Gulf Oil, the Williams F1 sponsor and the company behind McLaren\u2019s stunning 2021 Monaco Grand Prix livery, has found itself at the centre of a saga over its football shirt sponsorship of Swansea City.<\/p>\n
Swansea, the Welsh club currently competing in the Championship, second tier of English soccer, released their third kit for the new season earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Gulf football kit released after special McLaren, Williams F1 liveries<\/p>\n
The shirt, which carries the Gulf logo, features the instantly recognisable light-blue-and-orange colours of the oil company, with a large orange stripe running down the middle.<\/p>\n
In a statement to mark the launch of the shirt, Swansea said that the \u2018the vibrant design reflects the numerous famous Gulf motorsport liveries that have adorned some of the greatest racing cars in history, such as the Ford GT40, Porsche 917 and the McLaren F1 GTR.\u2019<\/p>\n
The best F1 liveries<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The best F1 liveries that never made it out of pre-season testing<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a08 of the ugliest looking liveries on F1 cars this century<\/a><\/p>\n McLaren ran a one-off Gulf livery at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, with Williams running a similar design at the Singapore, Japanese and Qatar grands prix in 2023.<\/p>\n Despite being well received, it has emerged that the Swansea third kit may have forced a last-minute change of plan for Ebbsfleet United, who were forced to redesign their new away kit earlier this summer.<\/p>\n Ebbsfleet originally produced a blue-and-orange away kit for the 2025\/26 season, featuring a similar orange stripe running down the middle of the shirt.<\/p>\n However, Ebbsfleet announced on June 5 that the kit had been taken \u2018off sale for a short period of time\u2019 to allow kit supplier Admiral \u2018to make some design alterations.\u2019<\/p>\n The away kit was relaunched on June 27 with the orange stripe replaced by yellow.<\/p>\n In a statement, Ebbsfleet said that \u2018the design change is due to the impending release of a similar kit in the global market which was only brought to our attention after our initial, well-received kit launch, and it was suggested that the design be altered.\u2019<\/p>\n It is unclear who made the suggestion to change Ebbsfleet\u2019s away kit.<\/p>\n More on McLaren and Williams from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 McLaren news<\/a><\/p>\n