Home F1 Photo: McLaren surprises with an early F1 2024 livery reveal

Photo: McLaren surprises with an early F1 2024 livery reveal

16/01/2024

McLaren has surprised everyone with an early F1 2024 livery unveil under its ‘Whatever It Takes’ campaign.

In a surprise move, McLaren has become the first F1 team to kick-off their 2024 programme by an early livery reveal on Tuesday evening. On Monday, they wiped out their posts from Instagram, while kept things on their X and Facebook accounts.

The campaign ‘Whatever It Takes’ kicked-off and continued on Tuesday. It teased a papaya and black scheme while also noting the challenger to be MCL38 – bypassing MCL37 after they used MCL60 in 2023, so as to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

As the teaser showcased, McLaren revealed a papaya and black scheme which is the base livery as they do have multiple schemes in the course of a season as per sponsor requests. The team, though, jumped Haas in an early reveal who usually are the first.

They have used up some of the fan favourites from the 2023 season and incorporated on the 2024 colour scheme. The chrome style of showcasing driver’s number has returned too after it was last used widely during the 2014 season.

With Zak Brown heading, Andrea Stella will have his second year as the team principal. His technical team has been completed by the arrival of Rob Marshall, Technical Director, Engineering & Design and David Sanchez, Technical Director, Car Concept & Performance.

They are joined by Peter Prodromou, who continues as Technical Director, Aerodynamics and Neil Houldey, who supports in the role of Deputy Technical Director, Engineering and Design, as they now readies themselves for the step up in 2024.

“We’re delighted to launch our 2024 Formula 1 livery ahead of the new season,” said Brown. “The design looks awesome, and I can’t wait to go racing and see it come to life on track next month. We didn’t start 2023 as we wanted but Andrea and the team did a great job following the organisational restructure coming into action, and the hard work continues as we carry that excellent momentum into the 2024 campaign.

“I’m confident the exciting pairing of Lando and Oscar will continue to create more mega memories together after such an impressive second half of last year which saw the team finish fourth in the championship with 302 points. These are all steps forward from the year before as we continue our mission to push and compete at the front of the grid.

“We’re looking forward to achieving our ambitions and with our valuable partners and fantastic fans on board, they will play an integral part in the journey this season. We’re grateful for their continued support and know they also share our passion for success.”

Meanwhile, team principal Stella stated: “After a busy and productive off season, we head into 2024 with our sights set on continuing our journey towards the front of the grid. Last year allowed the team to set a strong foundation for the future through continued hard work, commitment, effort and talent.

“With our new infrastructure upgrades and people in place, we must continue to elevate our standards and incorporate high performance in everything we do. The 2024 livery looks great and I’m looking forward to seeing our exciting driver line-up of Lando and Oscar take the MCL38 to track next month.

“The support of our commercial partners and incredible fans will play an important part as we continue to remain united together as a team throughout the upcoming season. We still have a lot of work to do before we hit the track for the first race in Bahrain, but we’re all focused on delivering against our objectives and starting the season on the right footing.”

Among the drivers, Lando Norris said: “I’m looking forward to the new season ahead, it will be my sixth in Formula 1 and I’m hoping to carry the momentum we gained as a team at the end of last season to hit the ground running in Bahrain. The new livery looks great with the inclusion of segments from last year’s enhancements, I’m sure the fans will love it as much as me. Everyone at the factory has worked incredibly hard in the off season, and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the 2024 car to challenge our competitors towards the front of the grid.”

And Oscar Piastri added: “The 2024 livery looks really cool and I’m looking forward to racing in the iconic colours of McLaren for a second season. I made some special memories with the team in my rookie year, securing two podiums and a Sprint win. I‘m going to work hard alongside the whole team to take those results into the start of the new season and compete well with our competitors to give the fans more memorable moments.”