26 replies to this topic

[316]

What's the story behind the color of Ferrari? Why red?

I have understood that the base color of Ferrari's logo is yellow, because that's the color of Modena, but I don't know the story about the red color.

[Scudetto]

From an old discussion of national racing colors from this thread.

Originally, national colors were as follows:
France was blue
Germany white
Belgium yellow
Britain green
America red.

The fact that no Americans made much of an impact in Europe resulted in red being taken over by the Italians - which is why today Ferraris are red.

German cars were white until 1934 when Mercedes-Benz decided to save weight by not painting its racing machines and Ferdinand Porsche, the Auto Union designer, decided to follow suit because he had minimalist tendencies. And so Germany's national color has become silver.

When American cars did race, such as Dan Gurney's Eagles, the color scheme was typically blue/white stripes.

Japan, with Honda's 60's foray in to F1 were white.

[Scudetto]

Atlas F1 member merlyn6 also posted this comprehensive list in the same thread:

COUNTRY COLORS OF CAR NUMBERS

Argentina Body: blue Red on white Hood: yellow Chassis: black

Belgium Body: yellow black

Brazil Body: pale yellow black Chassis and wheels:green

Canada Body: green white Stripes: white

Chile Body: red half blue- Hood: blue half red or Underframe: white all red on white

Cuba Body: yellow white on black Hood: black

Czechoslovakia Body: white blue Hood: blue and white Underframe: red

Egypt Pale violet red on white

Finland Black blue on white

France Blue white

Germany White red

Great Britain Green white

Holland Orange white


Hungary Body, front: white black Body, rear: green Hood: red

Irish Free State Green with horizontal white band of orange around body

Italy Red white

Luxembourg Pearlgray white on red

Mexico Gold white on black

Monaco White with red hori- black on white zontal band around body

Poland Body and hood: white red Underframe: red

Portugal Body and hood: red white Underframe: white

Scotland Green white

South Africa Body: Gold black on white Hood: green

Spain Hood: yellow black on yellow Body and chassis: red white on red

Sweden Body and hood, lower white part:blue-upper:yellow Three cross bands of blue on top of hood

Switzerland Hood: white black Body and underframe:red

Thailand Body and hood: white on blue pale blue with yellow horizontal band around body and hood Wheels: pale yellow

United States Body and hood: white blue on white Underframe: blue

Venezuela Body: white; Stripe:green

[baddog]

Italy's national racing colour was red. Ferrari is Italian. they never changed their colour with the onset of the sponsorship era

Shaun

[BMW FW22]

Originally posted by baddog
Italy's national racing colour was red. Ferrari is Italian. they never changed their colour with the onset of the sponsorship era

Shaun

hehe they did

[SeanValen]

Originally posted by BMW FW22


hehe they did

You talking about the different types of red, when it became more of a orange red, like soup rather then pigs blood?

[condor]

I thought it was Marlboro red....rather than Ferrari red

[Northern Boy]

Compared to the classic "Rosso Italiano," that Malboro "tomato soup mixed with milk" orange red is dreadful. I wonder if Ferrari will revert to their classic red after Marlboro leaves in 2006?
Then again I heard that Ferrari prefers the day-glo orangey red because it makes the cars show up better on TV, kinda like the why Jaguar uses a metallic green, as opposed to the less "TV friendly" traditional BRG.

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Current Ferrari bright red (Rosso Scuderia) composition/ratio:
5 red
2 orange
1 yellow.

[Mox]

Isn't there also a Rosso Corsa ?

Or was that solely for road cars ?

[Eau Red]

the Ferrari red isn't Marlboro red. Look at a Marlboro logo sometime. The cars are a TV-friendly red. Marlboro's red is much closer to the classic Ferrari red color.

[Bouleman]

I think Eau red is correct...
also, MS's helmet is actually not red at all.... it's bright orage (like construction worker orange) in real life, but looks red on tv.

[taran]

Originally posted by Scudetto
German cars were white until 1934 when Mercedes-Benz decided to save weight by not painting its racing machines and Ferdinand Porsche, the Auto Union designer, decided to follow suit because he had minimalist tendencies. And so Germany's national color has become silver.

Actually, Germany's national racing colour is white and has never been silver. Only Mercedes Benz and Auto Union raced in alu silver and because they were very successfull, it has become their colour of choice. Audi is the (remaining) descendent of Auto Union and therefore also races in silver when not bowing to sponsor pressure, just as Mercedes Benz. The other German manufacturers, notably BMW and Opel race in white!

Just look at their touring cars and sports/prototype cars for a quick reminder.

[aportinga]

I always thought that America was white w/blue stripes not the other way around???

And whether Ferrari is Marlboro red or not I believe that the change was per the request of Marlboro.... hee hee - I guess that was just the bigining of their demise.

Should have stuck with Berger and Alesi ;)

[François Bonaparte]

yellow.

red at Ferrari has another history. no one mystericaly could ever know.....

[Jackman]

Originally posted by baddog
Italy's national racing colour was red. Ferrari is Italian. they never changed their colour with the onset of the sponsorship era

John Surtees won his World Championship in 1964 in a blue and white Ferrari, painted in the colours of the North American Racing Team.

The reason for the Italian racing colours being red is that it was in honour of Garibaldi's red shirted soldiers.

[aportinga]

I thought it was a tribute to red pizza sauce..... oh no wait that's the new Ferrari red.

[logic]

I don't think red is the color of Ferrari. Ferrari's just are red.

