Tobacco advertising was common in motorsport; as bans spread throughout the world, teams began using an alternate livery which alluded to the tobacco sponsor. At historical events, cars are allowed to use the livery which was used when the car was actively competing.[7]
Philippe Streiff's AGS JH23 from the 1988 season at Silverstone
An AGS JH23 from the 1988 Formula One season
Alfa Romeo
Alfa Romeo was a Formula One constructor between 1950 and 1951, and again between 1979 and 1985. In 1950–1951 and 1979, the team used the rosso corsa (racing red) national color of Italy. In 1980, they switched to a livery sponsored by Philip Morris'sMarlboro cigarette brand. In 1984, the Italian clothing brand Benetton took over Alfa Romeo's livery sponsorship, which they held until the withdrawal of Alfa Romeo from Formula One at the end of 1985. Alfa Romeo returned as a constructor in 2019 with the rebranding of Sauber and exit after 2023.[8][9]
In Styria, Alfa Romeo used a special 111th anniversary livery.[10] At the home race they have painted a car in Italian tricolor.[11] At the final race in Abu Dhabi, the cars featured messages for their drivers who were both leaving the team at the end of the season; for example, Kimi Räikkönen's is "Dear Kimi, we will leave you alone now", a reference to his famous radio message during the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.[12]
In countries where advertisement of gambling and sports betting are banned, Stake's branding will be replaced by Kick.[13][14] Alfa Romeo raced a revised Kick livery called the "disruptive livery" at the Belgian Grand Prix. The team raced a special livery for the Las Vegas Grand Prix featuring “a pattern of playing cards featuring Alfa Romeo's Quadrifoglio in gold and heart suit cards emblazoned with the number six – for the six years of the relationship between Sauber Motorsport and Alfa Romeo.
1979: Alfa Romeo returns to Formula One as a constructor.
1980: Alfa Romeo appears with Marlboro-sponsored livery.
An Alfa Romeo 182B from 1982 with Marlboro livery.
Industrie Regione Marche, teuco, Annabella, Urbis, Mase, Blue Box, Agip
The Andrea Moda C4B with the livery used in 1992 South African Grand Prix
The Andrea Moda S921 with the livery used in 1992 Monaco Grand Prix
The Andrea Moda S921 with the livery used in 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix
Arrows
Starting in the 1970s and going for decades until ending in mid-2002, Arrows, that was known as Footwork for a few years in the 1990s, had distinctive liveries, like the unusual Ruffles sponsorship in Footwork, an all-black car in the 1998 season, and an orange car in its final years.
Hans-Joachim Stuck's ATS D2 from 1979 season in display
In 1981, ATS was sponsored by the Swedish band ABBA, this was because one of the drivers was Slim Borgudd, ABBA's drummer
Manfred Winkelhock at the 1984 Dallas GP
Benetton
Benetton Formula Ltd. was a Formula One constructor that participated from 1986 to 2001. The team was owned by the Benetton family who run a worldwide chain of clothing stores of the same name. In 2000 the team was purchased by Renault, but competed as Benetton for the 2001 season. In 2002 the team became Renault F1. From 1991 to 1993, Camel sponsored the Benetton team, but, from 1994 to 2001 the main sponsor was Mild Seven.
"Mild Seven" was replaced with "Benetton" or "Moto Sport" and "Bitburger" was replaced with "Drive Alcoholfrei". An Italian flag as a mark of the nationality of team's owner Benetton Group (Benetton B195 car).
"Mild Seven" was replaced with "Benetton" (on team members clothing and rear wing's front side), "Renaultsport" on rear wing (rear side), "Fisico" on Fisichella's car (on engine body) and "Jenson" on Button's car (on engine body)
In its first year, Benetton raced in green livery with Sisley (a Benetton brand) and Benetton as sponsors, this is Gerhard Berger racing for Benetton at Detroit in 1986
Thierry Boutsen driving for Benetton at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix
1990 Benetton B190 on display
From 1991 to 1993, Camel sponsored benetton, here is the B191 from 1991 season being demonstrated at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2006
A Benetton B192 painted in its Camel livery
Michael Schumacher driving for Benetton at the 1992 Monaco GP
Beneton B193 at Goodwood Festival of Speed
Benetton received sponsorship from Mild Seven until 2001 and produced the first two championship titles of Michael Schumacher, this is the Benetton B194 in display
Jos Verstappen driving at the 1994 British GP
Michael Schumacher driving for Benetton at the 1995 British GP
Johnny Herbert racing for Benetton (non-tobacco livery) at Montreal in 1995
Michael Schumacher's Benetton B195 at the 1996 Autosport International Show
Alexander Wurz driving for Benetton at the 1997 British Grand Prix
Jean Alesi driving a Benetton at the 1997 Italian Grand Prix
Giancarlo Fisichella driving for Benetton at Montreal in 1999
For its final years prior to the takeover of Renault, Benetton received sponsorship from Renault, Vodafone and Korean Air; this is Jenson Button driving in 2001 for Benetton
BMS Scuderia Italia
In its Dallara years, Scuderia Italia raced with a livery slightly similar to Ferrari (rosso corsa with white details and black wings), but prior to the absorption by Minardi in 1993, when raced with Lola cars, had a white livery with red and yellow flames.
