Back in the 60s and 70s, McLaren's distinctive orange livery was successful across Formula 1, the Indy 500 and CanAm series.

For 2018, the MCL33 spectacularly revives the original colours of McLaren - papaya orange and dark blue - in a refreshing new way.

Inspired by the numerous entreaties of its fans, the return to papaya was also driven by McLaren looking to its past to shape its future. The unique papaya livery is an overt statement of the team's next chapter, and symbolic of McLaren at its simplest, purest form: that of racers.

It reflects the essential qualities that have remained constants for McLaren throughout its history and are intrinsic to its future. In particular, it evokes the bravery of the team; played out through the #BeBrave campaign that has previewed the launch and will remain a feature of the 2018 season.

McLaren first used papaya in 1968, another convention-busting decision of founder Bruce McLaren. At a time when many nations raced under traditional national colours, such as British Racing Green, French Racing Blue and Italian Rosso Corsa, Bruce chose papaya to make his eponymous team stand out on the racetrack.

The MCL33's eye-catching primary colour, Papaya Spark, and secondary colours, Burton Blue and Cerulean Blue, were each developed in collaboration with McLaren partner AkzoNobel.

The coating systems supplied by the company have enabled the team to significantly reduce the total weight of paint and decrease paint processing time by more than 50%.

Check out our McLaren MCL33 gallery, here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Teardrop., 25/02/2018 23:51

"Please let's not loose sight that the paint code was called McLaren Orange, and the blue was called Nautilus Blue. both formulated by Trimite Paints back in the early 70s. Akzo Nobel have now formulated it with a Pearl clear coat to bring it into today's modern paint systems. "

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2. Posted by Italian Job, 23/02/2018 20:05 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 23/02/2018 21:21)

"After all these years they are saying that McLorange is really "papaya"? - we'e been had!!"

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3. Posted by Editor, 23/02/2018 12:49

"@ Burton

And it's your blue!"

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4. Posted by Burton, 23/02/2018 12:46

"The front shot as shown in this article looks gorgeous, from the side not so much, but overall it's quite nice!"

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5. Posted by nonickname, 23/02/2018 8:45 (moderated by an Adminstrator, 23/02/2018 21:21)

"This comment was removed by an administrator as it was judged to have broken the site's posting rules and etiquette."

Rating: Negative (-3)

And in case you were wondering... its Papaya Spark, Burton Blue and Cerulean Blue

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