The famous pink paint that marked Force India in Formula 1 was born from a negotiation that started with Mercedes. Otmar Szafnauer revealed that Toto Wolff was key in directing BWT to the Silverstone-based team.
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According to the former Force India and Racing Point boss, the water technology company had initially approached Mercedes to close a sponsorship deal. BWT’s idea was to use pink to differentiate itself from competitors, who mainly adopted blue in their visual identities.
Szafnauer stated that the proposal was ultimately rejected by Mercedes after the team evaluated the possibility of abandoning its traditional silver identity: “Mercedes’ board said: ‘We are the Silver Arrows, not the Pink Arrows’,” he said. Faced with the refusal, Wolff decided to direct the company to Szafnauer, preventing it from leaving Formula 1.
“Toto said: ‘Well, instead of you simply leaving Formula 1, why don’t you talk to Otmar? I’m sure he will do it for you’,” Szafnauer revealed on the High Performance Racing podcast. He also stated that Wolff did not receive any financial part for the referral, although he paid for a dinner for the Mercedes boss as thanks.
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The deal, however, required a quick decision from Szafnauer: “Within two weeks I had to decide. We hadn’t signed the contract yet, they hadn’t paid us any money, and I needed to decide whether to paint the cars pink for Melbourne or not,” he added.
Szafnauer took the risk and bet that Andreas Weissenbacher, CEO of BWT, would keep his word: “He was true to his word, paid, and that’s when all the pink cars started,” concluded the former team boss.
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