Lando Norris says he "pestered" McLaren boss Zak Brown for several years to include chrome in its F1 cars' liveries, having grown up admiring the striking design of the team's Vodafone-liveried machines.
McLaren unveiled on Monday a special one-off livery that it will run in this week's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The MCL60's chrome and papaya robe highlights the Woking-based outfit's partnership with its sponsor, Google Chrome, but it's also a throwback to a period from 2006 to 2014 when chrome featured prominently on its cars.
So Norris has finally seen his longtime wish granted, albeit for just one race weekend.
"For me, walking down the boulevard [at McLaren's factory], as much as I would love a white and bright orange car – that livery was amazing – there is no other car nowadays that is like the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes that we had back then, and that’s what I grew up watching," he said.
"That’s what I fell in love with. In many ways, I can say that it inspired me to become a Formula 1 driver. Because before that, I was more into MotoGP and motorbikes.
"I didn’t really know much about racing and then I got into watching some Formula 1 and it was Lewis [Hamilton] versus Fernando [Alonso], even though they were in the same team, and that’s what I fell in love with.
"Every year, I’ve been pestering Zak to go back a little bit in this direction. I know it’s just for one race but it’s cool to relive a little bit what got me into Formula 1."
On social media, many McLaren fans bemoaned the fact that the team had not gone 'all in' with a full chrome livery.
But Brown explained the rationale behind the blend of past and present chosen by McLaren.
"We want to keep our papaya identity," said the McLaren racing boss.
"It’s very important to us that we do a nod to the past but also very much look to the future.
"There is also so many times you can change the livery to extremes – so, what we did in Monaco a couple of years ago, you’re only allowed to do a couple of times and then there are variations of the base scheme that you can have a little bit more often.
"But rules aside, it was very important to us [to remain similar]. We’re trying to build our association with papaya. Ferrari is red and Mercedes have their colour identity. We get a lot of feedback from fans that really like the papaya so that’s why we have the combination."
Brown said that there were also performance consideration to take into account.
"We could have gone further if we had wanted to in that sense," he added.
"Again, papaya is very important to us. Back when the car was chrome before, it had Vodafone’s rocket red. Of course, that was more chrome than this.
"But you also need to take things into consideration like weight. Obviously, we still have the carbon fibre, so it was a combination of rationale to get there. But the lead one was that we don’t want to lose the papaya identity."
At this year's Indy 500, as part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, Arrow McLaren rolled out three special liveries for its cars that celebrated the team's historic Triple Crown achievement. It extended that nod to its heritage to its F1 car at Monaco and in Barcelona.
But Brown underscored the importance of relying only sparingly on special liveries for its cars to preserve their "uniqueness".
"It’s great for the fans and I think we do want to keep it on a limited basis, otherwise it loses its uniqueness and specialness and it’s good to have a reason behind each one," he explained.
"I also like how Formula 1 has so many different cultures. In Miami, not everyone was a fan of the introductions but that was how the US does sport, so I think it’s good to grab the culture of different venues that we race at.
"There are limitations on how often you can do this and to what degree, so I do think Formula 1 has struck a right balance on the frequency and the degree in which we are allowed to do this."
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