Launches

The Last New Livery of 2012 is also the First New Livery of 2012

March 6, 2012 | 5 Comments

HRT, then. Is this lovely, or is it hideous? I can’t tell. I think it has elements of both.

   
The initial joyous thought of “Wow, that’s different!” gives way to disappointment when you start to scrutinise it a bit, I think. There seems to be no logical reason behind the choice of colours – there’s certainly no new sponsor mandating it – and so it can’t help but feel a bit arbitrary, or like they saw the unused 2007 Force India livery and thought “Hey, it’s a shame that never made it to a race, let’s do a tribute to it!” I also don’t know what the heck the fluorescent paint splash on the inside of the rear wing endplate is all about – although I suppose we should be thankful that KH-7, whoever they are, aren’t paying enough to get the whole car painted that way. I also question the way the two colours have been applied and distributed – it looks good on the engine cover, but less so on the side of the monocoque.

Despite all this, though, it’s not that bad on the whole. I loved last year’s design at launch, but it grew old quite quickly, and ditching the “This Could Be You” nonsense was long overdue before the season had even ended, so it’s good that it hasn’t been carried over to this year. As it is, while it could do with more sponsors, it doesn’t do a bad job of looking smart without – and the one main sponsor they do have actually works surprisingly well, despite TATA’s blue ostensibly clashing with the colour scheme. The amount of white, though, means it’s successfully and cleanly separated – a lesson from which the more cluttered Sauber could surely take note.

It’s not a look that screams “This is a team that’s going places”, or even “This is a team that has a coherent visual identity”, but thankfully it’s also not a look that says “We couldn’t be bothered coming up with a new livery”, and for that I have to applaud them, given how utterly barren this year has been for entirely new paint jobs.

The less said about those uniforms, though, the better. Yeesh.

Marussia? I hardly know her!

March 5, 2012 | 2 Comments

Hooray! It’s a new livery that doesn’t just look exactly the same as the old livery! Huzzah!

 
Okay, so Marussia haven’t made the dramatic change that we might have expected from their taking over the Virgin team – they haven’t taken the opportunity to put their own blue/white/red colour scheme on the car, instead sticking with the established look of predominantly red and black, with white and grey trim.

But what they have done, at least, is change it up a little bit – in the first revealed pic (left) it looks less different from last year’s, with only the altered nose pattern standing out, but in profile view (right) we can more clearly see that it now takes on a diagonal, striped pattern. It’s at least distinctive, even if it looks a little bit too much like Dennis the Menace’s jumper, and even though it’s a shame the red now looks as orangey as it does, as the darker-looking shade on the 2010 car seemed to suit it a lot better. It is, just about, an improvement on last year – even with those slightly odd, blocky, boxed race numbers on the sidepods and nose tip, and even with the fairly awkward Marussia logo on the engine cover. And like many current cars, it could do with some more sponsors on its profile, but that’s a general F1 malaise rather than being specific to this team.

Not fantastic, then, but not terrible either – and at least, unlike many around them, the team actually seem bothered about freshening up the livery each year…

Williams’ latest retro livery is… a Brabham?

February 8, 2012 | 10 Comments

Well, this is an odd one. I’m still slightly wary of actually calling this the full 2012 Williams livery, because… well, because there’s so much of that dark blue, that’s usually the preserve of their testing-only liveries. But by the same token… it’s got lines on it and stuff, so it is a designed livery, so we can probably assume that this is how the cars are going to roll out at the races.

And it’s weird.

 
As much as I liked the Rothmans-tribute livery, I can sort of see the reasons behind not running it again (despite how great it would look with Renault logos added) – it didn’t really serve all that much purpose, and although I’ve no idea whether this was actually a consideration at the team’s end or not, there may have been a touch of sensitivity over having a Senna drive a car in that colour scheme.

But still, something just doesn’t feel quite right about this. Keeping red as a third colour, in deference to PDVSA, is fine – and the subtle stripe on the engine cover is a nice touch. Indeed, the whole area from the sidepod to the rear wheels, at least below cockpit height, looks really good. There, the livery actually looks like it’s been designed to fit the lines of the car. But elsewhere? I’m not so sure. It’s the airbox that does it, I think – there doesn’t seem to be a reason why there’s a completely horizontal white stripe, separating one blue area from another. Surely the airbox would look better in white, as on last year’s car?

The odd distribution of patterns extends to the nose area – okay, I know there’s barely anything that can be done to make these horrendous stepped noses look good, but the white sections on and around the nose simply feel arbitrarily-placed. They don’t serve any sort of aesthetic purpose to the livery as a whole – the nose and monocoque certainly need some white, to balance the section above the sidepods, but what’s there doesn’t do the job, and simply makes the main monocoque area feel like there’s something missing. It’s a livery that, all in all, creates a weird disconnect in the brain, because it’s instinctively not right – it just feels broken, somehow. Not keen on those incredibly cheap-looking uniforms, either.

