The best Formula 1 racing colors EVER

Before even a single race of the Formula 1 season is held, the excitement for the enthusiastic racing fan already starts with the presentation of the new cars. All ten teams have presented their 2024 racing cars to the press.

Well, we leave the technical details and the associated chances of victory and starting advantages to the expert colleagues in the sports department. Here we look at the aesthetics. To be precise: on the “team life”as it is called in English – on the team colors and the sponsor color designs.

And this year there are some really nice vehicles. Aston Martin for example:

Clearly, British Racing Green is never a bad thing in itself, but Aston Martin has hit the jackpot here. Meanwhile, Sauber Motorsports’ new partners in Hinwil ZH have opted for a striking design language:

A matter of taste probably, but a team color scheme that should already be classified as iconic.
_{(It looks great in this case. Just saying.)}

Which brings us to the topic: a look back at the most iconic racing colors from Formula 1 history. We have 15 of the best selected (and yes, ten more could easily have been added to the list). Let’s go! From back to front – starting with this gem here:

“Sponsoring liveries” – Sponsor color schemes, which are determined by the main sponsor’s colors and graphics, have only existed in Formula 1 since 1968. Before that, the national racing colors prescribed by the FIA ​​were common (red for Italy, green for Great Britain, blue for France, silver for Germany etc. – more on that below). Team Gunston, a South African privateer, was the first Formula 1 team to compete with sponsorship design. But it was the successful Lotus team that shortly later set the standard in the colors of Gold Leaf Cigarettes and created the first internationally known sponsor livery. The end of the national racing colors was sealed.

Almost ten years later, the sponsor colors were for a long time inextricably intertwined with the manufacturer’s brands. Renault’s turbo monsters in yellow of the oil multinational Elf, driven by legends such as Alain Prost and René Arnoux, will never be forgotten.

The more sponsors participate in a racing team, the more difficult the color scheme becomes. The Williams-Renaults of the late 1980s and early 1990s still managed to create a striking color design. Or is it simply thanks to Nigel Mansell’s success that we remember it?

The sponsors became more numerous and colorful – but no car was ever more colorful than the Benettons of the 1986 racing season.

There was a lot happening graphically on this Göppel… But the black and yellow pattern was a powerful statement, and the car also had a shark’s mouth painted on it. The mouth of a shark. Like fighter planes from World War II. How cool is that?

Ooh! The revival of British Racing Green? Or was it the bottle green of the German beer manufacturer? As green as it is, there’s no doubt that Jaguar entered Formula 1 with a very, very good-looking car. There is also no doubt that success was unfortunately not forthcoming.

Black and gold is always a good idea for sleek race cars (more on that below), and team boss Gene Haas’ cars never looked better than in that brief era when energy drink maker Rich Energy was the primary sponsor. Although the term ‘manufacturer’ should be viewed with caution. Considering the company was never able to provide proof of the physical existence of its product and, not least because of this, suddenly threw away its sponsorship for the Haas team midway through the 2019 season… oh, it’s a crazy story. But Haas cars never looked as good as they did back then.

It’s alright! It works, with relatively few sponsors and therefore a uniform color design. What is also possible: win the constructors’ championship on your debut. Not bad, Brawn, not bad at all.

Martini Racing: There was a time when the Italian spirits manufacturer was ubiquitous in motorsports. The Martini Porsches of the sports car championship in the 1970s will never be forgotten. Later, in the 1980s, Martini Lancias dominated rallying for many years. And in Formula 1 it was the Martini Brabhams that would remain in all our collective memories.

Perhaps slightly less glamorous than Vermouth, the early 1980s Brabhams, sponsored by Italian dairy multinational Parmalat, were among the most recognizable cars of the era.

National racing colors like to make a comeback every now and then, especially if the color coincides with that of the main sponsor. This worked best with the French racing team Ligier in the 1970s and early 1980s: French car, French cigarettes, French driver and so on. Blue de France.

Oh, how are you supposed to choose the best of all Ferrari color designs? Ferrari has been continuously involved since the inception of Formula 1 in the 1950s. And Ferraris have always been red (except for a brief period in 1964, when Enzo Ferrari fell out with the Italian racing authorities – but that’s a footnote). That’s why Scuderia Ferrari vehicles always look good by definition. But the best then, then that Rosso Corsa was not spoiled by sponsor logos. To represent the era, here is a photo of Giancarlo Baghetti in his Ferrari 156 at the 1962 British Grand Prix.

Yes, and while we’re at it:

One of the most beautiful color schemes of all time remains the combination of British Racing Green and a racing stripe in it Norfolk yellow (that’s the official name of the mustard yellow color) like the dominant Lotus cars of the 1960s.

So now we are already in the top three. It’s pretty clear that now, for example, the big guns are coming out…

It’s not enough that McLaren has forged one of the longest-lasting partnerships in motorsport with Marlboro (the American cigarette manufacturer was the main sponsor of the British racing team from 1974 to 1996). No, they created a design so distinctive that McLaren was forced to continue dressing its cars in red and white triangular patterns even after Marlboro withdrew from the sport.

McLaren won the Formula 1 World Championship twelve times, nine times in the Marlboro livery.

OK. And which – which one probably – is the most beautiful, most iconic and simply VERY, VERY BEST team livery EVER (ever, ever)?

Clearly …

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There is no doubt about it: this is and remains the most beautiful team colors in Formula 1. And a successful one at that. The British racing team retained its iconic black and gold look well into the 1980s and, like McLaren, even after main sponsor John Player Special withdrew.

Lotus won the Constructors’ Championship three times in the John Player look; twice the Drivers’ Championship. And they were always the most beautiful cars on the grid.

But never more beautiful than in the 1972 season:

Already forgotten? When the movie “Star Wars III – Revenge of the Sith” was released, George Lucas secured a sponsorship spot with Team Red Bull for the Monaco Grand Prix. Despite Darth Vader on the hood: The Force was not strong in this. Both cars had to withdraw from the race.