It was quite clear from studio shots taken ahead of the launch and tracks shots when it made its track debut (below), that the livery on the Spyker F8-VII was not quite right.

In certain conditions the car looked orange, just as it was meat to look, considering that Spyker is a Dutch company. However, in other conditions the car appeared a sort of day-glo orangey-red.

Consequently, ahead of the season opener in Melbourne, the Dutch team has revised its livery, with race fans getting their first glimpse of the new look (above) when Markus Winkelhock performed a shakedown at Silverstone today.

"We trialled the very bright colour in the first three tests of the year," said tesm boss Colin Kolles. "Whilst the bright orange was a very distinctive colour when you saw it in front of you in the garage or on the track, the colour didn't transfer well when filmed,"

"It's important for the Spyker brand that the colour is uniformally represented by all media," he admitted, "and we're confident this will be the case with the new colour scheme."

Following the shakedown, Winkelhock, who was having his first run in the new car, said: "We ran a shakedown of the third chassis today and completed the final control system tests. We didn't have any issues; it was mainly about making sure that the third chassis was reliable.

"As it's such a short run today, it's difficult to make an accurate comparison of the 2006 and the 2007 cars," he admitted, but I can tell the new car is more stable - it also looks fantastic."