The 2024 Formula 1 season is well underway with, with the original cars and liveries already undergoing change as the 24-race season marches on.
With several teams clearly struggling to keep the weight of their cars down, the amount of carbon-fibre on show is substantial once again, but there are at least a handful of challengers that have been graced with a complete livery to ensure there will be plenty of colour out on track.
We've been through them all and ranked our favourites from worst to best, but here you can take a good look at each of these new liveries and really pour over the details.
Updated: Thursday 21st November. RB follows Alpine and Sauber's racing lines by revealing its own one-off livery for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix, described as a "glitter-inspired livery that brings the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas to the racetrack".
The paint is based on RB's sponsor’s Cash App Visa Glitter Card, with a graded blue and green finish featuring a dazzling glitter overlay representing the city's bright lights and nightclubs. It could just be us, but there's also a flavour of Flavio Briatore (who returned to the sport with Alpine earlier this year's) B194 Benetton.
The new paint celebrates the launch of Visa's Cash App Visa Glitter Card with help from Emmy-winning actress, singer, and TV host Keke Palmer. The card and the paint are designed around the concept of "glitter fever," which "embodies a joyful, contagious energy that encourages radical self-expression and excitement" none of which sounds cheap.
The team's garage will also sport the new look, as will the drivers' overalls – both Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson can consider themselves in the black after respective seventh and tenth-place finishes at their last outing in Brazil.
Peter Bayer, CEO of Visa Cash App RB, expanded: "It wouldn't be Las Vegas without a touch of glitter, and as the home of glitz, it only felt right to bring this livery to the Las Vegas race. It holds a special place in the team's history as it's where we launched VCARB earlier this year.
"Since then, creative collaboration with our partners has led to outstanding liveries beyond the norm, allowing us to disrupt the way we do things in Formula One, as we've seen in Miami and Singapore. I look forward to seeing the VCARBOI shimmering under the lights on track."
Updated: Tuesday 19th November. Alpine has revealed a pink livery that it will talking to the last three rounds of the 2024 Formula 1 season. The striking new look has been developed with sponsor BWT and will unmissable under the neon lights of Las Vegas, where the French team will be looking to solidify the sixth-place standing in the constructors' championship it earned with a double podium in Brazil.
This is not the first time this year that the Enstone operation has varied the colour scheme of its cars. For the Belgian Grand Prix, the cars sported a Deadpool & Wolverine-themed design while an orange Indiana Jones-inspired design was used in Austin, Texas.
Updated: Monday 18th November. Kick Sauber’s cars will wear a special flame-inspired livery for this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. It’s said to represent the team’s “unwavering spirit.”
Or as team MD Alessandro Alunni Bravi puts it: “This team doesn’t give up until the very end, no matter what challenges are thrown in front of it. Just as flames flicker and blaze without ceasing, our fiery determination burns bright across every lap.
“Stake has always helped us create some impressive one-off designs, and this is no different.”
The flames could just as easily represent the speed with which cash burns at Sin City’s spinning roulette wheels, but Sauber will hope Las Vegas brings a change of fortunes as the only team yet to score points in 2024, sitting bottom of the constructors’ championship as a result.
But Bravi’s word is as good as his car’s paint job, saying: “Our special livery for Las Vegas is more than just a design – it’s a representation of our team’s ethos and of Stake’s philosophy. We push forward with relentless passion, just as this city does, and we’re excited to showcase our fiery spirit on one of the most thrilling stages in motorsport.”
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu’s race suits will get the same treatment as their cars (we’ll avoid the obvious flaming, career-based metaphor for two drivers released by the team for the 2025 season). F2 championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto joins Nico Hülkenberg to take their places next year.
Updated: Thursday 24th October. Williams will run a heritage-inspired livery for the Mexican and Brazilian Grands Prix over the next couple of weekends.
Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto will be channelling their inner Mansell, Piquet and Prost when their Williams FW46s feature a yellow engine cover, reminiscent of the team’s glory years of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, during the South American double-header.
