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Honda launched their new livery this morning at London’s Natural History Museum (something that caused a bit of humour among the paddock last week), and as suggested yesterday, the car will be adorned with an Earth graphic. The team have chosen to move away from the now traditional trend of flooding the car with sponsors and the new look is more minimal, and thus certainly more striking.

The rear wing of the Honda RA107 features a website address – myearthdream.com (due to be launched on 27th February) – which intends to involve people and help environmental charities by allowing people to add their name to the car. The idea being that you visit the site, pledge your support and donate some money and Honda will list your name on the site, and also add your name to the car in the form of a tiny pixel that will help make up the image of the earth.

The strategy behind promoting the earth on a Formula One car doesn’t spring to mind as a great one initially, but actually I think it is the way forward. Much has been said recently about the future of motor racing in a time when global warming is on the tip of most people’s tongues, and F1 will undoubtedly be going green in the not too distant future. Honda have simply jumped on the bandwagon earlier than other teams, and are doing it in a very loud and public way. This kind of promotion will go down well in Honda’s R&D department, where they develop the future of motoring via hybrid cars that dramtically reduce emissions. In fact, this will do down very well with the Honda Motor Company and will further promote their cause and improve their reputation.

Climate change is probably the single biggest issue facing our planet and F1 is not immune from it. On the contrary we believe that F1 with its huge global profile and cutting edge technology can play an important role in not only highlighting the issues but also playing our part in developing solutions. In addition, the FIA recognises the opportunity for F1 to play an important role in developing technologies for the benefit of society long term. For example, by 2009, devices for energy recovery will be in place on the cars.

So we at Honda F1 are proud to dedicate our car to the environmental challenge. We believe that solutions can stem directly from engineers working on our F1 program and are working harder than ever to achieve our dreams and win the World Championship while embracing and underscoring Honda’s environmental ethos.

First and foremost, we are a race team and F1 is very much a team sport. We achieve our racing objectives only by working together and parallels can be drawn with the way that we must all join together to address the environmental challenge. We hope that in raising awareness and highlighting the issues we will encourage members of the public to come together and help take on the challenge of climate change. Nick Fry.

But all that aside, what do people think of the new F1 car? Is it a looker, or is it a bit silly? What do you think?

Formula One, F1, Honda, Livery