Refinish paint supplier, Spies Hecker, has revealed some of the secrets that it has used to help the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Teamachieve achieve the perfect finish on its cars.

The cars are renowned for looking sleek in their iconic silver liveries every season, and Andrew Moody, Head of Paint and Graphics at Mercedes-AMG Petronas has relied on the customised support and tailored product offerings from Spies Hecker for more than six years.

The new 2020 livery features a new burgundy colour on wing end plates, the engine cover and roll hoop on the chassis. This injection of a new colour is thanks to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s new Principal Partner, INEOS. The colour was digitally matched using the ColorDialog Phoenix spectrophotometer.

Andrew explains, “The burgundy isn’t quite as straightforward as it may look. There is also a five-colour fade from the burgundy into black, and in some areas on the race car it is across more than one component, so we need to ensure it is perfect. There is also a very fine black key line and a silver key line that outline the burgundy areas and the INEOS name is painted in white, so the process is fairly complex.”

The 2020 livery has more black, in this case EQ Black, a deeper, darker and more intense black. Another key change is that the flow lines no longer have the glowing edges that previous liveries have sported; all the flow lines now have defined, clean edges.

The Paint Shop uses a variety of Spies Hecker products, including Priomat® Wash Primer 4075, then either Permasolid® HS Vario Primer Surfacer 5340, a high solid primer surfacer, or Permasolid® HS Performance Surfacer 5320, a fast drying 2K HS sanding surfacer. The Team’s colour gradients are painted with Permahyd Hi-TEC 480 Basecoat and the paint shop finish components with Permasolid® HS Optimum Plus Clear 8650 or with Permasolid HS Race Clear 8700.

Joachim Hinz, Brand Manager for Spies Hecker in Europe says, “We were delighted to have extended our Official Team Supplier relationship with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team at the beginning of 2020 when we re-signed our contract. Like all Formula One fans, we hope that we will be able to see some racing once it is safe for the teams and fans.”