norris stated in an interview with GQ’s Adam Baidawi that he first became interested in Formula 1 because of McLaren’s “cool” Vodafone-inspired livery. He now expresses his desire for the restoration of the traditional silver and red colors.
“My favourite bunch… This is Lewis-Fernando [era],” he told GQ Sports, referring to the 2007 campaign in which the two world champions were teammates at McLaren.
“Big rivalry. This is what got me into Formula 1 watching these cars go round.”
“I started actually supporting McLaren just because they looked cool… I’ve asked Zak [Brown] many times to go back to this.”
Norris had been interested in McLaren for a while and joined its junior program before making his race debut for the team in 2019. He recalled the moment he first saw the McLaren corporate offices in Woking.
“I remember coming in here for the first time, I was like 12 or 13,” the British driver said. “It was quite a scary building to come into when I was that young… You have all of the corridors downstairs, they look like they go down forever.”
The Woking-based team has utilized one-time unique liveries in the past, most notably during the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix when their car was decorated in Gulf’s colors.
