McLaren will have “a new look and feel” in 2018 in terms of its branding and livery, according to executive director Zak Brown.

Having joined McLaren at the end of 2016, one of Brown’s first decisions involved bringing back an orange livery in a nod to the iconic color used by the team from 1968-71. With the start of a new partnership with Renault in 2018 and a number of new sponsors expected to be announced this year, Brown says some of the recent changes will be anchored with a fresh image this year.

“You could really see why this racing team has won as many world championships as they have [in 2017],” Brown (pictured at right, above) said. “We’re hungry, and I think a hungry McLaren is potentially a dangerous place for our competition. We retained our two drivers that we wanted, we got Lando Norris on board, so we think we have a world champion for the future.

“We are going to have a new look and feel for next season, from our garage to our car. We’ve got some new sponsors coming on board so really what was exciting about 2017 was all the preparation we did for 2018.”

Brown even ranks McLaren’s off-track achievements as a major success story despite a lack of results under Honda power last year.

“Once we knew we were in trouble, we never gave up – and nor did Honda – we tried as much as we could up until the last lap in Abu Dhabi, including Fernando [Alonso] practicing his donuts for future victories! Indianapolis was awesome – that was a great, positive distraction for us.

“When we look back, on-track was probably the worst year in McLaren’s history, but if you separate that out it was probably one of the best years in McLaren’s history. We’ve got our ownership group combined so we’re now one McLaren – where the automotive business was a somewhat separate group of shareholders – so lots of positives came from last year.

“We’re going into 2018 really hungry and with equipment that we think is going to get us to the front of the field.”