Rosso corsa

Rosso Corsa is the red international motor racing colour of Italy. Since the 1920s, Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and later Ferrari and Abarth were (and often still are) painted in "rosso corsa" ("race red"). This was the customary national racing colour of Italy, as recommended between the World Wars by the organisations that later would become the FIA. In that scheme of international auto racing colors, French cars like Bugatti were blue, German like BMW and Porsche white (since 1934 also Silver Arrows), British racing green etc.

The colour was not determined by the country the car was made in, nor by the nationality of the driver(s), but by the nationality of the team that entered the vehicle. For example, a yellow Ferrari 156 was entered and driven in the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix by Olivier Gendebien from Belgium, scoring 4th behind 3 other Ferrari 156 painted in red, as they were entered by the Scuderia Ferrari itself, but driven by Americans Phil Hill and Richie Ginther as well as German Wolfgang von Trips.

These national colours were mostly replaced by sponsor liveries since 1968, but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red. The shade of the colour varies, though. Since 1996, the Ferrari F1 cars are painted in a brighter, very orange "Marlboro Red," to adjust for color balance on television screens. The original Rosso Corsa may appear almost dark brown in older television sets. The darker, more crimson or claret-like shade of red made a return on the F1 cars at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix, possibly in line with the increasing market presence of higher quality, high definition television. In recent years, these traditional colours have resurfaced in some cases, eg. the green Jaguar Racing F1 cars.

Curiously, Ferrari won the 1964 World championship with John Surtees by competing the last two races in Ferrari 158 cars painted white and blue, as these were not entered by the Italian factory themselves, but the US-based NART team. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.