by Topher Smith & Alex Johnston
Williams' spectacular livery was launched ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay, so Topher Smith and I got to thinking...What are the best and worst liveries in F1?
For the purposes of this article, Topher and I have each picked one 'good' and one 'bad' livery from F1 history, and to make it a little more interesting; we could only pick cars from prior to the regulations changing in 2006.
With no further ado...
Best
AJ: Benetton B190
For my best livery, I’ve picked the B190 which was run by Benetton in the 1990 season and driven by Alessandro Nannini, Roberto Moreno and Nelson Piquet with the latter winning twice in the Ford powered car.
The livery features a yellow nose tip, a large green nose and front wing, with the main portion of the car being red besides a yellow air intake, a blue rear wing and rear portion of the car.
It’s not too dissimilar to something you could create on the F1 game in all honesty, but maybe the ‘I could do that’ feeling about it is part of the appeal?
Arrows A22
TS: Orange is a colour that I think just works on racing cars. I've never seen a bad livery in orange and just by the mention of that colour I think you can see where I'm going with this. But... I have two choices for this.
Yes, I am going with Arrows and I have always thought the A20 from 1999 driven by Pedro de la Rosa and Tora Takagi was an underrated gem of a livery. A split-style car of two halves, Arrows orange at the front and black at the back, it somehow worked and it's a shame it never got the results to back it up.
However, the A22 from 2001 just edges it for me as it made the most of its sponsorship from, funnily enough, Orange. Once again coupling the orange with black, this is undoubtedly one of the most gorgeous racing cars I have ever seen.
Worst:
AJ: Shadow DN9
For my worst livery, and very much to Topher’s dismay: I’ve picked the Shadow DN9 from 1979. The car was piloted by Elio de Angelis and Jan Lammers, as the Shadow team ran under the guise of Shadow Racing Cars and Interscope Shadow Racing during the ‘79 season. Lammers took the best result for the team with a fourth place at Watkins Glen.
The livery up to a point is quite nice, with the most part of the car royal blue with a yellow trim on the rear wing end plate and around the ‘Samson’ sponsor on the main bodywork of the DN9. But then they decided to slap a massive lion’s head right on the front of the car and down the nose of the car with red features all the way down the side of the cockpit.
The lion imagery belonged to a tobacco sponsor that backed Jan Lammers but sadly ended up ruining the overall look of the car for me.
Brabham BT60B
TS: Alex dares to besmirch the majestic piece of art that is the Shadow DN9? Clearly has no taste...
Speaking of no taste, which colourblind livery designer thought the Brabham BT60B looked good? Pink is a colour that can definitely work on a racing car, just look at the current Meyer Shank cars in IndyCar, but on Brabham's 1992 entry it definitely did NOT work.
Putting pink with two different shades of blue just can't be a good idea no matter how they are laid out on the car, but even if we assume that was the only palette available they still could have thought a bit more about the colour placement.
That eyesore from the same team that produced the gorgeous BT52...
📸 They can't all be 10/10's can they..?
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Brands Hatch, Goodwood.
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