[EricV]

Originally posted by baddog
Italy's national racing colour was red. Ferrari is Italian. they never changed their colour with the onset of the sponsorship era

Shaun

Actualy, in a way, they did change their colours. I don't remember how the story goes but at the end of the '64 season, for some reason Ferrari didn't enter their cars and drivers for the US and Mexican GP's under their own name. Instead the cars and drivers where entered by the "Northern American Racing Team", wich I think was set up by the US-Ferrari importer or something like that. For those races the Ferraris were painted in white and blue livery!

See: http://www.forix.com...10007_pvat_.jpg

In 1965 NART entered it's own Ferraris seperate from the official team for the US and Mexican GP's

[EricV]

Originally posted by Jackman
John Surtees won his World Championship in 1964 in a blue and white Ferrari, painted in the colours of the North American Racing Team.

The reason for the Italian racing colours being red is that it was in honour of Garibaldi's red shirted soldiers.

Ok, I should have checked for new messages in this thread after my search for the correct year and a nice pic of the white-blue Ferrari.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by EricV
Actualy, in a way, they did change their colours. I don't remember how the story goes but at the end of the '64 season, for some reason Ferrari didn't enter their cars and drivers for the US and Mexican GP's under their own name. Instead the cars and drivers where entered by the "Northern American Racing Team", which I think was set up by the US-Ferrari importer or something like that. For those races the Ferraris were painted in white and blue livery!

See: http://www.forix.com...10007_pvat_.jpg

In 1965 NART entered it's own Ferraris seperate from the official team for the US and Mexican GP's

Hence it wasn't really so that...

Originally posted by Jackman
John Surtees won his World Championship in 1964 in a blue and white Ferrari, painted in the colours of the North American Racing Team.

He completed the year in the NART-entered cars, which were painted in the blue and white... or was it white and blue?... you decide...



...unlike the usual colour (guess what?) that NART (aka Luigi Chinetti) ran on their cars.

The reason for the switch, including the extra trouble to get away from the usual 'Italian Racing Red', was that the Ferrari 250LM homologation didn't go as smoothly as Enzo had hoped.

Recall that in 1962 he hoodwinked the FIA (via the Italian body, I guess) into believing that twice as many GTOs as had been made were actually there in the workshops to be counted for homologation.

One of those august organisations was not about to let Ferrari do that to them again, so when Enzo found that the 250LM was losing pace against the Ford GT (later to become known as the Ford GT40), he endeavoured to convince the powers that be that 3.3-litre engines were standard equipment and that all the 3-litre cars that had left the factory had been retro-fitted with 3.3s. Which I'm sure most if not all were... but convincing them was another issue.

Result? Enzo had a big blue with them and didn't want to show his support for the authority of the Italian controlling body... the cars changed colour for the balance of the year, with suitable threats being thrown around to match the actions.

[Rob G]

And for the record, the 1965 NART-entered Ferrari F1 cars were painted red with a thin blue stripe down the center edged in white.

[Eric McLoughlin]

As usual, mythology often takes over these stories. There is no official Italian Racing Red (or British Racing Green) for that matter). The hues and shades of red and green used have varied over time - usually dependent on what was available in the workshops when the cars were being painted. Alfa Romeo's red seemed to have a much darker tone than what was normally seen on Ferraris. Even Ferrari red changed over time. All sorts of green have been used on British cars. Lotus green was quite pale compared to BRM's green. Even with that, early BRMs were often in a very light shade of green - and as for the green used on the UDT/Laystall cars!

[BMW FW22]

when i first saw a ferrari f1 in real live i though it was an arrows. IRL it is just orange, on TV it is red... strange

[michaelab]

Also, the "Rosso Corsa" red colour which is the colour of all red Ferrari road cars is much closer to the current Ferrari F1 colour than the old (darker) red. Strange, since "Rosso Corsa" means "racing red".

Michael.

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by Jackman
The reason for the Italian racing colours being red is that it was in honour of Garibaldi's red shirted soldiers.

Nice story, but not true. Italy got red as their "national" color from the AIACR after the USA didn't use it for several years.

Back to 316's original question for a second: I doubt that very few of today's fans have actually seen GP/F1 cars turned out in "national" colors for an event. One of the last times such an effort was attempted was at the German GP in the mid-1960's and Rob Walker ran his car in the "colours" of Scotland, dark blue with white noseband.....

Even in the 1950's this was a hit or miss sort of thing. After all, did you paint the car in the color of the country of the entrant or the country of origin of the machine? Red Maserati 250's entered by British and drivers/entrant of other nationalities were common. Just look at the color film of the 1957 French GP at Rouen and the race at Reims and look at all the red cars.....

[BuonoBruttoCattivo]

Originally posted by michaelab
Also, the "Rosso Corsa" red colour which is the colour of all red Ferrari road cars is much closer to the current Ferrari F1 colour than the old (darker) red. Strange, since "Rosso Corsa" means "racing red".

Michael.

Yeah, it is close but not that close upon close inspection/comparison.
Rosso Scuderia is really a brighter red (i.e. yellow and orange additions).
And mixed specifically for the TV thing.
Rosso Corsa is actually duller red, yet still quite bright afterall.
But today i saw the Enzo (current regular red, Rosso Corsa) and the Challenge Stradale (F1 red, Rosso Scuderia) at the NY Auto Show side by side and the differences in red are striking.
The Stradale was closer to orange/tangerine to some degree.
Very interesting indeed.

MS helmet is very flourescent red compared to car in real life, yet on TV the reds seem the same.