Mercedes revealed a one-off livery for this weekend's German Grand Prix to celebrate 125 years of Motorsport and its 200th Grand Prix entry.
The livery starts off white at the front – with retro logos – before revealing the traditional modern silver livery we all know, with the trasition between the two as though the white has been scraped off.
The reason behind this is because Mercedes-Benz traditionally wore a white livery when competing in motorsports – German racing white to be exact – but that all changed with the W25, which competed in the 1934 Eifelrennen.
As the story goes, the W25 originally wore white, but new rules introduced that year meant the car had to come under a maximum weight limit of 750kg, which it was narrowly over on the morning of the race.
In order to get below the weight, the Mercedes engineers scratched the white paint off of the car to reveal the bare metal below, which is of course silver, and that's how the Silver Arrows were born.
Hence why the celebratory livery looks as though the white paint has been scratched off, revealing the modern day livery beneath.
The design also features some neat details, including red numbering – which the W25 also had – and retro Mercedes, Pirelli and IWC logos.
