Thousands of hours and thousands of parts.

With such an intricate livery on the car, Moody and his team face tough challenges. Over the course of this season, they will paint literally thousands of panels and components.

Work doesn't stop after the race.

After every race, the Build Department strips the cars and then the individual parts are sent to Moody’s team in the paint shop. The parts are checked carefully and then usually repainted.

It may seem rather excessive to refinish the entire car after every race, but as Moody explains, there are valid reasons for it. “Consider qualifying or racing somewhere like Abu Dhabi or Bahrain, where there is a lot of sand in the air.

A part that requires refinishing is first weighed, then stripped of its coatings, repainted, weighed again, inspected, and only then is it returned to the Build Department.

The team keeps a detailed record of each part’s weight history until that part becomes unusable. This is to ensure a part doesn’t “gain” weight over the course of its life. Some parts may be a tiny bit heavier after their first paint and will be slighter lighter after their second and subsequent repaints.

Most parts have a life span of four or five repaints, while some have shorter lifespans, often due to the substrate being very thin – perhaps only 1mil thick - or because the design might change.

Not just race cars.

Spies Hecker isn’t reserved for the race cars though. There are eight team trucks that are painted with Spies Hecker about every two years. And Moody’s team paints hundreds, if not thousands, of garage and hospitality boards, as well as everything from grid trollies and water bottles, to the engineer’s station on the pit wall.