McLaren has presented a striking Gulf-inspired one-off livery that will adorn its MCL35M at next weekend’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
McLaren signed a multi-year agreement with Gulf Oil last July, reuniting with the firm, having previously been aligned between 1968-73 and at Le Mans in the 1990s.
Gulf’s iconic light blue and orange scheme has historically been applied on sportscars but it will now adorn the MCL35Ms of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris around the streets of Monaco.
The collaboration will also extend to driver overalls, helmets, team wear and its hospitality unit as a one-off for next weekend’s return to the Principality.
The helmets worn by Ricciardo and Norris will be raffled for McLaren’s mental health charity partner Mind.
A limited-edition merchandise range has also been launched in order to mark the occasion.
“Mike [Jones, Gulf Oil CEO] and I have known each other for some time,” explained McLaren CEO Zak Brown.
“It became pretty obvious that we should do something like this, because all of you know how iconic the Gulf livery is.
“Then we tasked our [design] teams with coming up with something that captured something really special, and I think they’ve delivered on that.”
The livery will make its on-track debut during opening practice on Thursday.
Gallery: McLaren’s one-off Gulf-inspired Monaco Grand Prix livery
“When we did the social media launch [of the McLaren partnership] in July – when we were sort of still in lockdown and we realised social media was the way to go – the fan reaction was unbelievable and we were taken back, and I think McLaren also, at the reaction we got,” said Jones.
“We were having fans who had created their own mock ups and they were sending personal messages to Zak on social media, saying why don’t you do this?
“I think it’s fair to say that even one of the drivers was very keen to do it. So Zak and I started thinking about the history of Gulf and McLaren and we took it from there.”
Really great to see Gulf livery on the track. Brings back fond memories.
Looks like fan art gone bad.