F1 2016: Livery Reviews

Now all the teams have officially unveiled their 2016 cars in their race livery, I have written a review of how I feel each car looks and what could be improved on it. The first thing I am going to say is in my opinion, I think this year has been a better year for car liveries than previous years. Its really good to see that some teams have listened to fans complaints about how dull liveries have got these days. Here I've done a team-by-team review of each car.




Mercedes

I've said many times that Mercedes should scrap the green and go for a plain silver livery with the numbers in a white circle on the engine cover, harking back to the 1930s, but they clearly haven't done that, in fact they have increased the amount of green on the car, but it is a massive improvement on the last couple of years. The fact they are using the black to separate the green from the silver gives the livery a bit of a Brawn GP feel but with different colours, and the fact the green now separates onto the side of the bulkhead as well makes it more consistent.

Ferrari

Finally Ferrari have done something with their typical red! Something I have been waiting for them to do for years, which is bring back the white engine cover from the 1970s! The white engine cover really goes well with the red, as well as the red stripe on the underside, they were clearly trying to replicate their 1970s livery. The only improvement I think they could do to it is replace the black with the Italian flag stripes.

Williams

Not much to say about the Williams, people say more can be made out of the Martini stripe but if more was made out of it, it would look tacky and wouldn't have the historic image this one has. So I'm happy they've stuck with what they had.

Red Bull

At first, when it was unveiled, I thought it was absolutely hideous, especially as in the studio room, the blue looked black. I thought the matte finish really did not work, but after seeing pictures of it on track, it has really grown on me. It may look hideous at night races but it stands out in daytime, even though I still preferred the Infiniti livery.

Force India

I was a little disappointed they had kept the same livery, as I feel that this livery is good and striking but is a livery that only works for one year in my opinion. If they kept the same livery, they should've added a bit more green to it but at least I don't have to get used to seeing my favourite team in a new livery again...

Toro Rosso

I was hoping to see the Toro Rosso return to its old livery from 2006-2008 with the bull filling up the whole side of the car. So on first sight I was disappointed, but with Cepsa gone, that has created more space, and they have made good use of that space by promoting one of Red Bull's brands, it really works.

Renault

This in my opinion is one of the big disappointments of this year. It was a relief to find the livery they unveiled in France was not the race livery. But this livery is better but not by much. Good they have chosen yellow as the base colour, but I am disappointed with the lack of the classic black stripes. It just looks very bare, and a bit too Jordan-esque, which is not what a Renault should look like. Yellow should obviously be the base colour but they need some of the black stripes. Like the Sauber which is the next car to talk about, its two colours with a lot of potential to look good but they haven't made good use of them.

Sauber

Like the Renault, this is one of the big disappointments of last year really, the fact that blue and yellow are two colours that have a lot of potential but the team haven't made good use of them. It was disappointing that they stuck with this livery as it just looks bare.

McLaren

Some people were disappointed that McLaren kept the same livery but I think this is a livery that does work for the team, and if they win races, this could be a livery that people remember, the menacing gun metal colour they have used along with the red McLaren curves really works and makes the team stand out.

Manor

This is one of the most praised liveries on the F1 grid. Manor clearly made an effort with this livery. Firstly good to see that they have kept their fluorescent red, and secondly the addition of the metallic blue really looks nice, especially with the white separating the red from the blue. Its a livery that will really stand out. Good job Manor!

Haas

At first Gene Haas kept saying their car was going to be yellow, they said they wanted to stand out from the rest and at that time when Gene said it, there wasn't much yellow on the grid so that would've, and I think yellow was their original plan. But then Renault joined, and with them likely to go for yellow as their livery, the yellow wouldn't then 'stand out from the rest' as Haas wanted it to. Haas though have picked a good alternative. The silver and the black alone would be an extremely dull livery. But the red really gives the car character and definitely does make it a recognisable livery that stands out from the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if their original plan was this livery but the silver replaced with yellow, I can see how that would've worked, but they have picked a great alternative.

So there we have it, as I said, I think this year has been a better year for car liveries, with more colour on the grid, especially with the addition of the Renault yellow. Each colour that should be on the grid has a reasonable presence, however there are still annoyingly a lot of monochrome cars on the grid...