Otmar Szafnauer has revealed the fascinating origin story behind Formula 1’s famous pink livery, sharing that Best Water Technology (BWT) initially approached Mercedes for a sponsorship deal before being turned away by the Brackley outfit’s board.
The former team boss, who oversaw the Silverstone-based Force India and, later, Racing Point squads during their vibrant pink era, shed light on the negotiations during an episode of the High Performance Racing podcast.
According to Szafnauer, BWT CEO Andreas Weissenbacher originally chose the striking pink colour scheme after attending a water technology trade show in Frankfurt. Realising that nearly every rival water filtration company used blue branding, Weissenbacher decided that pink was a way to genuinely stand out.
BWT initially knocked on the door of the reigning world champion at the time, Mercedes. “The Mercedes board said, ‘We’re the silver arrows, not the pink arrows,'” Szafnauer recounted. “They started talking about making them the pink arrows and Mercedes finally said no.”
However, rather than letting a lucrative sponsor walk away from Formula 1 entirely, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff sent BWT Szafnauer’s way.
“Toto said, ‘Well, instead of you just leaving Formula 1, how about you go talk to Otmar? I’m sure he’ll do it for you,'” Szafnauer revealed.
Andrew Green, Sahara Force India F1 Technical Director, Nikita Mazepin, Sahara Force India F1, Esteban Ocon, Sahara Force India F1, Sergio Perez, Sahara Force India and Otmar Szafnauer, Sahara Force India Formula One Team Chief Operating Officer
Photo by: Sahara Force India F1
Szafnauer confirmed that Wolff did not take a financial cut for facilitating the introduction, though he joked that he did buy the Mercedes chief a meal as a thank-you.
He added: “Within two weeks of talking to Andreas, I had to decide. We hadn’t signed the contract yet, he had paid us no money, and I had to decide whether to paint the cars pink for Melbourne or not.
“I rolled the dice, took a gamble on him because I thought to myself, ‘If we go there with pink cars and then they don’t pay, [team owner] Vijay Mallya is not going to be very happy.’ If we got rid of the Indian flag to make the cars pink, and now no money. But Andreas was true to his word, paid, and that’s where all the pink cars started.”
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