Ferrari has revealed the tweaked livery it will use at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the car company.
The one-off livery features a splash of yellow to pay homage to Modena, the hometown of the company’s founder, Enzo Ferrari. Yellow is one of the colours of Modena’s coat of arms and is also the reason for the yellow background on Ferrari’s famous prancing horse logo.
“The F1-75 livery will feature several touches of yellow, with black inserts,” a Ferrari news release said. “The changes, which are only planned for this race, will be visible on the front wing, around the halo, on the engine cover and the rear wing, the latter part also featuring the logo with the famous ‘F lunga’ in yellow on a black background and the same goes for the drivers’ race suits.”
March 12, 2022, marked 75 years since the first Ferrari, the 125 S, rolled out of the company’s factory in Maranello.
Enzo Ferrari had originally based his headquarters in Modena but moved the company to Maranello in 1942 in the belief his hometown would become a more likely target for Allied bombing during World War II.
Yellow has rarely been used in Ferrari’s 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.