Michele Alboreto's T93/30 at the 1993 British Grand Prix
BMW Sauber
After having been an engine supplier in the 1980s and again since 2000, BMW entered Formula One with a works team of its own in 2006 after buying Sauber. The livery was based on the traditional BMW Motorsport team colours of white with light blue, dark blue and a little red (in an almost purple shade). White is also the original national racing colour of Germany, while white and blue are the colours of Bavaria and of BMW itself. On 27 November 2009, BMW agreed to sell the team back to its original founder, Peter Sauber.[20]
Prior to sponsorships, Brabham raced in turquoise with a gold band running across the car. This later changed to green and gold, the racing colours of Australia, as a mark of the nationality of the team's owner Jack Brabham. A Brabham car was the first Formula One car painted in the livery of a team's sponsor when Team Gunston as a privateer team entered a private Brabham car at the first race of the 1968 season (the 1968 South African Grand Prix).[6] In 1975 and 1976, Brabham received sponsorship from Martini; in 1976 the color scheme changed from white to red with light blue trim. The primary sponsor changed to Parmalat in 1978, with the cars retaining a variant of the same red and blue colors. With the team's switch to BMW engines in 1982, the new livery consisted of a clean dark blue and white with a stylized BMW "kidney grille" on the nose. This scheme was retained throughout the BMW years, even through a sponsorship change to Olivetti in 1985, until 1989. (This unusual representation of the engine supplier, specifically BMW, in the color scheme was revived by Williams when they debuted their own BMW cars in 2000.) In 1989, Brabham signed with Bioptron, a brand of Zepter International, which continued until the team was bought by Middlebridge Group. Since then, it was sponsored by many Japanese companies like Garage Italiya, a company that imports Italian cars in Japan, Autobacs, Nippon Shinpan, and Mitsukoshi. In its final season Brabham raced in blue and pink livery of the Japanese metal group Seikima-II.
From 1985 until 1988, Brabham raced in Olivetti livery
The Brabham BT60B in its blue and pink livery.
Brawn GP
After Honda pulled out of F1 at the end of 2008, team boss Ross Brawn struggled to find a buyer to save the team, eventually buying it himself. A lack of sponsors resulted in the white livery, with flashes of bright yellow and black. Towards the end of the season, the team arranged one-race sponsor deals with a variety of major local companies, including Canon, Mapfre, Itaipava and Qtel.
Brawn GP dominated the early part of the 2009 season, with Jenson Button winning six of the first seven races. As other teams improved their cars, Brawn struggled for pace, but still recorded several podiums during the rest of the year. Their strong start and consistent finish was enough to secure the Constructors World Championship at the first (and only) attempt, as well as the drivers title with Jenson Button. At the end of the season, the team was purchased by engine supplier Mercedes-Benz.
British American Racing competed in Formula One from 1999 to 2005. The name was a reference to the team owner, British American Tobacco, hence the livery which included two of its main cigarette brands. In their debut season, the team wished to have its two cars painted in different liveries (one 555, the other Lucky Strike), but this was forbidden by the rules. So the team decided on a unique two-sided design, with the blue 555 livery of the right side of the car, and the red and white Luckies livery on the left and a zipper design on the middle. .
555 logo changed to three crescent moons (same as in Subaru Impreza with 555 sponsorship); Lucky Strike logo blocked out (side of car) and replaced by "Run Free" (other parts of the car)
Lucky Strike logo either blocked out (2000–2001), "Luckies" changed to "Lookies" (2000), "Lucky Strike" was replaced with "Look Alike" (2001), "Run Free" (2002), bar code and Formula One cars (2003–2004), "Don't Walk", "Look Left" and "Look Right" and a barcode and Formula One cars (2004) or with "Racing Revolution" (2005)
The first cars entered by the BRM works team were a pale duck-egg green (any shade of green represented British racing green, the national racing colour of Great Britain), but this was later replaced for aesthetic reasons by a very dark metallic shade of grey-green. BRM cars entered by non-British privateer teams wore their respective national racing colours. The team acquired their first significant commercial sponsorship from Yardley for the 1970 season, running in white with black, gold and ochre stripes in a stylised "Y" wrapping around the car's bodywork. In the 1972 season the team became the first F1 team sponsored by Marlboro and at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix the BRM team achieved the first win for a Marlboro-sponsored F1 car.
