The third of our Livery Histories looks at a team that were close to my heart in the mid to late ’90s – Benetton Formula. The team didn’t win a lot of friends in the early ’90s, thanks to a series of controversies including the “poaching” of Michael Schumacher from Jordan in 1991 and persistent rumours of skullduggery and technical infringements during their first title-winning season in ’94. But by 1997, they’d become underdogs of a sort, never challenging for titles but able to pick up a podium or even a win here and there and with the likeable driver combo of Alesi and Berger – so they were the ideal team to which to hitch my wagon at a time when I was disillusioned with Williams for sacking Damon Hill.
And, of course, it helps that they had some pretty smart liveries around that time. But the sky blue and white Mild Seven livery was just one in a series of multi-coloured efforts that the team would employ during their fifteen-year tenure in the sport – fitting, really, for a company whose main brand includes the words “United Colors”…
Better late than never, eh? In an attempt to shift discussion on this site away from the various Lotus teams for once, let’s finally get around to something I originally planned to do about a year ago – the second of my Livery Histories posts, this time focusing on one of the most colourful and livery-orientated teams of the 1990s: Jordan Grand Prix.
The first article in this series was originally going to be about Jordan Grand Prix, but following the news about a new Lotus team’s planned entry into F1 in 2010, I couldn’t help but get thinking about Lotus liveries. After all, of all the new teams entering next year, Lotus is the name that will get even the more casual observers thinking about famous colour schemes – I can think of three or four instantly evocative classics off the top of my head that it would immediately be great to see a return of.
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