Too many silver cars

[zako85]

It's going to take me some time to learn distinguish between Force India and McLaren.

[Hawkmoon]

McLaren
Swap the boring silver and black for red and white. It's a colour scheme that suits both McLaren and Honda and should be immediately recognisable.

Force India
Again, lose the silver and black. There's no link to India in those colours and if you're going to name your team after a country you better have something that links you to that country. India's sporting colour is pale blue and the flag is orange, white and green. That's a combination that could look great if done correctly.

Broadening the discussion from just silver....

Ferrari
Rosso corsa please (with black wings preferably).

Red Bull
Lose the 'Red Bull' on the monocoque, it's too busy. Actually the whole design is too messy for my taste.

Sauber
Simple but effective. I love the big numbers.

Williams
Maybe try an emphasize the Martini stripes but easily the best Williams livery since the early '90's.

Torro Rosso
Lose the cartoon bull on the engine cover but pretty good despite that.

Mercedes
I have never liked the Petronas turquoise/aqua so I'd prefer straight silver with large red numbers.

Lotus
The black and gold is good and I think they've done themselves a favour by no longer trying to copy the JPS livery. Lose the red.

Manor
Nothing to see here. Very dull. They should go back to the early Virgin liveries.

[Rollo]

McLaren
Swap the boring silver and black for red and white. It's a colour scheme that suits both McLaren and Honda and should be immediately recognisable.


Honda have been on red and white cars, blue and yellow and white cars, all yellow cars, etc. I don't think that Honda are particularly worried about what colours of cars, their engines go into.

McLaren though...

http://db.carbuzz.com/images2/270000/0/400/270406.jpg

they should be orange.

Running a Silberpfeil livery is madness.

[Mark]

I did notice that when I was watching the race on Sunday - didn't help that I was watching on a 4.7" screen, but it did seem that the majority of the cars were a washed out dirty grey colour.

Indeed watching the 1996 race last night one of the best things was McLarens red and white - no reason they can't go back to that! Their silver just looks dull on TV. They don't need to go red and white, the orange would look awesome.

[Storm]

McLaren is dull. Orange and Black livery is the way to go...even if they extend the red lining to the back of the car that might make a huge difference to the current dull look.
FI is a mess. Complete black with the tri-colour on it might look good rather than the silver on the sides.

Sauber is the biggest change and the best imo. They used to have pretty boring liveries but this brighter blue and yellow looks good.

too much silver indeed.

[N4D13]

Well, I guess this won't earn me many friends, but I actually think that the Sauber looks dreadful. :( I agree with some, if not most, of the previous remarks, but certainly not on the blue and yellow cars.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

The Sauber looks like the type of livery you see on a Formula Ford, not a state of the art F1 team.

[COD]

Very hard to set the Mac and Force India apart from distance.

I teally hope Mac and Honda will change the livery soon

[anfield5]

Well, I guess this won't earn me many friends, but I actually think that the Sauber looks dreadful. :( I agree with some, if not most, of the previous remarks, but certainly not on the blue and yellow cars.

Agreed. For some reason it looks like a GP2 or GP3 car. I don't mind the colours and if the yellow was extended and taperes across the top of the sidepods and around the back of the airbox it would look ko. As it is it looks like a blue car with a couple of yellow stickers slapped on the sides.

[anfield5]

Kinda like the cricket world cup, with half of all of the teams turning up in blue???

[yodasarmpit]

Macca should be orange, the Sauber looks awful, and the Toro Rosso should have a livery different to the parent team.

[kfzmeister]

It's going to take me some time to learn distinguish between Force India and McLaren.

I have a hard time telling them apart as well, especially from the front. What's even worse is that they are hanging around each other during the race.

[Storm]

The Sauber looks like the type of livery you see on a Formula Ford, not a state of the art F1 team.

I know, but its something not often seen in F1 and hence is different imo...

state of the art livery? dull McL


Kinda like the cricket world cup, with half of all of the teams turning up in blue???
yeah what's the deal with blue v blue or 2 teams in green colours? they should have a football type home/away kit rule!

[rjbetty]

Nice thread. You know I was thinking about 2000, and back then, EVERY livery imo was absolutely lush. Not one didn't look beautiful (even the Minardi which at first I thought was horrific but grew to love). They don't make em like they used to.

2014 liveries:

Mercedes: I've always loved Mercedes silver and PETRONAS aqua, so to have them both together is absolutely sweet,

Red Bull: Not my favourite but it's fine. Sure it's possible to do better.

Williams: Love. At first I thought it was a little too white with too little Martini, but now I like it just fine.

Ferrari: Bring back the 2007-2008 livery! Not so keen on the recent black, though I liked it on the late 90s cars.-

McLaren: I don't think it's terrible but I'm very disappointed. Like I said, all cars in 2000 seemed stunning, this just ain't.

Force India: See above, yet I kinda like it. Maybe a little TOO much black/grey though.

Toro Rosso: Actually tend to like these, though tbh they're always forgettable. Why not something radical for a change?

Sauber: Hmmm looks like a lame version of a Benetton. Terribly disappointing from the team that ran that gorgeously beautiful Red Bull/PETRONAS livery in the late 90s in particular. Unlike their 1st incarnation (pre BMW) Sauber have never once failed to have a rubbish livery since their 2nd run. Disappointing. :(

Manor: Actually quite like it, but surely can do better when they can afford to buy some paint.

