Rosso Corsa is the red

Red

Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...

 international motor racing colour of cars entered by teams from Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Since the 1920s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...

, Maserati

Maserati

Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...

, Lancia

Lancia

Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and which became part of the Fiat Group in 1969. The company has a long history of producing distinctive cars and also has a strong rally heritage. Some modern Lancias are seen as presenting a more...

, and later Ferrari

Ferrari

Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...

 and Abarth

Abarth

Abarth is an Italian racing car maker founded by Austrian-Italian Carlo Abarth and Italian Armando Scagliarini in Turin in 1949. Its logo depicts a stylized scorpion on a red and yellow background.- History :...

 have been painted in rosso corsa ("racing red"). This was the customary national racing colour of Italy as recommended between the world wars by the organisations that later became the FIA. In that scheme of international auto racing colours French cars were blue (Bleu de France

Bleu de France (colour)

Bleu de France is the traditional colour of France. It was used by all French teams as a national colour used by the Kings of France in heraldry since the 12th century, but it is also a brighter version the blue colour of the present flag of France, the so called French tricolour...

), British cars were green (British racing green

British racing green

British racing green or BRG, a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green , takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of Britain. Although there is still some debate as to an exact hue for BRG, currently the term is used to denote a spectrum of...

), etc.

The colour was not determined by the country the car was made in nor by the nationality of the driver(s) but by the nationality of the team entering the vehicle. A yellow Ferrari 156 was entered and driven in the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix

1961 Belgian Grand Prix

The 1961 Belgian Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on 18 June 1961 at Spa-Francorchamps.The organizers of the race invited 25 entries, but were only going to pay starting money to 19: sixteen pre-selected cars plus the 3 fastest of the remaining 9. Three of the cars without starting money...

 by Olivier Gendebien

Olivier Gendebien

Olivier Gendebien was a war hero and race car driver. He has been cited as "one of the greatest sportscar racers of all time".-Background:...

 from Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, scoring 4th behind 3 other Ferrari 156s painted in red as they were entered by the Scuderia Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari

Scuderia Ferrari is the racing team division of the Ferrari automobile marque. The team currently only races in Formula One but has competed in numerous classes of motorsport since its formation in 1929, including sportscar racing....

 itself, and driven by US

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 drivers Phil Hill

Phil Hill

Philip Toll Hill, Jr., was a United States automobile racer and the only American-born driver to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship. Hill was described as a "thoughtful, gentle man" and once said, "I'm in the wrong business. I don't want to beat anybody, I don't want to be the big hero...

 and Richie Ginther

Richie Ginther

Paul Richard "Richie" Ginther was a racecar driver from the United States. During a varied career, the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix saw Ginther take Honda's first Grand Prix victory, a victory which would also prove to be Ginther's only win in Formula One...

 as well as German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Wolfgang von Trips.

National colours were mostly replaced by commercial sponsor liveries in 1968, but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red but the shade of the colour varies. Since 1996 Ferrari F1 cars are painted in a brighter, almost orange day-glo to adjust for colour balance on television screens. The original Rosso Corsa may appear almost dark brown in older television sets. The darker more crimson

Crimson

Crimson is a strong, bright, deep red color. It is originally the color of the dye produced from a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, but the name is now also used as a generic term for those slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose; besides crimson itself, these colors include...

 or claret

Claret

Claret is a name primarily used in British English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France.-Usage:Claret derives from the French clairet, a now uncommon dark rosé and the most common wine exported from Bordeaux until the 18th century...

-like shade of red made a return on the F1 cars at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix

2007 Monaco Grand Prix

The 2007 Monaco Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race and was the fifth round of the 2007 Formula One season. It took place from 24–27 May at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo. The race itself commenced at 14:00 CET , Sunday, May 27, and lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes...

, possibly in line with the increasing market presence of higher quality high definition television.

In recent years the traditional colours have resurfaced in a few cases such as the green Jaguar Racing

Jaguar Racing

Jaguar Racing was a Formula One team that competed in the FIA Formula One World Championship from 2000 to 2004. It was formed from the purchase by Ford of Jackie Stewart's Stewart Grand Prix Formula One team in June 1999. Ford renamed the team Jaguar Racing as part of its global marketing...

 F1 cars, the white BMW Sauber F1 or the silver Mercedes.

Ferrari won the 1964 World championship with John Surtees

John Surtees

John Surtees, OBE is a British former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and Formula One driver from England. He was 500cc motorcycle World Champion in 1956 and 1958–60, Formula One World Champion in 1964, and remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels...

 by competing the last two races in Ferrari 158

Ferrari 158

The Ferrari 158 was a racecar made by Ferrari in 1964 as a successor to the V6-powered Ferrari 156 F1 that had dominated in 1961 but become outdated by 1962. As with the British competition, it had a V8 engine...

 cars painted white and blue - the national colours of the teams from the United States - as these were entered not by the Italian factory themselves but by the US-based NART

North American Racing Team

The North American Racing Team was created by Luigi Chinetti to promote the Ferrari marque in America through success in Gran Turismo motorsport....

team. This was done as a protest against the agreement between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding their planned mid-engined Ferrari race car.