McLaren will run this wonderful Gulf livery at the Monaco GP

McLaren has announced that it’ll run this brilliantly retro Gulf livery on both of its cars for the entirety of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

McLaren and Gulf Oil signed a deal that made them ‘strategic partners’ (whatever that is) back in July last year, and we secretly hoped that this year’s F1 car would carry the iconic light blue and orange livery for the whole 2021 campaign.

This isn’t the first time that Gulf colours have appeared on a McLaren racer of course, who could forget the glorious F1 GTR Longtail that finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997? Yep, the very one that also happened to carry the logo of one Top Gear Magazine. Here’s a period picture to brighten your day…

It’s not just the cars that McLaren is repainting for Monaco, though. Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris will apparently both wear new helmets with retro designs and the whole team will get limited-edition Gulf kit. 

It’s worth noting that Lando and Daniel’s helmets from the weekend will then be raffled off for the team’s mental health charity partner, Mind.

What do we think, folks? Certainly suits the MCL35M, doesn’t it?