So, farewell, ROKiT Williams 2020 livery: we barely knew ye.
Yes, following the surprise and sudden termination of Williams’ title sponsorship deal with the mobile phone (and everything else) company, the team have decided not to simply remove the logos, but to completely change their livery – and so the striking “Colgate” design, which seemed to herald an exciting new visual era for Williams, will never run in a race.
In its place, is… well, it does look a bit more Williams, we’ll give it that.
It has to be said that if this had been the livery they’d revealed immediately after the end of the Martini deal, it would make sense – keeping the same basic colour scheme while shifting towards a more classically-Williams dark blue trim, with a lighter blue alongside it that calls to mind the excellent 2006 and 2007 liveries. But when it’s set against the dramatic explosion that was the original 2020 car, it can’t help but feel a bit disappointing.
For one thing, it’s just a bit too white – and especially when we’ve got Alfa Romeo, Haas and AlphaTauri all running significant amounts of that colour as well, it’s a shame they couldn’t have seen fit to use the colours more extensively. One thing we’ve noted is the change in the race number font – the original livery had a quite striking and bizarre font that included stacking the digits of George Russell’s #63 vertically. Now, though, they’ve got a much more restrained and clear typeface – a sign, perhaps, of pulling back from the excessive showiness of the original look?
But the colours do go well together, and it does feel less jarringly un-Williams-ish than either of the ROKiT liveries managed to. But with the only sponsorship now coming from Nicholas Latifi’s portfolio, and the dreaded omen of having to fill the rear wing with the team’s own name, you do have to wonder if this’ll be the last livery we ever see from this team as we know them.
7 Comments
mykhailo
Agree with you, it’s a weird replacement, I was waiting for red to be changed to yellow, so it would have a vibes of the old liveries, used in 1985-1993.
Moove
Will you post the best liveries poll results?
Seb Patrick
Very soon! I was hoping to do it as both an article and a video at once, but just haven’t had time to put the video together. The article will be published most likely tomorrow or Tuesday!
bosyber
Well, seeing as how Mercedes sprang a surprise today, maybe good you didn’t.
Xaloty - RadioBunny Inc.
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Jac
I had to do a double take when I read “dark blue”. I thought “huh, that’s blue?”. In the first picture, it looks decidedly like dark claret/maroon to me. But in the other pictures, I can see that it is indeed blue. You are right, it does look more “Williams”—but I do think it’s a shame that they got rid of the bright red. We need more bright colours on the grid IMO.
It kind of reminds me of the Williams cars from the late 1970s (before the Albilad-Saudia sponsorship). But it also reminds me of the Tyrrells from 1997 and 1998, and that’s probably not a good omen… 🙁
Jac
Example of what I mean: https://vintageracecar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/HE201607-p1.jpg (I hope I’m allowed to post that link)