Year
Main colour(s)
Additional colour(s)
Main sponsor(s)
Additional major sponsor(s)
Other Informations (including non-tobacco/alcohol race changes)
Gregor Foitek's 1989 Eurobrun being demonstrated at historic event at Hockenheim
A Eurobrun 189B from the 1990 season
The Eurobrun 189B from 1990 season, Eurobrun's last season
Ferrari
In keeping with their Italian roots, the Ferrariworks team has always kept a red colour in the tradition of rosso corsa, the national racing colour of Italy, except for last two races in the 1964 season (the 1964 United States Grand Prix and 1964 Mexican Grand Prix) when Enzo Ferrari let his cars be entered by the NART team in American national racing colours (white with blue lengthwise "Cunningham racing stripes") to protest against Italian racing authorities. However, Ferrari cars entered by non-Italian privateer teams wore their respective national racing colours until the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix when Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien privately entered a Ferrari car in the Belgian racing yellow colour. Over the years, rosso corsa has been combined with white parts and with various sponsorship schemes, but Ferrari has never fully let their cars be dominated by the sponsorship livery like many other teams have. This changed in the 1990s when Ferrari replaced their traditional rosso corsa colour with a "Marlboro red" which is noticeably lighter; this colour remains despite the ban on tobacco sponsorship. Ferrari had Marlboro as the team's title sponsor (renamed as Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro) from 1997 until the 2011 European Grand Prix and as one of team's main sponsors from 1993 to 2017. Philip Morris continued to sponsor Ferrari as Mission Winnow in 2018 (renamed as Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow). Ferrari reverted to its rosso corsa colors in 2022 after Philip Morris lost its livery sponsorship rights.
Marlboro logo removed completely or replaced with white space (2000–2004) (The Ferrari cars had white spaces over Marlboro occasionally in 1998 and 1999) (same for Ducati MotoGP team from 2003 to 2004), Marlboro logo changed to "bar code" (1994–1999, 2005–2006), or text removed with keeping the chevron with the driver's name (1993) and in the team member clothing, Marlboro logo became a white square with a red stripe above with written the driver's name (1980s–1996). In the 1999 Belgian Grand Prix, Marlboro was replaced by "Ferrari Formula One". The team used special livery for 2001 Italian Grand Prix in remembrance of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States; both cars ran without any sponsorship livery and sported matte black nose cones. In the 2005 Bahrain Grand Prix the cars sported black nose cones as a sign of mourning for Pope John Paul II.
Due to a total tobacco livery ban, from 2008 onwards only a "bar code" has been used instead of the Marlboro logo. As of the 2010 Spanish Grand Prix, even the "bar code" was removed on allegations of subliminal tobacco advertising.
This was replaced in 2011 with a new 'Scuderia Ferrari' logo, which uses a similar graphical design to the Marlboro logo while purporting to be a team logo and is placed in the main areas the previous barcode was visible. Philip Morris's sponsorship deal with Ferrari has been extended to 2015. In May 2015, another deal between The Philip Morris Group and Ferrari took place, extending the sponsor deal until 2018, and in August 2017 another "multi-year" deal was signed.
Ferrari's 2018 livery also contains the colors of the Italian flag.
Ferrari and Philip Morris unveiled the Mission Winnow livery in the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix. Mission Winnow was also the title sponsor for the 2019 and 2021 seasons as Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow. The Mission Winnow logos were removed in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix and were replaced with Scuderia Ferrari's 90th Anniversary logo from the Canadian to Russian Grand Prix. In 2020, the Mission Winnow logos appeared during the testing sessions but were absent throughout the season. Mission Winnow lost the title and livery sponsorship rights in 2022 but remained as a partner.
For the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix, the 1,000th Grand Prix entry for the team, the car was painted into a darker red with a different number font and "1000GP" logo.
Ferrari raced with two special liveries for Monza; 2022 celebrating the 100th anniversary of the circuit and 2023 celebrating their victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For the Miami Grand Prix, Ferrari raced a blue livery to mark the 70th anniversary of Ferrari's presence in North America which features two historic shades of blue – Azzurro La Plata and Azzurro Dino.
Alesi's Ferrari F93A being demonstrated at The Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2008
Until 2000, Ferrari used the barcode in countries where tobacco advertising is not allowed, like Great Britain and France. These are Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger at the 1994 British Grand Prix
Kimi Räikkönen driving the Ferrari F2007 winning the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix and the World Drivers' Championship for the first time. The car itself at the start of the year had Marlboro sponsorship but dropped it by the European season
Whyte & Mackay's logo was removed from clothing at the Turkish GP and Whyte & Mackay logo also replaced with "One from a Billion Hunt" in that Grand Prix too. Ra.One was added at the Indian GP.
