AkzoNobel and McLaren Racing shift partnership into top gear
Feb 03, 2022
The heat is on
Find out how we’re helping McLaren’s new F1 car to keep its cool
Another sizzling F1 season is underway – and things have really started to heat up now that McLaren Racing has unveiled its new MCL60.
Having extended our long-running partnership with McLaren Racing in 2022, we’re extremely proud to have remained their official supplier of coatings solutions for the last 14 years.
Heat-shielding
But let’s focus on the stunning MCL60. Given that F1 has now moved to wrapping cars in film – because it’s much lighter – any paint that’s used on the race cars tends to be highly specialized. We quite literally add an element of cool to the new MCL60 by providing heat-shielding in the shape of our Intertherm 50 high temperature coating.
It forms part of a sophisticated thermal management system which protects critical components surrounding the engine and exhaust. The added beauty of the high-performance product – apart from its striking silver color – is that a single coat is just 25 microns thick, around a third of the width of a human hair.
You’d have to be eagle-eyed to spot it, to be honest, but you’ll have no such problem checking out our Sikkens products. They’re being used across the McLaren Racing team’s portfolio, including their factory, transport, the pit lane garage and equipment. Luckily, none of those move quite as fast as the MCL60!
Driving innovation
We’ve actually achieved several improvements in paint technology since first teaming up with McLaren Racing in 2008. As well as contributing to the performance of their F1 cars, the advances we’ve made have also crossed over to drive innovation in other industries.
This kind of close collaboration has also expanded into other areas of our partnership. For example, our Coral brand recently worked with McLaren Racing on a “Let’s Colour” project near the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. A stunning mural was painted onto a local community center, which is designed to help raise awareness for gender equality.
