Oilpressure

Several times before, I’ve mentioned here how much I enjoy the unveiling of new liveries. A couple of weeks ago, I detailed how we learned back in the early 90s, what new liveries we would be seeing for the upcoming year – mostly through the various motorsports magazines. I don’t think I’m the only one. Apparently, the teams and sponsors know how much we fans enjoy this; because they put together slick graphics that enhance the newest liveries. They also make sure to go on a social media campaign with photos and videos detailing the refreshed look of their car.

Arrow McLaren had the unveiling of their 2024 IndyCar liveries last week, and they released renderings for their three cars over a three-day period – last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; allowing each team to have their day in the spotlight. (All photos supplied by Arrow McLaren)

Tuesday was the day for the release of Alexander Rossi’s No. 7 car.

Wednesday was the day we saw what the No. 6 car of David Malukas would look like.

Thursday was the day for Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 car.

One thing I notice immediately was that Rossi’s car closely resembled the car that Felix Rosenqvist drove in last year’s Indianapolis 500, which was a tribute car to the Marlboro McLaren’s driven in the 80s and 90s in Formula One. It was thinly disguised as carrying the famous Marlboro Chevron. They did some very minor alterations to the orange chevrons, just to make sure it didn’t violate the standards set forth with the Tobacco Act of 2003, that mandated Marlboro off of the cars in 2003, the Marlboro Team Penske name off of the cars after the 2006 season and the disappearance of the trademark chevrons by the 2010 season.

Most fans loved seeing the return of such an iconic paint scheme in motorsports. No fewer than nine times has a car donning the famous Marlboro chevrons, driven into Victory Lane for the Indianapolis 500. Emerson Fittipaldi (1989 & 1993), Rick Mears (1991), Al Unser, Jr. (1994), Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002 & 2009) the late Gil de Ferran (2003) and Sam Hornish (2006) all drove Indianapolis 500 winning cars carrying those familiar reddish orange chevrons. Something about the angles of those stripes made the cars look fast , even when sitting still.

I’m not normally a very astute person. I’m usually the last person to notice something that is very apparent to everyone else, but this is one time when I may be ahead of the curve – either that or I’m seeing something that isn’t really there.

Wednesday, I made a comment on my usual group text of IndyCar friends that I liked the fact that McLaren is sort of incorporating the Marlboro chevron into their liveries this year. My friends said they somehow had not realized that, but once they looked at it and realized it, they said “Very cool”.

Am I seeing something that isn’t there? I’ve not seen anything in Arrow McLaren’s launch material that confirms they are purposely using the chevrons, but I can’t imagine it is accidental or coincidental. Maybe they are purposely not mentioning anything about it and are just letting fans come to their own conclusions or interpretations. Whatever the case, I sure do like them – all three of them.

Tell me what you think? Do you see it too? Did you notice it before I pointed it out? Do you like them or hate them? These are going to be some fast looking cars, even sitting on the grid before the opening race at St. Petersburg. I can’t wait to see them under the sunlight.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on February 12, 2024 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.