Due to local laws about alcohol sponsorship, the Whyte & Mackay logos were also removed from the car at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and were instead replaced with the names of the winners of a competition run by the team.
The team originally launched with Uralkali as its title sponsor along with the Russian flag colors on its livery. It was soon removed as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The first two days of pre-season testing featured this livery,[34] it would be removed on the final day; this livery would be used throughout the season.[35]
Haas raced a special livery for the United States Grand Prix featuring a stars and stripes design down the sidepods, tub and both rear and front wing endplates.
1976 Hesketh 308D. Image shows well the large painted Penthouse Pet, apparently initially painted topless, but the Rizla packet was added for decency.
1977 Penthouse Rizla Racing Hesketh 308E-Cosworth waiting in the pit garages during the Silverstone Classic race meeting
Hill
The Embassy Hill, founded by two-time World Champion Graham Hill, raced during the 1975 season with Imperial Tobacco's Embassy brand as title sponsor. The cars were predominantly white, with a red vertical stripe behind the cockpit. The team folded following the aircraft accident in which Hill, driver Tony Brise and four other team members were killed in November 1975.
Honda
Honda first raced in Formula One from 1964 to 1968. The cars were entered in an all-white livery with a red circle (duplicating the Japanese flag), the national racing colour of Japan. The company won two races but left F1 at the end of the 1968 season, before returning as an engine supplier in the 1980s. Honda in the 1990s never raced, but created prototypes like the RC100 and the RA099 tested at Suzuka Circuit.
After a decade away from the sport, Honda returned again as an engine supplier in 2001, before buying the British American Racing team and entering F1 as a constructor in 2006.
For the 2006 season, Honda continued with the BAT sponsorship with the Lucky Strike logo, but BAT pulled out for 2007. From 2007, the only logos on the car are the Honda badge, the Bridgestone logo, and the logo of Honda's environmental awareness program, Earth Dreams. For 2007, the livery itself was a picture of the Earth on a black background. For 2008, however, there are only pieces of the image of Earth on a mainly white background, as opposed to the whole of the Earth being on Honda's car.
Lucky Strike logo changed to "Racing Revolution", "Look Left", "Look Right" and during the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix "Last Blast" was on the rear wing and Lucky Strike logo was replaced with a Heart with a security pin and a paper written "Racing Forever".
The HRT Formula 1 Team competed for just three seasons, between 2010 and 2012. In that time, the team competed with three different liveries, this was due to a lack of sponsor continuity.
Due to a lack of sponsorship, the team wrote various messages on the car, such as "This could be you", "This is a cool spot" and "Your logo here". After being purchased by Thesan Capital halfway through 2011, the messages were replaced by a silver HRT logo.
Total, Davene, Peugeot, Goodyear, FIAMM, Diavia, Unipart, G de Z Capital, Corona, Control Techniques, BBS, Fox, GUAM, Pepsi, Lampo Zippers, Metagal
Benson & Hedges logo changed to special f1 and Jordan (on radiator) and driver surname plus 's on front wing and on engine cowling (for example: "Barrichello's")
Benson & Hedges logo changed to "Bitten Hisses" or to snake-related puns with driver surnames such as "Fisssssi" and "Sssssschuey" (1997), "Buzzing Hornets" (1998 to 2000), "Bitten Heroes" (2001), and "Be On Edge" (2002 to 2005), Sobranie logo changed to "Be On Edge", replaced with the driver's given name or removed completely (2005), "200" at the 2001 USA GP (only on Jean Alesi's car for his 200th F1 start), "Lazarus" in the first races of 2004 The team used special livery with American flag decals for 2001 Italian Grand Prix and 2001 United States Grand Prix in remembrance of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. At the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix, the slogan "Bring Back Hockey" was printed on the airbox as a reaction to the 2004–05 NHL lockout.[42] Sobranie replaced Benson & Hedges at the 2004 and 2005 United States Grands Prix due to U.S. Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement conflicts.[43]
LEC was a Formula One team and constructor from the United Kingdom. They participated in ten Grands Prix, using a March in 1973. In 1977 they built their own car, the LEC CRP1.
Gitanes text was removed (1991–1993), Gitanes logo with a barcode over name (1994–1995), or "Gitanes" was replaced with "Ligier" and the Gitanes logo was replaced with a man with the French flag (1995)
Elio de Angelis driving a Lotus97T at the 1985 German GP
1985 Ayrton Senna Lotus 97T at the Renault World Series
Ayrton Senna's Lotus 99T from 1987 Season
Satoru Nakajima's Lotus 99T from 1987 Season
Nelson Piquet driving for Lotus at the 1988 Canada Grand Prix
Lotus were sponsored by Camel in the period 1987–1990.