In fact, if the livery – particularly given the shade of blue – calls to mind anything, then rather than a previous classic Williams car, it’s this:

… and I somehow doubt it was the original intent. Although, you know, if Williams do intend to start using their cars to pay tribute to classic racers from other British teams besides themselves, can I put in a request for a J191 livery next year?

Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Black Lotus

February 8, 2012 | 3 Comments

Yes, folks! It’s time for another exciting installment of Rounding Up 2012 Liveries That Are Basically Almost Exactly The Same As Their 2011 Equivalents! And here’s your host, F1 Colours’ Seb Patrick!

Let’s look at Red Bull first, then, since (a) they’re reigning champions and so deserve it, (b) they have the least in the way of changes to talk about and (c) they’ve been strangely shy about putting pictures of their car online:

 
So, yeah. Not much new here at all, really. Basically, the front and rear wing endplates have now been made (mostly) red, presumably at the behest of Total. And, er… that really is about it, as far as I can see. Yay.

Talk of red endplates gives us a nice segue into Lotus, about whom I had the vague hope that they might have dropped said similarly-coloured wings. But no – they’re still there, present and correct:

  
Actually, as it happens, this bit of styling did grow on me as last season went on – I’d still rather the car didn’t have it, but it didn’t look terrible on track.

Other than that – and entirely sensibly – it’s largely the same as last year, with the only changes being reshuffling of sponsors. Lada are gone, their spot taken by a possibly slightly too large and obtrusive anti-dandruff shampoo ad. Fellow Unilever brand Rexona also make it to the engine cover. The team still don’t seem to have learned that a big yellow Lotus badge doesn’t look all that great on this livery – but they have at least improved its nose cone placement, extending the gold tip and setting the badge within it in quite smart fashion.

Generally, with less cluttering of sponsors than last year and – that badge aside – smarter placement, this is overall an improvement on what was already a pretty darned stonking livery to begin with. Not that they can claim credit for the idea of it, of course, but let’s move on from that now.

Finally, then, to Toro Rosso:

  
Different from the car that started last season… but a lot closer to the one that finished it. I was hoping that given an entirely new slate, the sponsor-brought gold and red sections would be better-integrated into the car – but it wasn’t to be the case. The all-red rear wing for Cepsa works better, but having the front endplates be gold makes the profile view a little odd. Otherwise, though, one great improvement is the removal of last year’s red motif from the nose – it tidies things up, although to be honest I still think the team should think about dropping the swirly patterns that still adorn the car. They worked when there were no sponsors other than Red Bull – but now there are more characteristically F1-esque logos dotted here and there, they feel quite out of place, and a cleaner look would suit the car a lot better, I think.

WANTED: 1X BUCKET WHITE PAINT

February 6, 2012 | 4 Comments

PLEASE SEND TO SAUBER F1 TEAM HEADQUARTERS, HINWIL, SWITZERLAND. NEEDED URGENTLY TO PAINT NOSES OF C31 CARS.

I mean, really. Having had the worst livery on the grid for two years, you’d assume Sauber could do nothing but improve. And to be fair to them… they have improved. Well, they’ve improved half the car, anyway.

  
Certainly, from the tail end up to the cockpit, this is everything the 2011 Sauber should have been (well, what it should have been was something other than plain white with a bit of red and grey, but let’s not quibble over semantics). The sponsor logos don’t look like they’ve been thrown on as an afterthought, and as they’re now almost all entirely red (apart from the Telcel logo, now sensibly integrated into the rear wing colour scheme) they certainly don’t look glaringly out of place, either. Even the blue NEC logo on the side of the monocoque is just about forgiveable – although it lends a slightly odd feeling to the car when everything from the cockpit rearwards is red, and then logos forwards of the driver’s head are blue. But these are minor niggles.

But then you get to the nose. The nose that they’ve… just forgotten to paint, it seems.

Oh yeah, sure. They might claim that it’s a deliberate part of the livery. But if it were… then why isn’t there a red trim along the edge, as there is the black section at the back? Why, too, does it not actually appear to run parallel with its companion section? Why does it end at such an arbitrary place – further up the nose than one sensible option (on the contour of the stepped nose), but lower down it than the other (at the cockpit edge)? And why… well, just why, basically?

I’m actually starting to think they’re deliberately winding me up, now…

Force Orange

February 5, 2012 | 2 Comments

Yes, yes, I’m still playing catchup – the Lotus has already launched, and here I am talking about the new Force India. But let’s deal with the  first car of 2012 that does actually have a fair bit to talk about on the livery front first…

So, then. Something of an exercise in making some bits better, and making some bits much, much worse:

  
I quite liked the 2011 car, so I’m not sure that much change was needed – although in a year where there’s so little of it about, it’s certainly welcomed. And for a kickoff, I can’t in any way complain about there being more orange on the car (I still wish the Orange Arrows colour scheme would make a comeback) – indeed, the placement of colours now means that you’d almost call it an orange car with white and green bits, rather than a white car with orange and green. I do think that there could be a bit more balance in the profile view – it’s not that the amount of green has greatly decreased if you compare it to last year’s, but I think the distribution decreases its emphasis somewhat. The only exception to this is in the front view, from which I think the  car looks better (nose shape notwithstanding) than any other the team have so far put out.

