AkzoNobel and McLaren Racing shift partnership into top gear
Feb 03, 2022
Turning up the heat in F1
McLaren partnership gears up for 2025 season
Papaya power will once again help propel the McLaren Formula 1 Team into another exciting season.
Having unveiled its eye-popping new MCL39, the team is looking to build on the Constructor’s Championship it won last year.
And, as the McLaren Formula 1 Team’s Official Partner: Coatings Solutions, we’ll be eagerly following their progress through every lap, pit stop and checkered flag of the 2025 season.
Our long-running partnership first started in 2008 and we’re extremely proud to have maintained our close relationship for the last 17 years. One of the tasks we’ve focused on is ensuring that McLaren’s F1 car doesn’t only look effortlessly cool – it has to keep cool as well.
Sizzling skills
Because red hot lap times and sizzling chicane skills aren’t the only things that send temperatures soaring during a typical F1 Grand Prix.
Critical components surrounding the engine and exhaust of the cars also have to withstand heat that can nudge the mercury upwards of 1,000°C. So what can be done to keep these areas cool?
Flip over McLaren Racing’s MCL39 and you’ll notice that various parts of the underside feature our Intertherm 50 high temperature coating, which helps to provide heat shielding. Identified by its tell-tale silver coloring, it forms part of a sophisticated thermal management system.
“We heavily rely on Intertherm 50 as our general heat-resistant, reflective coating,” says McLaren’s Principal Composites Engineer, Steve Foster. “We also apply it to the internal surfaces of the heatshield – so the unmolded face gets a layer of Intertherm 50 as another protective barrier from the heat.”
Fascinating fact
So what is Intertherm 50 exactly? AkzoNobel’s Ian Fletcher, Senior Product Manager for Aesthetic and Temperature Resistant Coatings at our Marine and Protective Coatings business, has the answers. But before he gets technical, it’s time for a fascinating fact. A single coat of Intertherm 50 is just 25 microns thick, around a third of the width of a human hair.
“It’s an aluminum pigmented, thin-film silicone coating – its silver color comes from the aluminum,” explains Ian. “In the Marine and Protective Coatings business, we typically use Intertherm 50 on high temperature process pipes and equipment found in the oil and gas markets.
“McLaren has found that the aluminum in Intertherm 50 reflects a large amount of the infrared heat rays that hit it. This reflective property is why you see marathon runners wrapped in foil. The heat they give out is captured inside the blanket, which allows them to regulate their temperature as their body heat drops.”
Although we rarely get to see it, there’s clearly a completely different – and utterly fascinating – world lurking beneath the MCL39. For example, you’ll also find gold foil under there. But that’s another story.
You’ll have more luck spotting our Sikkens products, which are being used across the McLaren Racing team’s portfolio, including their factory, transport, the pit lane, garage and equipment. Luckily, none of those move quite as fast as the MCL39!
Driving innovation
We’ve actually achieved several improvements in paint technology since first teaming up with McLaren Racing in 2008. As well as contributing to the performance of their F1 cars, the advances we’ve made have also crossed over to drive innovation in other industries.
This kind of close collaboration has also expanded into other areas of our partnership. For example, our Coral brand recently worked with McLaren Racing on a “Let’s Colour” project near the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. A stunning mural was painted onto a local community center, which is designed to help raise awareness for gender equality.
