McLaren is binning the papaya for a beautiful 1966 throwback at Silverstone
Papaya takes a weekend off as McLaren reaches back to where it all began
McLaren is doing something special on home soil. For this weekend's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the team is setting aside its famous papaya orange for a striking, mostly white livery that pays tribute to the car that started it all back in 1966. It is a rare thing to see those McLarens without their signature colour, and the reason behind the switch makes it all the more fitting.
A tribute to the M2B
The new look draws directly from the McLaren M2B, the team's very first Formula 1 car, which made its debut at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. McLaren describes the predominantly white livery as a visual link between past and present, drawn from the machine that launched its grand prix story. It arrives just months after the team marked its 1,000th grand prix, which it celebrated with an orange-and-black scheme at Monaco earlier in the year.
Why Silverstone, and why now
The British Grand Prix is the perfect stage for the tribute. It was here in 1966 that founder Bruce McLaren scored the team's first championship point, so honouring the M2B at Silverstone ties the celebration neatly to a genuine piece of McLaren history. The livery was developed in partnership with Google Gemini under the Spark What's Next campaign, with the two playing up shared values around innovation and possibility.
On the cars of Norris and Piastri
Both McLaren drivers, championship contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, will run the heritage design over the British Grand Prix weekend, which takes place from 3 to 5 July. It is a one-off, so the papaya returns straight afterwards. McLaren CMO Louise McEwen called the livery "a celebration of where we began and everything we have built since."
AutoNext Take
Special liveries can feel like cynical marketing, but this one is hard to argue with. Tying the design to the M2B and to Bruce McLaren's first point at the very same circuit gives it real meaning rather than just a fresh wrap for the cameras, and a clean white McLaren is genuinely gorgeous in its own right. The only quibble is that papaya has become such a strong part of McLaren's modern identity that a one-off feels almost too brief. Do it justice with a strong result, though, and this could be one of the standout looks of the season.
For more McLaren heritage, the team recently unveiled a Mika Hakkinen statue in Woking. In the wider F1 season, see the heat hazard at the Austrian Grand Prix and Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari win in Barcelona.
