Elegant livery, a touch of red evokes Japan but also the classic cars of the late 90s Hakkinen era.
No new title sponsor on the car though Mclaren teamed up with CNN international who used to have a spot on Caterhams.
The nose, long and low, hangs over the front wing, without that quasi-obscene appendage on the 2014 car.
Oddly, for a company whose boss professed not to want to look back just last month, the shadow of the MP4/4 looms large. Can't disagree with that marketing decision but the Alonso-Button "Back to the Future' video?
Awkward would be the kind way to put it.
Ouch! The internet however did not miss the chance at a new meme
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| via F1B |
Discreet understated look. So when their new main sponsor comes out, it'll have a bigger impact. IMO
ReplyDeleteI'm of the mind that they're holding back on the official livery - this is a stop-gap. At least I hope that's the case. Too much silver, not enough red and definitely not enough sponsors.
ReplyDeleteThey always said if it looks fast, it is fast. The regulations are making these cars look slower and slower. They are painful to look at.
ReplyDeleteHow do you figure? It's been speculated '15 cars will be up to 3 sec/lap faster than last year's
ReplyDeleteAwfully strange they still have no title sponsor. I wonder if that's more Dennis being too picky rather than a lack of interest.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Honda let them get away with keeping so much (Mercedes) silver on the car.
I'll give them an A for effort on the campy video. Bad editing, I think the two of them are probably pretty funny together. It'd be nice to think that, anyways.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see about the other one. Sure would be a great story if Honda got the boys on the podium this year, wouldn't it?
Ehhh heh all they needed was a bigger turbo. Sure. I know they've all got something to prove but how often has such a big shake-up in house been a good idea? OTOH I suppose it's often the old codgers who get in the way of the kind of changes needed for the SF. I really hope they make some adjustement to the media approach - more HD videos on my favorite track blog are always welcome. *wink
ReplyDeleteAll I'm saying is can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. F1 cars always looked fast until 2008. Now with the silly noses and really high and skinny rear wings, they look contorted. When you hear from the engineers, they are designing within such a tight box of dimensions, there is no room for visual creativity.
ReplyDeleteThey might be faster in lap time, but when I see a 2014 or 2015 still image, they look terrible and look slow. Look at all the different types of cars racing in 1983. They all look different, but every one of them look like they are already going 200 mph. Look at the cars since 2009, they all look the same and they look like cars of the past would be faster than them.
I think I would enjoy watching historic F1 cars racing a whole lot more than the new crap. In 1986, Senna qualified over 8 seconds slow than the pole in 2014. But if you showed someone the video of both events without a stop watch, they would all say the 1986 cars of the past looked faster.
I think it will be a positive over the next few years. it certainly can't get worse than last year.
ReplyDeleteAs a rule, I tend not to get too excited about anything until the friday before the first race. None of the cars you'll see this week are the what you will see then.
ReplyDeleteThats the first thing I thought as well. The black and silver paint scheme looks like last years car. I bet that doesn't jive well Honda. Personally I'd like to see McLaren go back to the old school true Bruce McLaren orange. It would be a fine and fitting tribute to the man who started it all for the team.
ReplyDeleteI tend think of it the other way around.... if a car wins, it invariably becomes the car people identify with an era and so we forgive it any aesthetic issues. If a car is slow it's hard to love.
ReplyDeleteAnd this year's noses are simpler so (to me at least, from what we've seen of cars so far) more elegant.
Sure, I'd be interested to see vintage McLaren orange, or red/white Marlboro livery, but that was always Marlboro not Honda (and remember Ferrari even changed the red of the F1 cars to be the Marlboro RGB/Pantone or whatever once upon a time).
Regardless of how they all look I just hope they close the gap to one another (OK Mercedes) and we see a little more variety on the podium.... though having spent some time with Dan Ricciardo a few weeks back I confess I've gone from being an admirer of his talent to an ageing fan-boy.
And hey, if things don't go that well, you can shift the blame to Alfa-Romeo who have conveniently had their logo stuck onto the bonnet!
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