Ode to the ‘Red Pig’
Coming race weekend in Formula 1 it may sometimes be a bit difficult to keep the cars of Mercedes and Ferrari apart. The Mercedes-AMG team drives with a partly red livery.
Every now and then Formula 1 teams give their cars a slightly different look to celebrate an anniversary or the destination where they race. Mercedes-AMG F1 pays tribute to the ‘Red Pig’ in Belgium this weekend, a 300 SEL converted for racing by AMG that took first place in its class at the 1971 Spa 24 Hours. A very heavy but very strong thing, which was jokingly described by spectators as a ‘red sow’ during that race. It was certainly a somewhat clumsy creation, but apparently one that could stand its ground in that tough race.
The ‘Rote Sau’, literally ‘red sow’.
This special piece of AMG history returns for a while at Spa in the form of a partly red livery on the F1 car from Mercedes. From the nose to just behind the cockpit, the W13 is partly red this weekend. Also, the driver numbers are large on the sides of the car, in a white circle as on the 300 SEL. It is to be hoped for Mercedes that the special livery will not be a repeat of what happened the last time the team had a different livery. That was at the 2019 German GP, ​​when Valtteri Bottas crashed and Lewis Hamilton had a dramatically long pit stop after hitting the wall to change his front wing.
.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl