24/02/2007
NEWS STORY
There is mounting speculation that the 'new' livery Honda to be unveiled at London's Natural History Museum on Monday evening will see the RA107 in all-green, completely devoid of sponsors logos.
Although there have been whispers regarding the green livery for some time, many assumed that this was due to a new sponsor, most likely BP, being unveiled.
However, it is now thought that the car unveiled on Monday will be all-green with no logos, though the drivers' and mechanics' overalls, and team transporters will bear signage.
It is claimed that the idea is the brainchild of Simon Fuller, the former manager of the Spice Girls brought on board by Honda just over a year ago in an attempt to 'spice up' the team's image. Ironically, one of the first things Fuller did was to recruit the services of veteran commentator Murray Walker.
Fuller and Honda will no doubt claim that the green livery is an attempt to show the Japanese company's concern with 'green issues', however, many within the paddock will assume that it is merely a sign of the team's failure to attract a major sponsor following the departure of British American Tobacco.
The choice of the Natural History Museum as a launch venue has also caused wry amusement in the paddock, what with it being home to numerous fossils and dinosaurs, static relics from a bygone age.
Although Honda has shown an improvement in recent days, there is speculation that its 2007 package is flawed with some claiming there are reliability issues with the old wind tunnel (which is where they do most of the model development work), and others claiming that (horror of horrors!) Honda has forsaken power in favour of reliability.
Then there is the question of tyres. With the exception of the 020 and 060 cars BAR and now Honda chassis almost never got the tyres to work properly, whether using Michelins or Bridgestones. This is thought to have been a combination of mechanical and aerodynamic problems.
The new green livery is thought to include Google Earth images, leading some to speculate that the American giant could be coming on board as a sponsor.
The again, perhaps the new green colour scheme is merely to camouflage the RA107 when it is parked up on the grassy run off areas after its engine expires, and the Google Earth colour scheme will enable round the globe changes to the 'blending in' qualities of the car.
Time will tell.