A Lotus 100T on display at the Honda Collection Hall in Japan.
This is a Lotus Judd 101 from 1989 season
Satoru Nakajima demonstrating his Lotus 101.
After Camel withdrew support from Lotus, Lotus had to rely on some Japanese sponsors such as Tamiya, Yellow Hat and Komatsu
A Lotus 102B from 1991 in display
A Lotus 102 in Camel livery.
A Lotus 102D from 1992 in display
Johnny Herbert driving for Lotus at the 1993 British GP
Johnny Herbert driving for Lotus at the 1994 British GP
Lotus (2010–2011)
The new Lotus team made its début in 2010 and was renamed to Caterham F1 in 2012. It was formally from Malaysia but still had a livery dominated by British racing green, like the old Lotus team had for many years.
Renault was renamed Lotus in 2012, following an agreement with Caterham F1. The team was owned by Luxembourg-based venture capital group Genii Capital and named after its branding partner Group Lotus. Its livery, introduced back in 2011 with Renault R31, was designed as a tribute to the Team Lotus cars of 1981–1986 and their famous John Player Special liveries.
Green and White (Pescarolo's car), White and Red (Beltoise's car)
Matra-Simca
Goodyear, Elf
The Matra MS9 driven by Jackie Stewart in display
The Matra MS11 driven by Henri Pesarolo in display
1968 Matra-Cosworth MS10
The Matra MS80 from the 1969 season.
1970 Henri Pescarolo's Matra MS120 in display at a Matra workshop in Leerdam, The Netherlands.
1970 Jean-Pierre Beltoise's Matra MS120.
McLaren
The first McLaren Formula One car raced at the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix was painted white with a green stripe to represent a fictional Yamura team in John Frankenheimer's film Grand Prix.[47] Though both based as well as licensed in Britain the McLaren team never entered their cars in the British racing green.
McLaren and Marlboro had the longest sponsorship deal between a team and its title sponsor in Formula One history which lasted for 23 consecutive seasons (1974–1996).[48] McLaren then aligned with West (1997–2005) and Vodafone (2007–2013). In 2019, McLaren became the second Formula One team to sign a sponsorship deal with a tobacco company with British American Tobacco[49] since Formula One banned tobacco advertising in 2006.
Marlboro was replaced by a chevron (1974), barcode (1984–1985, 1987–1992) or with McLaren brand (1986, 1991–1993). At the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix, Keke Rosberg's car was painted yellow and white rather than red and white, to advertise Marlboro Lights.
"West" was removed or replaced with West logo (1997–1999), with driver's first names and "Team" (on team members clothing) (1999–2004) or driver's full name and "Team McLaren" (on team members clothing) (2005).
Johnnie Walker logos were either removed, or replaced by "Keep Walking" logos or Diageo's logo in Turkey, for races in Muslim countries which forbid alcohol advertising. They are still absent in those countries.
In the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, because of Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless and the lack of other North American business operations, there is a co-branding of Vodafone and Verizon.
In the 2012 United States Grand Prix, the Vodafone branding is replaced with Verizon Wireless (then a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone).
Vodafone partners replaced the brand in the 2013 Bahrain and United States Grands Prix. Zain was used in Bahrain whereas Verizon was used in Austin.
A Better Tomorrow livery advertises BAT product brands Vuse (previously Vype) & Velo (previously Lyft). The advertising space is either sold by BAT or replaced with BAT-affiliated partners in countries where BAT do not sell Vuse or Velo[50] or in countries that bans tobacco advertising. Vuse also partnered with McLaren to race bespoke liveries designed by emerging artists for the 2021 to 2023 Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.
McLaren raced a one-off special Gulf livery at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix.[51]
At the 2021 French Grand Prix, McLaren raced a tribute livery to long time McLaren Group shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, who had passed away before the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.[52]
OKX collaborated with McLaren to race the "Future Mode" and "Stealth Mode" liveries for the 2022 and 2023 Singapore and Japanese Grands Prix respectively.[53][54]
At the 2023 Monaco and Spanish Grands Prix, McLaren raced a special livery to celebrate McLaren's Triple Crown of Motorsport achievement.[55]
McLaren later raced a chrome livery inspired by the 2006–2014 livery for the 2023 British Grand Prix in collaboration with Google Chrome.[56]
For the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren raced a special Jack Daniel's branded livery.[57]
The team's first sponsorship deal was with Yardley, who branded McLarens such as this M19C (shown being demonstrated at the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix weekend).
Niki Lauda won his last championship with McLaren in 1984
A McLaren MP4/4 from the 1988 season
A McLaren MP4/5 from the 1989 season
A McLaren from the 1990 season
The McLaren–Marlboro partnership lasted from 1974 until the end of 1996, and produced several championships, including Ayrton Senna in 1991.