[jens]

I agree that liveries in the early 2000s were great and there was lots of variety in terms of colours.

At the moment I seriously think Sauber is one of the best liveries out there. It is not so much that it is an awesome classic livery, which will go down in the history, but rather that its bright colours stand out so well compared to the "greyness" of the rest of the field. Also it strikes as fresh and new, compared to others. Their cars immediately catch attention in the pack.

Dark blue Red Bulls look similar to each other, McLaren/FI are almost carbon copy of each other except orange/red stripe :p:. Williams striked as sort of interesting last year, but too white/empty to my taste. Like the Virgin Brawn of 2009.

[AndyL]

A lot of them have the look of "design by committee" about them. No doubt the marketing departments of major sponsors (for those teams that have them!) get to put their oar in, as well as everyone in the team management having an opinion on it, and inevitably any spark of inspiration is crushed in the result.

[Doc Austin]

If McLaren lands a primary sponsor or just changes it's colors, the silver car problem goes away.

Personally I think they came close, but missed a chance to go with the old, old, old Honda colors............


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Honda_RA301_1968_Mexico_Honda_Collection_Hall.jpg

[schmenke]

.... No doubt the marketing departments of major sponsors (for those teams that have them!) get to put their oar in....

Indeed the very reason for Sauber's current livery.

[Rollo]

If McLaren lands a primary sponsor or just changes it's colors, the silver car problem goes away.



That's kind of how McLaren ended up with their Silberpfeil livery in the first place.

Their logo to this day, is basically a derivation of the Marlboro chevron but when their primary sponsor changed from Marlboro to West, they also changed from red and white to silver. West had already run red and white as the primary sponsor of Zakspeed from 1985-89.

That's kind of why I think that the current silver livery is a nonsense. It makes minus sense from a marketing and branding perspective.

[Doc Austin]

That's kind of why I think that the current silver livery is a nonsense. It makes minus sense from a marketing and branding perspective.

The only branding McLaren has now is Honda, which is why, at least until they land a primary sponsor, the Honda livery makes sense. With the cars in silver they are wasting the opportunity to get Honda some exposure.

That or they could do some cool concept artwork on the cars like Honda did a few years ago, or like Audi did with the Crocodile R8. They are basically wasting a lot of opportunities to do something cool, things that might actually attract sponsporship. T

That and what they are running now looks like a giant phallus outlined in red. You can figure it out for yourself what the red mirrors resemble. It's horrible. I mean, they are slow and ugly.

[Rollo]

That or they could do some cool concept artwork on the cars like Honda did a few years ago, or like Audi did with the Crocodile R8. They are basically wasting a lot of opportunities to do something cool, things that might actually attract sponsporship. T


Let the internet do it...

http://brucethomsonsketchsite.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/thomsonstudio_2015_mclaren_-mp4-301.jpg

This is cool

[Hawkmoon]

Let the internet do it...

http://brucethomsonsketchsite.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/thomsonstudio_2015_mclaren_-mp4-301.jpg

This is cool

Looks like a Stryker or an Orange Arrows. It would certainly standout on the grid but it's not what I imagine when I think 'McLaren'. If you took a poll and asked people to name a McLaren livery I'm willing to bet that the red and white Marlboro liveried cars would be on top followed by the silver and black West liveried cars. Orange McLarens haven't been seen in F1 for 50 years. Motorsport enthusiasts might know the link between McLaren and orange but I don't think anybody else does.

The current McLaren livery is a waste of space but I can't see them doing anything imaginative with it. Ron would have to pull the rod out of his backside first and that's not going to happen. ;)

[Storm]

The Orange Arrows livery was fantastic and this above one is equally good. Yeah sure it doesn't feel like a McLaren to most of the newer fans but then at least it's unique on the grid.

[AndyL]

Let the internet do it...

http://brucethomsonsketchsite.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/thomsonstudio_2015_mclaren_-mp4-301.jpg

This is cool

It looks great, but it's probably a bit too close to a Repsol livery for Mobil's liking. (Just to give an example of how nothing good escapes the committee process :))

[jens]

The weird thing is that there is no internationally recognizable "McLaren" colour.

Yeah, they have orange, but as Hawkmoon says, most of the world doesn't recognize it as such. And you can barely remember any orange McLaren racing cars, that's a long time ago from the early days of this team.

Red and white were Marlboro colours. It was not about Honda, because McLaren had also these colours with other engines, even with Mercedes in 1996! But when Marlboro left, livery changed.

Ok, in early 1970s we also had Texaco red and white, but these were also corporate colours.

So then in 1997 came silver, West and Mercedes colour.

So what is a pure McLaren livery? Maybe that's why they have this grey/chrome. They don't have one and are now trying to present these colours as real McLaren colours to us.

[journeyman racer]

So the F1 industry make a fuss about drivers helmet colours, but cannot enforce a change on car colours?


The Sauber looks like the type of livery you see on a Formula Ford, not a state of the art F1 team.
How does that type of paint job look like?

[zako85]

So the F1 industry make a fuss about drivers helmet colours, but cannot enforce a change on car colours?


How does that type of paint job look like?

Apparently, a black or silver metallic color. The dull grey can work as well. Anything but a real color. God forbid we see an orange or blue car on the track (but red is Ok because it's a Ferrari color).