McLaren set to bring back the papaya in 2018!

McLaren's Zak Brown says that McLaren is in the final stages of deciding its 2018 livery, with the team possibly opting for a return to its historical papaya color.

McLaren fans were engaged last year before the official presentation of the MCL32 in a teasing campaign centered around a change of livery, and ultimately the team went for an unsophisticated orange and black scheme.

Depending on the outcome of ongoing talks with McLaren's 2018 sponsors, a dominant papaya orange livery similar to the one Fernando Alonso ran at the Indy 500 this year could be chosen.

"We are starting to look at car designs now," said Zak Brown.

"I think the fans want us to go to Papaya Orange for sure. When we did the IndyCar we had an overwhelming amount of 'Please make your F1 car like that'.

"We are waiting on a few sponsor decisions which also can dictate what a car looks like. I wouldn’t rule it out."

• Alonso reveals McLaren contract is multi-year deal

While sponsors' requirements could add a contrast in colors, Brown says McLaren won't totally rebrand its livery to suit a single commercial partner, as Force India did this year with water sponsor BWT.

"We have all sorts of designs going on, but we need to see where we land on some of the sponsor activity and that will dictate a bit of that," added Brown.

"We would like to keep some orange. We think it is part of our identity, especially moving forward. But we are a commercial entity. Pink might be a bit extreme though."

The American executive also revealed that the presence of a traditional title sponsor at McLaren is an unlikely prospect.

"We’ve got a lot of room on our car for partners," he said.

"I am very encouraged with the activity that we have and I would definitely anticipate some new partners coming on board next year. I don’t think we will have a title sponsor per se.

"I think the title of the team is McLaren. Unlike NASCAR where the team gets referenced by the title partner, that doesn’t really happen in F1.

"So I think to be a title partner doesn’t give you the benefit that it does in other series.

"I think we are more along the lines of having a couple of major partners and I think we should have that for next year."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter