10 Forgotten F1 liveries of the 21st Century
Here I'll hope to drum up memories you didn't know you had of the not-so-distant past on a contemporary nostalgia trip down memory lane.
Since the dawn of the 21st Century, Formula 1 has changed dramatically, on-track and off of it. The cars have been through a plethora of regulation changes with different components and effects coming to fruition. However the art of livery design has still very much remained and is of course a vital part of the sport as an entertainment source.
As teams, sponsors and even drivers come and go, car liveries have followed suit giving the viewer a chance to see plenty of designs across a case study of several seasons.
Here I'll hope to drum up memories you didn't know you had of the not-so-distant past on a contemporary nostalgia trip down memory lane.
I'm only featuring liveries to have raced at least the majority of a season, therefore special one-off race and test liveries are not included. Please feel free to tell me in the comments which of my choices you agree or disagree with, and which you'd add to this list:
Manor Racing - 2016
The Manor MRT05, driven by DTM champion Pascal Wehrlein, GP2 driver Rio Haryanto, and Renault test driver and GP3 champion Esteban Ocon, was the last F1 car raced by the team formerly known as Virgin Racing, Virgin Marussia, Marussia F1 Team and Manor Marussia before its final rebrand as Manor Racing MRT for 2016.
Since 2010, the team had favoured a distinctive red and white colour scheme echoing Richard Branson's Virgin brand - the team's first and only title sponsors. However for 2016, a season heralded as a new start for the struggling backmarker team with the appointment of Dave Ryan, Pat Fry and Nikolas Tombazis, a striking red, white, blue and black livery was introduced.
The 2016 livery was really an evolution of the design Manor Marussia had used towards the end of 2015 when shipping company Flex-Box signed a sponsorship deal with the team.
Force India - 2008
After Vijay Mallya purchased former Jordan and Midland outfit Spyker in 2008, the Force India Formula One Team endured a tough debut season in F1 with what was usually the slowest car on the grid. Adrian Sutil and newly-hired Giancarlo Fisichella failed to score a single point in the VJM01 throughout the entire campaign.
Force India's first livery design would only survive their first season, with the white, gold and luminous orange replaced by an arguably disjointed white, green and orange scheme going into the revolutionary 2009 regulations.
The 2008 design did feature a unique problem in that the bright orange portions on the rear of the car, particularly the rear wing main plane and coke bottle section, were too bright for the TV camera operators and photographers to keep the car in focus.
Sauber - 2017
One of the first of the brand new, ultra-fast Formula 1 cars to be unveiled pre-2017 season was Sauber's C36. Featuring a striking dark blue and white design adorned in gold accents to mark the team's 25th season in F1, the surprisingly bold design unfortunately did little to hide the lack of sponsors after the team almost collapsed into the abyss a year earlier.
New recruit Wehrlein, and Swede Marcus Ericsson managed the odd Q2 appearance but the car failed to impress, and damage from three sizeable crashes for Wehrlein's car (two of which by rookie Antonio Giovinazzi) and the other for Wehrlein at Monaco with the returning Jenson Button, only added to the sorrow for the Sauber team.
It is the last Alfa Romeo-less Sauber livery to this day. 2018 saw an Alfa Romeo title sponsor deal materialise prior to a full rebrand with the Italian manufacturer for 2019.
Minardi - 2004
The Cosworth powered Minardi PS04B is thought to have incorporated the majority of its components from the 2003 Arrows A23 (after Minardi purchased the intellectual property rights of Arrows) alongside elements of the design process undertaken for the Arrows A24.
Driven by rookie Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner, the PS04B scored points once at the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, albeit last of the finishers.
Superfund branding on the engine cover meant the usual black and white barcode-like Minardi livery now featured a somewhat peculiar dark green segment teamed with an array of haphazard sponsor decals, later on including that of Dutch sanitary company Wilux.
Williams - 2009 & 2010
Comparable to the team's HP liveries since their fallout with former title sponsors BMW, the 2009 FW31 was launched in a simple two-tone dark blue and white design which subtly harked back to the team's heritage.
Blue being customary on modern Williams F1 cars, the FW31 showed off its new simpler curves (thanks to 2009's technical regulation change) in late 1990s Rothmans-esque blue. However the design was really a nod to the team's sponsors, the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The electronics organisation Phillips assumed the coveted rear wing and sidepod spots on the car, but other than that there weren't many other sponsors to speak of on what was one of the less revered Williams.
The 2010 car presented the addition of more white around the driver and on the airbox. It was perhaps most famous for being driven to a stunning pole by Nico Hulkenberg at the Brazilian Grand Prix at the end of the year.
