Exclusive: Lando Norris explains why McLaren didn't go full chrome livery for Silverstone

McLaren head into the British Grand Prix this weekend with a new livery that nods back to the full chrome car of the mid 2000s, but some fans aren't 100% satisfied.

Fans of McLaren have often called for a return of the shiny chrome livery that the cars had back in the mid to late 00s when Lewis Hamilton was driving for them.

Lando Norris has been one of the people pushing Zak Brown's team to go old school, as the iconic chrome adorned the McLaren car when he started supporting the team he now drives for.

The reveal of the livery for Silverstone this weekend was exciting but because it's not fully chrome like it used to be some aren't too happy.

Speaking exclusively to SPORTbible, Norris revealed that the reason they couldn't go back to full silver was down to the performance drop off that would cause.

"For certain reasons, you're not able to just do it nowadays," the 23-year-old told us.

"Performance is key and even if you could go back in time and change things, you wouldn't have a full silver car 10 years ago.

"Paint is too heavy, most teams now use vinyl, as it's much lighter and you can change it much easier. And it [paint] is just slower. If you had a full car in silver, it's slower.

"If you ask me: 'Do you want slower car?' I say 'no.'

"I don't care how it looks on the outside. I want the quickest car that I can get."

"So I get, maybe some fans will be disappointed and want the full silver car like 2008/2009. But performance is the number one driving factor nowadays. There's no other compromise to make.

"Of course, we need some things, if you still want to have a pretty looking car. But just we can't do what we used to do.

"So there's compromises that had to be made. And I think we came away with the perfect compromise of all of it. I think it's still a modern revamp of what we once had. And I think that's good enough."

Norris driving at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix. Image: Getty

On the special occasion that brought about the livery, the McLaren driver added: "It's the 60th anniversary for McLaren. It reminds me a little bit of my childhood because that's when I started to support McLaren was 2007. And that's when they had this livery.

"So it's especially nice for my home race as well. It's kind of like a big mash up of different circumstances and events and so on. And I think there's gonna make it a very special event and weekend."

No doubt the team will be hoping for a repeat of their 2008 success with the chrome, when Heikki Kovalainen won the British Grand Prix and Hamilton went on to win the drivers' championship for the first time.