McLaren Honda will run a revised livery from next weekend’s Spanish GP, sources close to the team have confirmed.

It’s understood that the new version could be described as ‘shades of grey,’ with no chrome or silver, and that the change does not signal the arrival of a new sponsor.

The original 2015 livery caused a stir when it was first revealed due to its similarity to previous incarnations, although Ron Dennis insisted at the Jerez test in February that it reflected McLaren and not Mercedes heritage.

He said it would only change if there was a sound commercial reason – but then added that it would indeed change at some stage. He admitted that there had been a debate in the McLaren camp.

“We’ve got the same thing inside [the company],” Dennis said at the time. “You’ve got people who say ‘Why don’t we make it orange?,’ and I say, ‘Why?’ ‘That was the old colour of McLaren.’ ‘Well yeah you just said it, why the hell do we want to go backwards?’ Then what do you do? Do you create an aesthetically pleasing design? For what purpose do you produce an aesthetically pleasing design?

“This is the livery of McLaren, it’s always been a combination of these colours, and it will only change for commercial reasons, it wont change just to make a few people in the company happier because they want it orange, or they want it yellow. We tried to put a bit more of our real colour, which is dayglo.

“Fluorescent red is our colour. We’ve got more heritage in fluorescent red than any other colour. But again what I prefer to do is put a stylish design and as we evolve… it will be far more recognised if we suddenly come out with a light green car for the following reason, you’ll all go, yeah they’ve got a big amount of money coming in. Why would you react to Twitter?

Asked by this writer about the widespread association of the livery with Mercedes he said: “The car’s got a minimal amount of mirroring on it, I wouldn’t even call it silver. You’re voicing an opinion which lots of people voice, in the company, on Twitter, everything. But that’s a problem without a solution. Yes we could change colour, yes we could do something more daring, we could all these things, but give me a reason why? And if it’s just to aesthetically more pleasing, that’s not enough reason to me.”

However, pressed on the Mercedes connection, he finally admitted: “It will change, but I’m not going to say when…”