An all-black car is such a classic design, it’s a wonder more teams haven’t used it. It’s never been a look that a front-running team has chosen to opt as a full-on identity (unless you count the JPS Lotus – which I don’t, as the gold was as much of a feature as the black) – more often associated with teams who haven’t got two ha-pennies to rub together, and who change their small sponsor decals from race to race, but who want to look a bit classier than a plain white car (think early ’90s efforts such as the utterly awful Andrea Moda team); or efforts such as the 1998 Arrows. But one of the smartest efforts – and probably the one that’s adorned the fastest car in modern times – was the Sauber used in the early part of the ’94 season, which added a few sponsor logos to the minimalism of the ’93 effort. It was ruined later in the season, when a new deal with watchmaker Tissot led to ugly white dots all over the place; but the original version was simple and classy.

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