Ferrari and Rosso

Each country had racing colors. Italy used red.
The racing Alfas were red also.

Germany was silver (and sometimes white).
England was British racing green (BRG).
France was blue (e.g. Tour de France Blue).
USA used either white with blue stripes or blue with white stripes (called "competition stripes").
Japan used white with a red circle on it (the Sun symbol).

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Seems like I read somewhere that Enzo preferred a different color than red? .... but really didnt have a say in the matter.


quote:

back when the F1 championship was first conceived, motor racing was very much a gentlemanly pursuit, far removed from the sponsorship nonsense we have today. Which meant each car entered was run in the "national colours" of their country of origin. So we had British Racing Green, German Racing Silver, French Racing Blue, American Racing Different Blue, and so on. And we had Rosso Corsa, Italian for 'racing red'. The colour of Italian F1 cars throughout history.

http://patronisef1.com/index.php/features/in-memory-of/1958-in-memory-offerraris-rosso-corsa

 

The Alfas he raced were Rossa and if I am not mistaken Francesco Baracca's plane was also Rossa, recognize the stallion?
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As a sidenote, original italian racing red was a blood red, much darker than today's Rosso Corsa. The closest color in the current range is Rosso Mugello.

 

just to be clear, the old rules applied to the owner of the car, not necessarily to the country of manufacture. There were racing Ferraris painted in the national color of their new owners from the day they left the Factory.

Like ours - original owner, Francois Picard of France - so French Racing Blue.

I believe our car is very unusual in that, when Picard traded it back in to the Factory after a summer of racing, Ferrari did not bother painting it red before they stuck Ferrari team shields on the car and ran it as a Factory entry in the Grand Prix of Venezuela in late 1955. Pic w/ Castellotti driving.
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To add to those colours, Belgium was yellow.

 

True... and red was the customary national racing color of Italy

 

IIRC i read that red was in fact italy's racing color when home, when away from home was yellow, but i can't confirm that

 

I have never heard that, and do not think it is correct, but I am always ready to be enlightened. There were quite a few competition Ferraris that ran in yellow in the 50s and 60s, mostly because of the two great Belgian teams, Ecurie Nationale Belge and Ecurie Francorchamps.

see this link (posted above) for the comprehensive list of national racing colors, including alternate color schemes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_auto_racing_colors

Pic of the great Ferrari driver Olivier Gendenbien, driving the Ferrari 156 sharknose for the Ecurie Nationale Belge in 1961.
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Just as an add on, I believe Germany's official racing color was White, however legend has it the silver arrows (and most german racing cars later) were silver because the Mercedes Team stripped the paint off their cars in an effort to save weight.

 

yes, i've seen that good link ....i haven't found where i read that, but it's entirely possible they mistaken the ecurie team cars as factor effort, and extrapolated the color use

funny though, how even today, we think of Ferrari first in rosso, then second in yellow?