Photo: WTCC Media

New car liveries on display at WTCC Monza season launch

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The new liveries and sponsors for a number of cars taking part in the 2017 World Touring Car Championship season were on display today at the Autodromo di Monza, as 11 cars of the soon to be announced 16-car entry took part in the official pre-season test session.

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s complex liveries for John Filippi (main), and Tom Chilton and Mehdi Bennani (below) followed last season’s design, with green, red, blue and white the make up of most the team’s liveries.

03 CHILTON Tom (gbr) Citroen C Elysee team Sebastien Loeb racing action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI. 25 BENNANI Mehdi (mar) Citroen C Elysee team Sebastien Loeb racing action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.

Perhaps gathering more attention was Münnich Motorsport, now running a Citroën C-Elysée WTCC for Rob Huff. The German team’s approach to livery design was very much “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, applying the design they’ve used since their GT World Championship days on Huff’s car, which topped the time sheets in both of the day’s test sessions.

12 HUFF Rob (gbr) Citroen C Elysee team All Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.

After only being seen in the livery of Lada’s title sponsor Rosneft for the past two seasons, RC Motorsport, the team which will run the cars this year feature a Franco-Russian livery, with Yann Ehrlacher, the nephew of Yvan Muller, competing with both his uncle’s race number of the past two years as well as his race helmet design.

68 EHRLACHER Yann (fra) Lada Vesta team RC motorsport action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.

Polestar Cyan Racing haven’t changed their design so much for 2017, with slightly different sponsor arrangements. The main changes are within the cars, with Néstor Girolami driving the #61 Volvo S60 TC1, while Yvan Muller filled in for Nicky Catsburg in the #63 car alongside Thed Bjork.

62 BJORK Thed (swe) Volvo S60 team Polestar Cyan racing action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI. 61 GIROLAMI Nestor (arg) Volvo S60 team Polestar Cyan racing action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI. MULLER Yvan (fra) Volvo WTCC development driver ambiance portrait during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.

Honda revealed their liveries in the morning, unchanged since last year. Castrol backing will appear on both Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz’s cars, while Ryo Michigami will run the black Honda livery which was used by Michelisz last year.

18 MONTEIRO Tiago (por) Honda Civic team Castrol Honda action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI. 34 MICHIGAMI Ryo (jpn) Honda Civic team Honda racing Jas action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI. 05 MICHELISZ Norbert (hun) Honda Civic team Castrol Honda action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.

Dutch driver Tom Coronel returns with the same car and sponsors last year in his Chevrolet Cruze, which was the only one of the RML-built cars on track.

09 CORONEL Tom (ned) Chevrolet Cruze RML team Roal Motorsport action during the 2017 FIA WTCC World Touring Car Test at Monza March 13 to 15 - Photo Francois Flamand / DPPI.