A McLaren from the 1992 season
Ayrton Senna's MP4/8 on display at Donington, the site of his famous wet-weather victory in 1993.
Mika Häkkinen's McLaren from the 1994 season on display
Mika Häkkinen's McLaren from 1995 season in its non-tobacco livery, this was the first season when McLaren switched from Peugeot power to Mercedes power
A McLaren MP4/10B from 1995, this was the last F1 car driven by Nigel Mansell
David Coulthard's McLaren MP4/11 exhibited as part of the McLaren Hall, Donington Grand Prix Exhibition
Mark Blundell driving a McLaren at the 1995 British GP
A McLaren MP4/12 in West livery
David Coulthard driving for McLaren in 1998
Mika Häkkinen's McLaren in Test Livery from the 1998 season
Häkkinen driving a McLaren MP4/13 in its non-tobacco livery
Mika Häkkinen driving for McLaren at the 1999 Canadian GP
A McLaren MP4/14 on display at the Donington Collection. The car carries chassis number 4 and is in the state it crossed the line to win both the 1999 Japanese Grand Prix and the Formula One Drivers' Championship for its driver, Mika Häkkinen.
Coulthard driving a McLaren at the 2000 Canadian GP
Mika Häkkinen driving a McLaren at the 2001 Canadian GP, this was his last season
At races where tobacco advertising was not allowed, the "West" logos were replaced with the driver's name in a similar – but subtly different – style. Thus Pedro de la Rosa's McLaren MP4-20 was branded "Pedro" at the 2005 British Grand Prix. Following the termination of the West sponsorship contract in July 2005 the driver's names were in a completely different style for the remainder of the year.
After losing the Vodafone sponsorship in 2013, the McLaren MP4-29 ran with a silver only car, with the car's name on the sidepod, as seen driven by Kevin Magnussen (2014).
In 2017, McLaren chose to return to an orange livery on the McLaren MCL32, while keeping the black prominent. Fernando Alonso is seen testing the car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Mercedes-Benz first competed in Formula One during the 1954 and 1955 seasons. This was in the time before sponsorship liveries and the team was using an all silver livery, the national racing color of Germany. The team was absent from Formula One after this, returning in 1994 as an engine supplier.
Mercedes-Benz rejoined Formula One as a team in 2010 after having purchased the Brawn GP team on 16 November 2009. On 21 December 2009 it signed a €30 million per season contract with Petronas as title sponsor.[58] The blueish green livery color of Petronas is just present as fine lines at the side of the car, which overall is mainly painted in silver like historic Mercedes race cars of the 1930s and 1950s. To celebrate their 125th anniversary in motorsport, Mercedes-Benz decided to launch a special one-off livery for the 2019 German Grand Prix. The livery was a homage to the first racing cars that Mercedes made.[59]
During the Monaco round of the championship, the team, memorialising three-time champion and team key member Niki Lauda, who had died less than a week prior to the race, painted their halos red and included a message reading "Danke Niki" on the nosecone and a red version of the Mercedes three-pointed star on the engine cover (the latter would be kept for the rest of the season and would appear on future cars).[60]
During the German Grand Prix, the team raced with a one-off livery to celebrate their 125th anniversary in motorsport.[59]
During the pre-season testing usual silver livery was used. In Abu Dhabi in honour of the seventh Constructors' Cup win, the livery featured names of each worker of the team.
Midland F1 competed for only one year, 2006. They took over Jordan in 2005, but Midland sold it in late 2006 to Spyker. They were the first F1 team to compete with a Russian license. (After Spyker's takeover in mid-2006, the team changed its livery to orange and name to Spyker MF1 Racing. In 2007, the team competed as Spyker F1.)
Christijan Albers driving a 2006 M16 in the late season Spyker livery.
Minardi
As the longest lasting Formula 1 backrunners, Minardi had an enormous variety of sponsors during its 21 seasons, but still managed to have a predominantly black painted car most of the time.
Elf Aquitaine, ITS Ceramiche, RDA management consultants, Air Sicilia, Interflora, Igol Lubrifiants, Ford, brummel, Catamaran Watches, Marie Formigari, Ito En Seleb, Quest, Euromik, Godard, Hewlett Packard, Antera
Ursus logo was removed
Bertrand Gachot driving his Pacific in 1994
Bertrand Gachot racing for Pacific at the 1995 British Grand Prix
Andrea Montermini driving for Pacific at the 1995 German Grand Prix
Andrea Montermini driving at the 1995 British Grand Prix
Penske
Penske competed in the Formula One World Championship as a chassis constructor from 1974 to 1977 and as a works team from 1974 to 1976 and maintained its team's livery and sponsors throughout its three seasons competing in Formula One as a team.
