It's almost here — American's favorite racing month — the Month of May. And as teams and drivers gear up for the annual Open Test and Rookie Orientation Program leading into the rest of the Indianapolis 500 May traditions, so comes the announcements of some special one-off liveries. One you might not expect though, is from the Arrow McLaren garage, who won't be sporting its iconic Papaya orange and black livery. In fact, Papaya won't be the signature color on any of its Arrow McLaren Hondas for the 109th running of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."
This year, each of the Arrow McLaren's Honda cars will be dressed in their own "bespoke" livery associated with McLaren Racing's "Never Stop Racing" campaign -- which may perhaps make it easier to tell the difference between Pato O'Ward in the #5, Nolan Siegel in the #6, Christian Lundgaard in the #7, and the daring "Double" weekend driver (attempting both the 500 and the Coke 600), Kyle Larson in the #17.
Instead of Papaya orange and black, the four cars will feature white, with unique accents. O'Ward's #5 car is white, with a black nose and side pods, but the iconic orange color featured on his number, the side mirrors, the ends of the wing and the wing. Siegel's car will feature a brilliant blue in the spots that are painted black on O'Ward's car, with similar orange trimmings. Lundgaard's #7 car will feature the most Papaya orange... as the nose, wings and side pods will all be painted in the iconic color against the white car. And then there's finally Larson's #17 Arrow McLaren-Hendrick entry, revealed earlier this month, which will be dressed in a lot of the Amazon Prime blue, with orange accents on the nose and rear wing.
The four liveries will see their first bit of track time this week on Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24, as IndyCar carries out its annual Open Test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the month of racing. Veterans will be taking to the oval for a bit before rookies and drivers who need a refresher on the oval are able to take to the track as a requirement for series drivers who want to run any oval event on the IndyCar schedule.
You can see all four liveries and of course the Arrow McLaren drivers in action at the IndyCar test live on YouTube both days here:
The Month of May in its entirety then kicks off May 9-10 for the Sonsio Grand Prix on Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course. Practice days are the following week with the lead up to Fast Friday on May 16, and the "Bump Day" weekend, May 17-18, as 34 drivers compete for 33 grid spots. The 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 is the following Sunday, May 25.
