Watch: McLaren show their true colours with a new papaya orange and blue Formula One car

Former champions McLaren showed their true colours on Friday with a new papaya orange and blue Formula One car they hope will take them back up the starting grid after three nightmare years with Honda.

The MCL33 is the team's first to be powered by Renault, the manufacturer whose engines took Red Bull to three race wins last season.

The striking livery, on a car with plenty of space for sponsors after the departure of some big names in recent years, revives the colour first used half a century ago by team founder Bruce McLaren.

_______________

Read more:

Mercedes chief Toto Wolff would take 'a chainsaw' to F1's new halo

F1 2018 calendar: Race dates in UAE time as Lewis Hamilton bids for fifth world title

Hamilton very much the man to beat going into 2018 despite Bottas win in Abu Dhabi

Kevin Magnussen: F1 needs to be more competitive with more teams fighting at front

_______________

McLaren, dominant in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, have not won a race since 2012.

Their last title was with Lewis Hamilton, who has won three world titles since at Mercedes, in 2008 and the past three years have seen them plunge down the pecking order to ninth of the 10 teams competing in 2017.

The Honda engine's lack of power and reliability led to McLaren announcing the split last September, a decision with some design implications.

The first race is in Australia on March 25.