McLaren has dropped the latest in a series of hints that it will reintroduce orange to its livery next year.
A return to an orange -- or part orange -- livery has been rumoured ever since McLaren announced the launch date of its car with a tweet featuring an orange countdown clock earlier this month. Since then, speculation has gathered pace with a series of hints via the team's social media outlets.
The latest came via a new cover photo on McLaren's Facebook and Twitter pages, featuring an orange outline of a car and the date of the launch. It followed confirmation from McLaren that it had passed its crash tests, with a quote from racing director Eric Boullier saying "now to get it painted".
.@eboullier: "After a lot of hard work, I want to say thanks to those who helped us pass the @fia's crash tests. Now to get it painted...!" pic.twitter.com/qPRJZNHq3O
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) January 25, 2017
McLaren's association with the colour goes back to 1967 when the orange livery of a rival Can-Am car caught the eye of co-director Teddy Mayer. The following year, McLaren's Can-Am and Formula One cars were decked out in a distinctive orange livery that made the team stand out from the rest of the pack. The livery remained on the cars until 1971, after which the cars became predominantly white as part of a new sponsorship deal with Yardley Tobacco.
Full orange liveries returned during testing in the late 1990s and mid-2000s, but McLaren's former CEO Ron Dennis was always reluctant to return to a retro livery for an entire season.
"It was the old colour of McLaren," Dennis said when asked about an orange livery ahead of the 2015 season. "Why the hell do we want to go backwards?
"[The livery] won't change just to make a few people in the company happier because they want it orange or they want it yellow."
However, with Dennis gone McLaren's new commecial boss Zak Brown has already hinted at a big change to the livery for the upcoming season.
"We've shown it to the guys and girls at McLaren and we're very excited for our future," he said at the Autosport International show earlier this month. "We've just signed off on the car livery and I think the fans will be excited to find out what the car looks like both technically and visually."