Álvaro Koke

Ferrari, HP and the unusual blue in the Cavallino

On some occasions, Maranello cars have been blue instead of their traditional red

Ahead of the sixth grand prix of the Formula 1 season, the Miami Grand Prix – the first of three races to be held this year on American soil, the result of the influence of Liberty Media, Ferrari has prepared a special tribute. It is not just a special decoration, but one that honors the Cavallino brand’s often forgotten past. Furthermore, there is an important change in Ferrari when it associates with the technology giant Hewlett Packard: this has led to it officially changing the name to Scuderia Ferrari HP, in addition to adding the logo to both the overalls and the cover of the engine of the SF-24 of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

In the week before the Miami Grand Prix, official photos were shown of Sainz and Leclerc posing in their new suits, which swapped Ferrari’s usual Rosso Corsa for a light blue that hadn’t been seen in decades. Specifically, the Azzurro La Plata that Ferrari mechanics wore in the 1970s. It is curious that this tone was chosen when it was the Ferrari mechanics who used this color: the drivers, on the other hand, wore blue overalls with a darker tone, with Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni being some of the most iconic. Later, all Ferrari drivers would wear red (except Gilles Villeneuve, for example, who is remembered more in white).

The news of the agreement with HP is important for historical issues regarding those of Maranello. Until now, only Marlboro had been the main sponsor of Ferrari, being so from the 1990s until the ban on tobacco brands came to F1, causing some of the most iconic liveries of the premier class to disappear. Marlboro, in one way or another, has remained linked to Ferrari to this day with logos such as Mission Winnow. Before the alliance with Marlboro, it had never had a main sponsor as McLaren had Marlboro precisely, Williams had Canon and Rothmans, Renault had Mild Seven (just like Benetton before), Lotus had John Player Special, Ligier had Gauloises, Jordan (a team that, today, is Aston Martin) to Benson & Hedges, among a long etcetera.

For some, this change of color to something that is not red might seem like heresy, but it is neither the first nor the second time it has happened in the premier class. In fact, shades of red have already been changed, such as for Ferrari’s 1,000th grand prix – when, in Mugello, they showed the 2020 SF-1000 (sadly remembered for its horrible results) in a garnet red color reminiscent of the beginnings of the myth that Enzo Ferrari built decades ago. The Azzurro La Plata has also been confirmed for the rims, a striking detail for historical reasons.

Several blue Ferraris in Formula 1

In the same trailer shown by Ferrari, Leclerc and Sainz are seen commenting on the color design and how they would be combined on the SF-24. In these images a direct reference is made to the Ferrari 158 with which the British John Surtees won the world title in 1964, just 60 years ago. A car that started the season as red, but due to the refusal of the Automobile Club d’Italia (and later the International Sports Commission) to homologate it as a GT (although as a prototype, thus winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965) to Enzo Ferrari the 250LM the first competition Ferrari with a central engine instead of an engine on the front axle. Enraged, Il Commendatore decided not to take the official team to the last two races of the year.

Surtees and his teammate Lorenzo Bandini raced the grand prix of the United States and Mexico (here accompanied by Pedro Rodríguez) with their Ferraris painted in the white and blue color of the NART (North American Racing Team, founded by Luigi Chinetti in 1958). With these colors, Surtees would famously become the first world champion on two and four wheels, becoming one of the great legends of both worlds after beating none other than Graham Hill and Jim Clark, the two-year-old champions. previous. In fact, Clark’s abandonment due to a broken engine on the last lap of Mexico, added to the incident between Hill and Bandini, led Surtees to the title.

In addition to this blue and white Ferrari, the following year NART would also line up a red Ferrari with blue wheels (the same tone that the Scuderia has shown in its teaser) and a white and blue stripe from end to end of the car, a single-seater that would carry the American Bob Bondurant after Surtees suffered an accident testing a Lola T70, an accident from which he emerged with one part of his body a few centimeters shorter than the other. It would be precisely the 250 LM of the NART that would win at Le Mans 1965, the last victory of the Cavallino brand in the legendary endurance race before the one achieved in 2023 by the AF Corse with the 499P Hypercar against the Toyota GR010.

What few people remember is that there were other blue F1 Ferraris. In chronological order, none other than ‘El Maestro’ Juan Manuel Fangio drove a blue and yellow Ferrari on one occasion, although it was not a scoring grand prix on that occasion. Years later, in 1953, the Frenchman Louis Rosier would carry a Ferrari 500 (in those years in which Formula 2 cars were competed) of cyan color, similar to the Azzurro La Plata that Ferrari used for the monkeys on this occasion. Outside of F1 it is more common to see official Ferraris (or at least with official support) that wear colors other than red, such as the silver Ferrari 296 GT3 of AF Corse in the World Endurance Championship this 2024 season, the yellow 499P of the same team that runs as a third unit along with the two official ones.

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