30 June 2026 15:30 (UTC)
"Our Silverstone livery is a celebration of where we began and everything we have built since"
McLaren Racing today revealed a special one-off livery in partnership with Google Gemini, set to run on the MCL40 at the 2026 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Shaped by the campaign tagline, Spark What’s Next, the design celebrates the breakthrough ideas that started a legacy and honours the car that ignited McLaren Racing’s Formula 1 journey, the McLaren M2B.
The livery takes inspiration from the team’s first-ever Formula 1 car, which made its debut at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. In the same year, Bruce McLaren also secured the team’s first point in Formula 1 at the British Grand Prix, marking the beginning of a journey that continues to define the team today.
Unveiled as part of McLaren Racing’s ongoing celebrations of its heritage, the livery reflects the team’s relentless drive to innovate, iterate, and empower possibility – a message central to the partnership between McLaren Racing and Gemini. It builds on the team’s 1,000th Grand Prix milestone earlier this season in Monaco, where two-time World Champion Mika Häkkinen drove the M2B around the Circuit de Monaco in tribute to McLaren’s origins.
The Silverstone livery serves as a visual link between past and present, drawing directly from the car that started it all. Through Spark What’s Next, McLaren Racing and Gemini are celebrating the power of bold ideas to shape the future. From the M2B in 1966 to today’s MCL40, each McLaren car has built upon the innovations that came before it.
Over the course of a single season, a Formula 1 car can undergo approximately 18,000 design changes, demonstrating the team’s commitment to continuous improvement. The M2B represents the starting point of that journey, while the 2026 livery highlights how far performance and technology have evolved.
The collaboration with Gemini reflects a shared belief in empowering human possibility, turning ideas into action through technology, enabling the team to push boundaries both on and off track. Gemini’s creative tools such as Nano Banana and Omni are used to support ideation, concept development and the delivery of brand campaigns.
On the track, McLaren Racing is using Gemini Enterprise to make faster decisions under pressure. In partnership with Google Cloud, the team built a custom Gemini-powered tool that allows trackside engineers to quickly search and compare dense sporting regulations during a race. They are also developing a natural language interface using Gemini Enterprise that enables their engineers to pull data from multiple siloed systems at once, drastically accelerating the time it takes to analyze and compare critical workflows like lap-time metrics.
Fans will have the opportunity to explore the livery up close at McLaren Racing and Gemini’s joint activation at the Truman Brewery in East London. The Gemini Paddock, a multi-day fan experience, is free to the public and will open on Thursday for the duration of the British Grand Prix weekend.
“Our Silverstone livery is a celebration of where we began and everything we have built since. The McLaren M2B represents the start of a journey defined by relentless innovation and a belief in possibility, and this design brings that spirit to life. Our partnership with Google Gemini is grounded in those same principles. Together, we are exploring how technology can unlock new ways to innovate, iterate and push performance forward, both on and off the track. This livery is a powerful expression of that shared mindset, honouring our heritage while looking firmly to the future.”
“From sparking creative ideas with the Gemini app to securely turning complex datasets into real-time trackside intelligence with Gemini Enterprise, McLaren is showing what it means to harness the power of AI. We're excited to continue exploring new ways Gemini can fuel their creativity, business, and trackside strategy.”
