Haas and Racing Bulls caught the eye at Suzuka last weekend with a couple of creative one-off liveries \u2013 the former introducing the iconic Godzilla monster to the F1 world and the latter taking inspiration from Japanese shodo calligraphy.<\/p>\n
With more and more teams breaking from tradition over the last couple of decades, it got the F1.com office thinking about other standout designs in recent years, with 10 of the most memorable presented in our list below\u2026<\/p>\n
BAR-Honda \u2013 Italy 2004<\/p>\n
We start in the mid-noughties, when several teams ran \u2018Friday drivers\u2019 to gather more mileage during practice \u2013 BAR-Honda<\/a>\u2019s pick in that period being Anthony Davidson<\/a>, whose car sported a selection of unique liveries throughout the 2004 season.<\/p>\n Arguably one of the coolest appeared at the Italian Grand Prix, where a race suit detailed on the side of the cockpit gave fans a better look at how drivers are seated, and nodded to the 1993 Williams that humorously featured Sonic the Hedgehog\u2019s legs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Red Bull \u2013 Monaco 2005<\/p>\n Red Bull<\/a> arrived in F1 as a fully-fledged team in 2005 and were quick to bring their marketing genius to the paddock \u2013 something the energy drinks company had previously deployed across a host of extreme sports.<\/p>\n This included a Star Wars collaboration ahead of their first Monaco Grand Prix to promote the blockbuster Episode III \u2013 Revenge of the Sith movie, with an unmissable livery and a host of characters playing their part.<\/p>\n Mercedes \u2013 Germany 2019<\/p>\n At the 2019 German Grand Prix, Mercedes-Benz\u2019s 125th year in motorsport was celebrated by the F1 team, who ran a split design from front to rear.<\/p>\n Going back almost a century, and according to legend, Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 car sat just over the weight limit for a race at the Nurburgring in 1934, prompting mechanics to scrape off the white paint the brand originally used as Germany\u2019s national racing colour \u2013 thus exposing the silver bodywork and bringing it under the limit.<\/p>\n Mercedes combined the best of both worlds with their livery for the Hockenheim weekend, even if the rain-soaked race turned into a disaster for the squad when pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton<\/a> came home ninth via a series of incidents and Valtteri Bottas<\/a> crashed out.<\/p>\n Ferrari \u2013 Tuscany 2020<\/p>\n Ferrari<\/a> were another outfit to mark a special occasion the following year when, in F1\u2019s impressively arranged season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the famous Italian marque celebrated their 1000th Grand Prix.<\/p>\n To make the moment even more special, it came on the Scuderia\u2019s home soil at Mugello, which hosted that year\u2019s Tuscan Grand Prix \u2013 Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Sebastian Vettel<\/a>\u2019s cars looking resplendent in an updated burgundy livery.<\/p>\n McLaren \u2013 Monaco 2024<\/p>\n McLaren<\/a> have plenty of recent form when it comes to one-off liveries, particularly around the streets of Monaco, where they caught the eye in 2021 with a blue-and-orange Gulf throwback<\/a> and shone again in 2023 with a \u2018Triple Crown\u2019 celebration<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, for this list, we have chosen their colourful Ayrton Senna<\/a> tribute in 2024 \u2013 the Brazilian\u2019s yellow and green helmet colours (and those of his home country) starring around the streets of Monte Carlo once more.<\/p>\n Red Bull \u2013 Turkey 2021<\/p>\n In 2021, Red Bull paid tribute to their outgoing power unit partner, Honda<\/a>, at the Turkish Grand Prix, after the Japanese manufacturer\u2019s home round at Suzuka was called off due to the COVID-19 situation in the country at the time.<\/p>\n Red Bull\u2019s clean, white livery took inspiration from Richie Ginther\u2019s Honda RA272<\/a>, which won the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix, while the cars of sister team AlphaTauri ran the Japanese script for \u2018arigato\u2019 \u2013 \u2018thank you\u2019 \u2013 on their rear wings.<\/p>\n Alfa Romeo \u2013 Azerbaijan 2022<\/p>\n Alfa Romeo<\/a> created several eye-catching liveries during their latest stint in F1, including when they swapped a traditional red-and-white paintjob for the Italian flag at selected races in 2021, 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n While the 2021 and 2023 examples were used for their home race at Monza, Alfa Romeo celebrated the launch of the Tonale \u2013 the brand\u2019s first electrified SUV \u2013 with Il Tricolore during the 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Williams \u2013 Singapore\/Japan\/Qatar 2023<\/p>\n In 2023, the aforementioned Gulf switched their F1 partnership activities from McLaren to Williams<\/a> \u2013 and the oil company\u2019s classic colour combination would be seen again towards the tail-end of that season thanks to a livery competition for fans.<\/p>\n Williams gave supporters the opportunity to choose from four potential liveries for the Singapore, Japan and Qatar rounds \u2013 titled \u2018Heritage\u2019, \u2018Bolder than Bold\u2019, \u2018Visionary\u2019 and \u2018Contemporary\u2019 \u2013 with \u2018Bolder than Bold\u2019 winning out in a vote that attracted some 180,000 entries.<\/p>\n Alpine \u2013 Austin 2024<\/p>\n Alpine<\/a> have been one of the more colourful teams on the grid in recent seasons, blending vibrant shades of blue and pink, but the 2024 campaign took things to another level thanks to marketing deals around movie and video game releases.<\/p>\n First up was a red-and-black livery at the Belgian Grand Prix, to mark the premiere of the Deadpool & Wolverine film, before they moved to a similarly striking \u2018sunset orange\u2019 colour scheme at the United States Grand Prix (featured above), ahead of the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game being launched.<\/p>\n Racing Bulls \u2013 Las Vegas 2025<\/p>\n Racing Bulls<\/a> are another team who have enjoyed mixing up their liveries in recent years \u2013 from tortoise patterns to all-pink schemes and that recent Japanese shodo calligraphy creation.<\/p>\n We picked out the shiniest of them all to conclude this list, though, with the team\u2019s cars \u2013 as well as the race suits worn by drivers Liam Lawson<\/a> and Isack Hadjar<\/a> \u2013 adopting a holographic-inspired design for the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Haas and Racing Bulls caught the eye at Suzuka last weekend with a couple of creative one-off 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