The Mercedes team will look a little different at this weekend’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with world champion Kimi Antonelli and George Russell switching to purple race suits instead of their usual black and turquoise.

The design was revealed on Tuesday at the Nubank Parque in Sao Paulo, the stadium of football club Palmeiras, as part of the team’s partnership with Brazilian bank Nubank. Both drivers will wear the suits in all sessions of the race weekend.

“Inspired by the past. Built for the New. Welcome, to the Nu Era,” Antonelli wrote on Instagram. “New look for this weekend!”

Designed by Mercedes, the suits borrow from those worn in the 1980s and 1990s, the period when Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna won their titles. The campaign’s slogan is “Inspired by the Golden Era, Built for the New Era”.

The two shades both come from the bank. The dark base is taken from Ultravioleta, its premium card, and the lighter purple represents its largest customer base.

The reveal came with a film featuring both drivers, narrated by Gabriel Leone, who played Senna in Netflix’s series about the three-time champion. Its soundtrack is the Tema da Vitoria, the music that TV Globo played when Brazilian drivers won in F1, and which is closely tied to Senna’s career.

It is the second time Mercedes has done this in 2026. At the Miami Grand Prix in May, the team used three different purple suits, one for each day of the weekend, with each design carrying coordinates connected to Nubank’s expansion. Antonelli went on to win that race.

Victoria Johnson, Mercedes’ marketing operations chief, said the reaction to those suits made the team excited to take the idea further in Sao Paulo.

“The partnership with Nu is based on finding bold and meaningful ways to bring fans closer to our team. The purple race suits are an excellent expression of that ambition, uniting Nu’s unmistakable identity with our own while celebrating the incredible passion Brazil has for Formula 1. After the reaction to our purple suits in Miami earlier this year, it is exciting to take this concept even further in Sao Paulo and create something unique for one of the most passionate race weekends of the season.”

Nubank co-founder Cristina Junqueira added: “The Sao Paulo Grand Prix is a special round for Brazilians, for Nubank, because it takes place in the city where it was founded, and for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team drivers.”

The suits will also be on show at the Nubank House, a free exhibition for the bank’s customers running at the stadium until Sunday. It also includes a replica W17 and a suit worn by Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Nubank says interest in F1 is growing quickly in Brazil. Using Ibope data, it said the first 10 races of 2026 reached 52.8 million people in the country, already more than the whole of the 2025 season.

Mercedes will have more to celebrate than a new look if things go its way on Sunday, as it can wrap up the constructors’ championship at Interlagos.