Jarno Trulli driving the Prost AP02 at the 1999 Canadian GP
In the 2000 season, Yahoo entered as a sponsor for Prost
After a disastrous 2000 season, many of Prost's sponsors withdrew their support. As a result, the team had to put its team logo on the sidepods for 2001, as it lacked a title sponsor.
RB raced a special Chameleon Card livery for the Miami Grand Prix. The livery was also applied on RB's F1 Academy driver Amna Al Qubaisi's car for the Miami round.
Jaguar Racing was renamed Red Bull Racing after the former was bought from Ford on 15 November 2004 by the energy drink company.[62]Red Bull's involvement in Formula One dates back to 1995, when it first sponsored the Sauber team. The deal with Sauber lasted until the end of the 2004 season.
Since its first season in 2005 the car livery did not change much, always keeping Red Bull as the main sponsor. This changed in 2013, when Infiniti became the team's title sponsor and Red Bull's branding on the car was reduced.
Red Bull have used special liveries on multiple occasions, supporting the release of upcoming films and company's charity program Wings for Life.
In the United States and Mexico, both Exxon and Mobil are used, exclusively, as Esso, along with Exxon and Mobil, are ExxonMobil fuel brands. During the 1000th Grand Prix, the first generation of Esso and Mobil logos were used. At the 2019 British Grand Prix, 007 livery was used to promote the 25th James Bond film, along with the license plate B549 WUU to replace the traditional Aston Martin livery.
During the Turkish Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull sported a special red and white livery and overalls with a message saying "Arigato" on the back of the rear wing. The livery was a tribute to Honda in what would have been their last Japanese Grand Prix, however it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.
During the United States Grand Prix, all Honda branding and sponsorship was replaced with Acura, Honda's luxury and performance car manufacturer.
Renault competed as a constructor in Formula One in three different periods, from the 1977-1985, 2002-2011 and 2016-2020 seasons. Renault returned to Formula One in 2002 by buying the Benetton team. The team had a title contract with Mild Seven from 2002 to 2006, before switching to ING Group from the 2007 season to the 2009 Italian Grand Prix when ING withdrew all association with Renault. The team was sold and competed as Lotus from the 2012-2015 seasons, before Renault bought back the team and returned as a constructor in 2016. The Renault Group subsequently rebranded the team as Alpine team in 2021.
"Mild Seven" was replaced with "Blue World" or "RenaultSport" (2002), Mild Seven logo was replaced with "Blue World" or replaced with sky blue space (2003), Mild Seven was replaced with drivers full name, Mild Seven logo was replaced by the car's number "Mild Seven" was replaced with "Team Spirit" (on team members clothing) (2004), Mild Seven changed to "Team Spirit" or concept art (2005 to 2006)
Renault's first F1 car, the RS01, raced with a predominantly yellow colour scheme which was largely unchanged until the team's withdrawal from the sport at the end of 1985.
A 1979 Renault RS10
Alain Prost's Renault RE40 from the 1983 season at Mulhouse
Prost's Renault RE40 in display
Derek Warwick driving his Renault in the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix
Renault's return in 2002 saw the traditional yellow combined with the light blue of Mild Seven. This is Jarno Trulli driving the Renault R23 in 2003
Sauber is a Swiss Formula One constructor that joined the Formula One grid in 1993. Sauber was bought by BMW at the end of the 2005 season and the team competed as BMW Sauber F1 Team from 2006 to 2009. On 27 November 2009, BMW agreed to sell the team back to its original founder, Peter Sauber.[20] The 2010 season marked Sauber's return as an independent constructor. Sauber was rebranded and competed as Alfa Romeo Racing (later Alfa Romeo F1 Team) from 2019 to 2023 in a title sponsorship deal with Alfa Romeo.[8][9] Sauber will compete as the Audi factory team in 2026.[77]
In the Canadian GP, the sidepods of de Cesaris's car featured "Forza Andrea" ("Go Andrea"), "200 Gran Premi" ("200 Grands Prix") and "In bocca al lupo!" ("Good luck!") and the car was decorated with pink and yellow stripes each of which was a first name[whose?][78]
The José Cuervo ad was for Cuervo Tequila except for Istanbul, where their Cholula Hot Sauce replaced the drink because of prohibitions on alcohol advertising.
Like the previous season's Alfa Romeo, in countries where advertisement of gambling and sports betting are banned, Stake's branding will be replaced by Kick.[83][84]
1993 Sauber C12, the first car, with its black livery.
1994 Sauber C13 at the Auto und Technik Museum Sinsheim.
Russell Athletic, Ford, Würth, Goodyear, Vernilux, Korean Air, Fogo de Chao (in some GPs), COX Sport Shoes, Paul Mitchell, Men's Tenoras, Marutama Foods, Time-Sert, Ford
After Ratzenberger's death, an Austrian flag with "For Roland" text was displayed on the airbox.
