Half Mercedes, Half Honda

Personal Commentary. 

Today is the start of the consecutive F1 car launches and it is the day I get to see the pictures of how the MP430 would turn out to be. With its renewed partnership with Honda, I was most eager for McLaren's MP430 reveal. I expected something refreshing and yet a car with some room for colours of the past successful years with Honda, as a representation of appreciation.

Alas, all my expectations for the MP430 have simply gone down the trash. The presence of a chrome livery is still present and the lack of red was a let down. It did not paint the MP430 in a way that McLaren has moved on from Mercedes. In all honesty, it took me a few minutes to actually believe that McLaren will be driving car that not only look like a Hispania/Force India/Sauber but they will basically just be driving a car with an unfilled livery. It is such a plain sight as compared to the first car reveal of the VJM08 our eyes were given to feast on last week. Fernando Alonso's, Jenson Button's and Kevin Magnussen's race suits looked too bright whereas their challenger looked too dark. I am surprised by the lack of sponsors they have on their cars.

For the most part, I like the colours of the livery and shape in some ways but I can't help piecing the different F1 car models of the past, ending up with the image of the MP430. It looks like the 2015 F1 cars have been produced in a copy and paste fashion. I kinda dislike the colours too because they won't be the first car to draw my attention at all. It is in dire need of the dazzling factor to make it stand out on track.

Rumour has it that the colours we see on the MP430 is just a test colour and that it will change in time for the Australian GP in March. If that turns out to be true, I sure do hope they will get rid of the chrome and black because we have too many cars on the dark side (if you know what I mean). If they decide to retain these colours, good luck to us on differentiating which car is which in the first few races of the season.


McLaren:

Fernando Alonso 14                                                                             Jenson  Button 22