Ron Dennis said today that he would only change the current McLaren livery if there was a commercial reason to do so – and then went on to confirm that it will indeed change, but he would not say when.
McLaren is known to still be in discussions with Santander about a continuation of its sponsorship deal, and that could be one of the triggers for a change from the colourscheme that has not proved popular with the public.
“We’ve got the same thing inside [the company],” he said. “You’ve got people who say ‘Why don’t we make it orange?,’ and I say, ‘Why?’ ‘That was the old colour of McLaren.’ ‘Well yeah you just said it, why the hell do we want to go backwards?’ Then what do you do? Do you create an aesthetically pleasing design? For what purpose do you produce an aesthetically pleasing design?
“This is the livery of McLaren, it’s always been a combination of these colours, and it will only change for commercial reasons, it wont change just to make a few people in the company happier because they want it orange, or they want it yellow. We tried to put a bit more of our real colour, which is dayglo.
“Fluorescent red is our colour. We’ve got more heritage in fluorescent red than any other colour. But again what I prefer to do is put a stylish design and as we evolve… it will be far more recognised if we suddenly come out with a light green car for the following reason, you’ll all go, yeah they’ve got a big amount of money coming in. Why would you react to Twitter?
Asked by this writer about the widespread association of the current livery with Mercedes he said: “The car’s got a minimal amount of mirroring on it, I wouldn’t even call it silver. You’re voicing an opinion which lots of people voice, in the company, on Twitter, everything. But that’s a problem without a solution. Yes we could change colour, yes we could do something more daring, we could all these things, but give me a reason why? And if it’s just to aesthetically more pleasing, that’s not enough reason to me.”
However, pressed on the Mercedes connection, he finally admitted: “It will change, but I’m not going to say when…”
Meanwhile when asked for his opinion by this writer Honda F1 boss Yasuhisa Arai said: “I can’t say what colour I like. It depends on the sponsors, the fans, our future direction. We have to think about many things.”
The likelihood of a change was predicted by this blog last week: https://adamcooperf1.com/2015/01/29/will-mclaren-change-its-livery-for-start-of-the-season/
Adam Cooper F1 
They need to get the car to run more than 6 laps and soon
It’s kind of shocking how indecisive he’s being about the colo(u)r scheme given how easy it was it to decide on the drivers for 2015.
:rolls eyes:
Agreed.
I’m finding it hard to believe these recent quotes are from the Ron Dennis of Ronspeak old.
Especially when you take into account how he previously has been very proud to remind us all of the association with Bruce McLaren, and the resulting McLaren Orange livery of test car’s seen previous years.
I can only hope the perceived indecisiveness, and lack of composure we’re seeing from RD, is a simple blip in getting the McLaren Honda effort up and, competitively running.
Personally, he should have signed off the new car reveal in McLaren Orange.
He would not accept that people see it as a Mercedes livery. Intriguing that he is adamant that dayglo red is the true McLaren colour. He has to find a way to use it without shouting ‘Marlboro’!
What this tells me is who is in charge, no doubt about that, for sure!