Discussion
EXKAY120 said:
Why are the Mercedes F1 cars painted black nowadays ? i thought they were alwaays silvers, hence "The Silver Arrows"
They’re actually unpainted this year, which has saved 2.5kg in weight. Toto said that last year’s silver car had 6kg of paint and stickers, and this year’s ‘black’ car has 3.5kg. The teams have all struggled to get these new cars down to the minimum weight, there’s lots of bare carbon on show this year across the grid. That 2.5kg is more than a lap of fuel, and saves them a tenth or two per lap. In 2020 and 2021 they were painted black, in solidarity with Lewis and a political campaign against racism, but otherwise they’ve always been silver since Mercedes came back into the sport in 2010.
The story of the 1930s Mercedes cars being stipped of paint to save weight, came from team manager Alfred Neubauer‘s memoir, but there was fair bit of artistic licence involved and it’s more of an urban legend at this point. In fact all German cars were silver, just as all Italian cars were red, French cars were blue, and British cars were green.
Fundoreen said:
Yep, paint weighs a lot. You can tell by picking up a can of paint.
It probably costs a big chunk of the budget to lose 2.5kg. Or you can not paint the car and save $$$.
Wolff said that over the winter they carried out a weight engineering exercise on every single part of the car, looking at anywhere they can take off a few grams and still meet the performance targets, without threatening reliability issues. It probably costs a big chunk of the budget to lose 2.5kg. Or you can not paint the car and save $$$.
It’s perhaps a little ironic that the greatest saving they found came from the marketing department, rather than the engineering department! Presumably someone in the paint shop suggested they they could get away with leaving most of the car unpainted, if they went back to the predominantly-black scheme.
Although the Mercedes is the most obvious, there’s a lot of black on this year’s cars in general. Everyone realised that using less paint was an easy weight loss when the car is too heavy. Even the Ferrari is black on the wings and bottom half of the chassis.
https://www.leagues24.com/sport-today/introducing-...
So they saved money on paint, cost of labour in the shop, and weight from the car. Win-win-win.
Sandpit Steve said:
The story of the 1930s Mercedes cars being stipped of paint to save weight, came from team manager Alfred Neubauer‘s memoir, but there was fair bit of artistic licence involved and it’s more of an urban legend at this point. In fact all German cars were silver, just as all Italian cars were red, French cars were blue, and British cars were green.
They used to be white - this is the 1914 Mercedes Grand Prix car
this is a racing Mercedes SSK -
Eric Mc said:
Sandpit Steve said:
The story of the 1930s Mercedes cars being stipped of paint to save weight, came from team manager Alfred Neubauer‘s memoir, but there was fair bit of artistic licence involved and it’s more of an urban legend at this point. In fact all German cars were silver, just as all Italian cars were red, French cars were blue, and British cars were green.
They used to be white - this is the 1914 Mercedes Grand Prix car
this is a racing Mercedes SSK -
EXKAY120 said:
Only one colour for the SILVER arrows surely.... regardless of what lives matter !
They were originally white because their lives matter, then then were silver because aliennation lives matter, then they were black because their lives matter. Very inclusive company Merc...Mercedes (and who are we to argue) have somewhat merged the lore of the ‘Silver Arrow’ and the ‘Three Pointed Star’ (Land, Sea & Air).
The cars still carry elements of Silver and indeed since their return to the sport they have worn a combination of Silver, Black and Petronas Aqua.
If you’re going to worry about the Silver Arrows then please don’t start concerning yourself with ‘Scarlet’ Ferrari’s which on occasion have been anything but scarlet!
The cars still carry elements of Silver and indeed since their return to the sport they have worn a combination of Silver, Black and Petronas Aqua.
If you’re going to worry about the Silver Arrows then please don’t start concerning yourself with ‘Scarlet’ Ferrari’s which on occasion have been anything but scarlet!
blackmme said:
Mercedes (and who are we to argue) have somewhat merged the lore of the ‘Silver Arrow’ and the ‘Three Pointed Star’ (Land, Sea & Air).
The cars still carry elements of Silver and indeed since their return to the sport they have worn a combination of Silver, Black and Petronas Aqua.
If you’re going to worry about the Silver Arrows then please don’t start concerning yourself with ‘Scarlet’ Ferrari’s which on occasion have been anything but scarlet!
The history of these colours is based on the "national colours" that all TEAMS taking part in recognised international events had to carry. Each country was allocated a colour or combination of colours. White - and later silver - was allocated to Germany so applied not only to Mercedes but ANY German entrant was supposed to be white/silver. That is why Auto Union and also Porsche cars were usually silver too.The cars still carry elements of Silver and indeed since their return to the sport they have worn a combination of Silver, Black and Petronas Aqua.
If you’re going to worry about the Silver Arrows then please don’t start concerning yourself with ‘Scarlet’ Ferrari’s which on occasion have been anything but scarlet!
If a Mercedes or Porsche was entered by a non-German team, then the car would not carry the usual silver colour but the colour of the entrant. I expect that Mercedes entered that red Merc in the name of an Italian team, so that they would have to be painted red.
Ecurie Belge often ran Ferraris, painted in Belgium's national colours, which was yellow.
David Piper ran his own Ferrari. As he was British, his Ferrari was (and still is) a lime green.
Stirling Moss often drove for Rob Walker's team, which was Scottish, so Walker cars were always painted in Scotland's national colours, which was not British Racing Green, but Scottish blue.
The governing bodies did not specify what shades of colour were to be used. British Racing Green or Italian Racing Red were not specific colours - so teams were free to use whatever shade of paint they had to hand.
geeks said:
Eric Mc said:
Sandpit Steve said:
The story of the 1930s Mercedes cars being stipped of paint to save weight, came from team manager Alfred Neubauer‘s memoir, but there was fair bit of artistic licence involved and it’s more of an urban legend at this point. In fact all German cars were silver, just as all Italian cars were red, French cars were blue, and British cars were green.
They used to be white - this is the 1914 Mercedes Grand Prix car
this is a racing Mercedes SSK -
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