But the colours are only part of the story – and while the various United Breweries brands are integrated into the new colour scheme pretty effectively, there’s a big problem on the horizon thanks to the team’s new co-owner. And considering the fact that Sahara’s own logo is simply their name in black text with the Indian flag (i.e. the three colours that are already on the car) alongside it, it’s inexplicable just how badly they’ve put it on the car. It’s almost as if the Force India guys designed the car, and a rep from Sahara showed up with gigantic decals at the last minute. Whereas with entirely green (even sponsorless) sidepods, and the Sahara logo going on smaller in the white space below the driver’s head, this could have been a stone-cold classic.

It still doesn’t quite stop this being possibly the best looking car this team have had since back when they were still Jordan – but it’s not far off doing so. Shame. Will be interesting to see if there’s any improvement once the season draws on.

Ferrari and McLaren 2012: Old liveries on new cars

February 5, 2012 | 3 Comments

I was largely away from my computer during the launch-fest that was Thursday and Friday just gone, so let’s rattle through everything now. To start with, I’ll take a look at the two teams who’ve barely changed their liveries in the slightest…

   
McLaren first, then. Really, the only livery changes here are to take into account the altered shape of the car from last year – most notably, with the bulkier shape of the sidepods, the red area that contains the Vodafone logo is slightly larger. It’s also worth noting – although it could just be due to lighting – that the red on this year’s car appears to be a bit more orangey than before. If anything, it’s almost reminiscent of the team’s old Marlboro colouring…

Sponsor-wise, aigo and Johnnie Walker have departed – I’ve always been slightly uneasy about prominent alcohol brands sponsoring racing cars, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing – and the latter has seen its rear-wing endplace placement taken by Lucozade.

  
On to Ferrari, whose sponsor makeup hasn’t changed in the slightest. As with the Caterham – and, one suspects, most of the 2012 cars bar the admirably restrained McLaren – it’s going to be the car design rather than the livery that gets talked about. Really, this is one of the ugliest front-ends of an F1 car since nose design was (largely) standardised around the 1980s. It’s rotten. Livery-wise, the only real changes are to the rear wing – where the Italian flag has gone from the back, to be replaced by a Santander logo – and the tip of the nose, where the Italian-coloured stripes would look lovely were it not for the ghastliness of the nose upon which they sit. The other alteration is that the supports that go from the nose to the front wing have now been coloured red, rather than last year’s white.

And there we go. I suppose you can’t criticise these two teams in particular for not really changing much… but neither livery feels especially inspired these days, and it would be nice if one of them decided to do something a bit more fresh and exciting one of these years.

2012 Begins! Caterham Pics Leaked

January 25, 2012 | 4 Comments

Well, we were expecting the car launch season to kick off tomorrow… but then, twenty-four hours ahead of the scheduled launch date of the 2012 Caterham car, F1 Racing magazine and the Caterham Facebook page decided to jump the gun. So here we are…

 
I suppose I’m fortunate that, as a liveries blog, I only have to talk about the paint job and not the shape of the thing, because… well. Wow. Certainly, it’s not that lovely shade of green, held over from the Team Lotus days, that everyone else is going to be discussing.

Anyway, as for the livery, it’s just about as expected – arguably, even something of an anticlimax given that the changes between 2010 and 2011 were more significant than the ones between this and last year. The design is almost exactly how the car lined up at the end of last season – the only major differences being that the sidepods are now blank (that ugly swooping CATERHAM text ditched, in favour of the team’s new logo sitting on the side of the monocoque), an adjustment to the arrangement of logos on the nose stripe (note that the Renault diamond now sits on the yellow stripe rather than in a box of its own), and the angling/recolouring of the side-on race numbers.

Oh, and it’s got a Queens Park Rangers FC badge on it. Which is just weird. I know the reasons why (they’re now owned by Tony Fernandes, if you didn’t know), but it’s still weird.

Anyway, there you have it. Clearer official pictures will no doubt be on the way tomorrow, but it’s clear they won’t be hiding much of a surprise.

New Williams livery: just don’t say “Rothmans”

February 24, 2011 | 17 Comments

So, then. The new Williams is basically a continuation of the team’s post-BMW identity (with the layout of the nose section in particular deviating little from the 2010 version), but infused with a deliberate nod back to a certain era in the team’s past. Although, blimey, it’s a weird day when “mid-90s” can be straight-facedly referred to as “retro”.

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New Force India a bit different, too!

February 8, 2011 | 7 Comments

Did they know the Hispania was also going to be white and do this consciously? Kudos, anyway, to Force India for taking their basic colour scheme and actually changing it year on year. Although from the front at least, you can’t help but wonder if they’ve employed the same graphic designer that used to work for Toyota…

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