In 1995, Simtek gained support from the Energy Drink XTC and Men's Tenoras, a Japanese men fashion brand that was Hideki Noda's sponsor in F3000. This is Domenico Schiattarella driving his S951 in 1995.
Spirit's first Formula One chassis, the Spirit 201C.
The Spirit 101 from 1984 season at Silverstone
Spyker
Spyker took part in only one season of Formula One. The main colour of the car did not directly reflect the sponsorships but was the orange racing colour of the Netherlands.
Sakon Yamamoto driving the Spyker F8-VII at Monza in 2007.
Stewart
Stewart lasted for only 3 years before being bought out by its engine supplier, Ford, and being rebranded as Jaguar, but managed to win a race in its final season, 1999. Stewart had a tartan decoration on its cars to represent its Scottish nationality.
Rubens Barrichello driving the Stewart SF-2 at the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix.
Johnny Herbert driving for Stewart at Montreal in 1999
Super Aguri
Super Aguri was set up before the 2006 season by Aguri Suzuki, with the help of Honda Racing, to provide a drive for former Honda driver Takuma Sato. For the 2006 season's SA05 and SA06, their car was based on the 2002 Arrows A23, after which, for the 2007 and 2008 seasons, they ran cars based on the previous year's Honda chassis.
Teo Fabi driving the Toleman TG185 in the 1985 season.
Toro Rosso
Toro Rosso is the sister team of Red Bull Racing. Since it originated from the buyout of Minardi, its name means Red Bull in Italian.[91] At the beginning, the team used to have the same name and sponsors as its parent team, with the major difference being the presence of a scarlet "charging bull" painted over the engine cowling.
Tim Schenken driving his Trojan 103 at Brands Hatch.
Tyrrell
Tyrrell Racing competed in Formula One from 1970–1998. Its traditional colour was blue and white, or a combination as such, for most of the 1970s and 1980s. The cars were more white during the mid to late 1990s.
Jackie Stewart driving a Matra entered by Tyrrell Racing
This is The Tyrrell 001, Tyrrell's first car, being demonstrated at Goodwood in 2008
A Tyrrell 002 from the 1971 season being demonstrated.
Jackie Stewart's Tyrrell 003
Jackie Stewart's 1972 Tyrrell 004 in display at Monterey Historic
A Tyrrell 005 from the 1972 season being demonstrated at Monterey Historic
Jackie Stewart's final Grand Prix car, Tyrrell 006/2, resting on a carpet of Royal Stewart tartan in the Donington Grand Prix Collection.
Jody Scheckter's 1974 Tyrrell 007 being demonstrated at the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix.
A Tyrrell P34 six-wheeler from the 1976 season at Tamiya's headquarters in Shizuoka City Japan. Tamiya purchased this car to study it for producing scale models likeness of this car.
The Tyrrell 026 being driven at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Virgin
The Virgin Group's involvement with Formula One started in 2009 when they decided to sponsor Brawn GP for that season.[94] On 30 November 2009 it was reported that the Manor GP, one of the four newcomers teams for the 2010 season, would be rebranded as Virgin Racing.[95]
Williams, as a major constructor, is rare in modern F1 in that they have no manufacturer backing. Over the years, their supply of engines and other major components has often changed, meaning that their livery is renewed more often than most of their rivals. The BMW-engined Williams cars from 2001 to 2006 featured a dark blue and white scheme.
In races in Germany, because of trademark issues, "Anheuser-Busch" was placed below "Bud". For non-alcohol races, Sea World Adventure Parks (from Anheuser-Busch's Busch Entertainment theme parks) replaced Budweiser
Alcohol advertising is illegal in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Russia. The livery was also altered for the official video games.[104] 2017 driver Lance Stroll, being 18 years old, was required to run devoid of Martini logos on his helmet at certain Grands Prix as some alcohol industry regulations prohibit advertising of alcohol by those under 21 years of age, such as in the United States. The 007 logo appeared at the mirror with Williams FW37 during the 2015 Mexican Grand Prix, to promote SPECTRE, as Williams had a partnership with Jaguar in designing Jaguar C-X75 in 2011, that was featured in the film driven by Mr. Hinx.
At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Williams (along with the other F1 teams) raced the Frank Williams Racing Cars logo in tribute to founder Frank Williams who passed away on 28 November.
Williams raced a one-off livery to celebrate their 800th Grand Prix entry at the British and Hungarian Grands Prix. The British Grand Prix was supposed to be Williams' 800th Grand Prix entry, though this was curtailed due to cancelled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May. The team's 800th Grand Prix entry was at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The team raced a fan-voted Gulf Oil livery for the Singapore, Japanese and Qatar Grands Prix.