The Formula 1 governing body is set to step in to enhance the appearance of team car liveries for 2025 and beyond.
The Formula 1 governing body is set to step in to enhance the appearance of team car liveries for 2025 and beyond.
Recent increases in car dimensions and mass to incorporate hefty hybrid technologies have led teams to progressively eliminate paint, which can increase a car’s weight by several kilograms.
By 2024, most F1 cars now exhibit a bare black carbon fibre base, minimally adorned with colours and sponsor logos.
As reported by Diario Sport, from the view of the FIA and supported by Liberty Media’s Formula One Management, this trend poses a “problem”.
“One problem is that the cars have too much bare carbon, due to the weight of the paint, so the cars have too much black,” noted Nikolas Tombazis, head of single-seaters at the FIA.
A lot of work has also been done by all the teams to change the type of paint. In fact, a lot of it today is extremely thin film, to keep the weight as low as possible,” he continued.
“The result is that some teams seem to use similar colour schemes, so they end up with cars that look very similar to each other,” Tombazis pointed out.
“We are still discussing it with the teams, and it will be discussed at the next F1 Commission.”
However, he suggested a simpler approach could be for teams to just informally agree amongst themselves, saying, “Well, if your car is blue here, mine won’t be blue there.”
“We don’t want to be making regulations on liveries, but we do want the cars to be distinguishable,” Tombazis elaborated.
He also commented on the impact of recent trends on driver helmet personalisation.
“In the past, drivers had more recognisable helmets because there were simpler designs,” he said. “And now with the change in regulations, which allows helmet design changes, they all have these fun designs. Plus, the spectators don’t see the helmet anyway because of the halo. We need to find some way to make it so people can tell if it’s (George) Russell or (Lewis) Hamilton.”