Scuderia Toro Rosso - 2006-2015
Red Bull burst onto the F1 scene in 2005, buying out Jaguar and promising to bring a new fun and exciting ethos to the F1 paddock. When the brand subsequently purchased the Minardi team for 2006, rebranding it Toro Rosso, the STR1 was soon revealed in a peculiar rendition of the Red Bull Racing livery, featuring a slightly darker blue and red, and swapping bright yellow for an arguably drab gold.
Toro Rosso would function as a junior training ground team for Red Bull to develop their young drivers in F1 without taking up a seat in the senior team. The likes of Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Scott Speed drove for them in this time.
New elements were added to the livery every year as sponsors came and went, but the livery stayed largely the same until it was adapted in 2016 with cleaner lines and a darker blue colour.
It wouldn't be until 2017 when Toro Rosso shocked fans with an all-new shiny and vibrant blue/purple, red and silver overhaul that remained for three seasons before the rebrand to Scuderia AlphaTauri in 2020.
Force India - 2014
The VJM07 was the first 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged hybrid Force India owing to the regulations overhaul of 2014, which famously created unique nose designs up and down the pit lane.
Each team came up with its own unpleasant front crash structure, designed to exploit a loophole in the height and width element of the crash structure regulations, for aerodynamic purposes - the car driven by Sergio Perez and the returning Nico Hulkenberg was a prime example.
Owing to the bizarre aesthetic of the 2014 noses, the design departments seemed to make efforts to disguise this portion of the car after complaints made by fans in pre-season testing.
Force India's traditional orange and white livery was ditched for a primarily black design with hints of orange, blocks of green and white. Later on in the season, Roshfrans and Smirnoff branding added new elements to the design.
The car performed remarkably better than the team managed in previous years, especially in the early races, but the pace dropped off towards the end of the season as development stalled.
A chrome, orange and black livery for 2015 and 2016 soon consigned this livery to the history books.
Midland (MF1) - 2006
Canadian businessman Alex Schnaider bought the underdog Jordan Grand Prix team from Eddie Jordan in 2005, but competed under the Jordan name that season so Midland could claim the television revenue. He re-registered it as the first Russian F1 team in 2006 although it remained based at Silverstone in the UK.
Completing every Grand Prix, bar the last three, of 2006 before being sold to Spyker, drivers Christijan Albers and Tiago Monteiro occasionally competed with the midfield entries but across the year struggled at around two seconds per lap off the pace.
Prior to the Italian GP where Schnaider sold the team to Spyker, the M16's livery would be Midland's only de-facto design - one in which was neither striking or particularly spectacular thanks to its red, grey, black and white design that did little to set off its sponsor names in most lights.
HRT - 2011
The Hispania Racing Team's F111 was the second of the three HRTs that competed in F1 from 2010 to 2012, before being the first of the Bernie Ecclestone-encouraged small and independent teams to cease operations.
Featuring an entirely different livery in each of the group's seasons, the 2011 design is utterly unique, owing to HRT's decision to employ Hollywood concept vehicle designer Daniel Simon to design it from scratch.
Phrases such as "this could be you", "this is a cool spot" and "your logo here" took centre stage owing to the organisation's struggle to attract lucrative sponsorship deals. A design akin to a chequered flag being draped over the engine cover and front of the chassis made for a truly special and quirky livery.
Narain Karthikeyan, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Daniel Ricciardo piloted the car to 11th in the Constructors' Championship ahead of Virgin, but behind Team Lotus.
Jordan - 2002
The Jordan EJ12 continued Eddie Jordan's team's distinctive yellow colouring into 2002, but on a heavily revised car technically and with further revisions to the livery.
The Benson and Hedges tobacco sponsorship branding remained on the top of the chassis, but it was the DHL sponsorship which acquired the prominent position on the sidepods.
It would be the first Jordan Grand Prix car livery without an animal-inspired design since 1996, and was a great deal simpler than previous incarnations of the yellow design.
As sponsorship money began to dwindle, the team slipped steadily backwards down the order in what would be a slow decline over the next few seasons.
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Comments (5)
The Spyker livery definitely is a forgot one. You spoke about the team but didn't showcase the livery sadly.
Furthermore Great article keep it coming.
Thank you! I was toying between the 2002 Jordan, Spyker and Earth Dreams Honda in the end.
I wouldn't call the Toro Roso livery forgotten, at least considering for how long how many people struggled to tell their cars apart from the Red Bull ones 😄
Maybe that's why it's forgotten 😉
Make mine DHL jello😊