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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
The Ferrari F1 team will pay tribute to the company’s victory at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours with a special livery on its cars at the Italian Grand Prix.
Much like last year when it celebrated its 75th anniversary, this year’s Ferrari will feature yellow on its engine cover.
This year’s design is inspired by the livery that ran on the winning Ferrari 499P Hypercar at this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race.
“The SF-23 livery will pay tribute to that of the 499P which won the world’s most famous endurance race, in the form of the yellow “V” stripes that run down the side of the Hypercar, featuring on the nose and engine cover,” a press release said.
“The two cars already have the Rosso Le Mans red colour in common, with a matt finish on the Formula One car and gloss on the endurance racer.
“The race numbers – 16 and 55 – will also be yellow.”
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will also wear one-off race suits for the event featuring yellow details and special race helmets.
Ferrari has rarely used yellow in its liveries as the team has traditionally raced in red, which is Italy’s national racing colour.
However, when Enzo Ferrari designed the company’s prancing horse logo, he wrote, “The cavallino was and has remained black. I added the canary yellow background which is the colour of Modena.”
All-yellow Ferraris have raced in F1 before, albeit at the hands of privateers rather than the factory team. In 1961, Belgian Olivier Gendebien briefly led his home race in a yellow 156 “Sharknose” but was beaten to the chequered flag by three red factory Ferraris and ultimately finished fourth.
Source: www.espn.com