Posted on 16th March 2016
This morning the Renault team has revealed its new livery for the 2016 season, launching a yellow, black and gold colour scheme ahead of the Australian Grand Prix.
The new look replaces the black and yellow run in testing so far this year and also ties in with Renault's corporate colours. The livery features a matte finish as well as shiny gold panels towards the rear.
The car was launched at an event in Melbourne on Wednesday night and was revealed to the media on a surf board while drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer wore yellow swimming trunks. The car and its new colours will make its grand prix debut during Friday practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.
In a statement to the media this morning, team principal Cyril Abiteboul said the following about the livery that the team have gone for this season as follows:-
'Yellow is the traditional colour of Renault since 1946, so 70 years that we are celebrating with that colour. That says something about how true we can be to our history. But also along with the head of design at Renault we've been working on a couple of things to also make it interesting. “First and foremost it's matte to to also express some form of connection with the road cars that you can see in the Renault Sport range.
'You see some bits of black which we decided to keep because we understood there was a lot of enthusiasm for the car that we tested over the winter. And you see also something that will be even more visible on the actual car because obviously that's not the car that we will race on Friday – that could not be here, it's in bits – which is the gold at the back of the car.
'It will be even more visible again on the race car. It is a statement for where we want to be: gold and nothing else, nothing less than that.'
Overall, all you can say about the Renault livery is that the colour scheme that they have picked is what many fans were expecting and also what they was wanting too. I think it would have been stupid for Renault not to have gone back to their yellow scheme as Abiteboul rightly says that it runs in their history and is what they are associated for.
With the reaction on social media outlets such as Twitter from F1 fans being positive; it is clear that many fans really like the livery and are looking forward to seeing how Renault perform this weekend especially with their rookie driver GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer and ex McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen returning to the sport after a sabbatical year.
I do wish the Renault team the best of luck for the Australian GP and hope that their first GP back in the sport since 2009 is a reason to celebrate for them and shows they was right to come back into Formula One.
Keep your eyes peeled at Driving for Pleasure for the latest F1 news before the Australian GP.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
