McLaren are running with a special Gulf Formula 1 livery for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
The unique blue-and-orange livery has only been seen once in F1 history when Alessandro Pesenti-Rossi made a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.
Still, the livery is immediately recognisable among the motorsport fandom.
Ford decked out some of their Le Mans-winning GT40s in the zenith blue and orange, as did Porsche with their 917K monster that won the 24 Hour race in 1970 and 1971.
McLaren’s F1 GTRs used at Le Mans in the ’90s were also clad in the Gulf colour scheme.
The one-off Monaco livery resulted from the ‘incredible’ fan reaction received when McLaren announced their partnership with Gulf last year.
“We were having fans who had already created their own mock-ups and they were sending personal messages to Zak [Brown] on social media saying, ‘why don’t you do this?” said Gulf Oil CEO Mike Jones.
“So Zak and I started thinking about the history of Gulf and McLaren and what we could do and it developed from there.”
McLaren’s drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris will also don unique helmet designs to raise money for health charity partner Mind.
“To see the reaction of both Lando and Daniel as well as the whole McLaren team to this livery has been really special and we are thrilled to unveil it to motorsport fans around the world,” added Jones.
There are no plans to run the livery beyond the Monaco Grand Prix.
McLaren is likely to return to their customary papaya orange colours for the rest of the season.
The Monaco Grand Prix will be held over May 20-23 NZT.