It stems from a branding partnership with Mercado Libre, an Argentine company that signed a sponsorship deal with Williams back in August following Colapinto’s arrival at the team. The wording on the car will be adjusted to the Portuguese Mercado Livre for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Updated: McLaren has a new, slightly old, livery for the United States Grand Prix, as the chrome livery that it ran at the British Grand Prix in 2023 returns.
McLaren and partner Google, whose Chrome brand is the reason behind the one-off livery that also evokes the shiniest era in F1 history, when McLaren ran silver liveries in the 2000s and early 2010s. The livery isn’t quite the same for 2024, with some extra Papaya appearing in places, especially the top of the airbox.
Haas will run a special livery for the 2024 United States Grand Prix, the American team’s home race.
Adding to the usual red, white and black is the addition of a number of stars to the front with and an eagle to the sidepods.
Alpine will switch from its usual blue and pink livery to a vivid orange look, absolutely not reminiscent of McLaren’s usual livery, as part of a partnership with Xbox.
While it is quite hard to see the colours clearly in these heavily lit pictures, it is the first time an F1 team has run a special livery for the launch of a video game. The game in question is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The games logos will appear on Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon’s race overalls.
Updated: Thursday 19th September. McLaren will pay homage to its storied history this weekend at Singapore Grand Prix with a livery that harks back to the team’s MP4 era that began in 1981 and introduced the iconic Marlboro design that saw so much success through the 1980s and early ‘90s.
The famous red and white chevrons have been reimagined in papaya to adorn the MCL38 under the lights of the Marina Bay Circuit, inspiring memories of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Niki Lauda.
McLaren enters the weekend leading the constructors’ championship after Oscar Piastri’s victory in Baku a week ago, and sports a new colour scheme as Red Bull decided to cancel its own livery plans in a desperate attempt save weight and maximise performance.
Updated: Wednesday 18th September. Mercedes will run a one-off livery at the Singapore Grand Prix to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its major partner Petronas.
The Silver Arrows will turn turquoise this weekend with a colour scheme we kind of wish the team would make permanent, because it looks absolutely stunning. It’s just a straight swap with the silver on the nose and sidepods, but somehow the contrast with the black makes the W15 absolutely pop.
Petronas has been Mercedes’ title sponsor since the team returned to the grid in 2010, providing fuel and lubricants to the team for all eight of its constructors’ championship victories.
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will be hoping the new colour scheme will help them return to the form that saw Mercedes take six consecutive podiums including three wins over the summer.
Updated: Wednesday 18th September. RB is set to be shrouded in denim in Singapore this weekend as the team celebrates a collaboration with fashion brand Hugo.
The VCARB01 will feature a distinctive design this weekend that features an… interesting denim look that covers the nose and sidepods, accented with a zip graphic that joins it to the team’s standard blue livery.
Our favourite element is the strip of darker denim that follows the same lines as the white stripe that normally crosses the RB’s bulkhead.
Alongside the car, the team and drivers will also be decked out in denim-themed clothes and race-suits throughout the Singapore Grand Prix.
Updated: Wednesday 24th July. Alpine has revealed a striking one-off livery for its participation in the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, and it’s quite the departure from the team’s usual paint job.
The blues and pinks are out, replaced by a bold new red number to advertise the new Deadpool & Wolverine movie. The front wing, nose, sidepods, engine cover and rear wing have all been swathed in crimson, which we’re sure is bound to cause some identification problems with the Ferraris should they ever be anywhere near each other on track.
This is a properly cool livery though, and by far the best of the one-offs we’ve seen so far in 2024. Those bright yellow Wolverine claw strikes on the engine cover also give us a warm and fuzzy sense of X-Men nostalgia, and it’s generally an incredibly eye-catching new look.
Alpine’s performance has been on something of an upward curve just recently, too, so perhaps we’ll see these red cars fighting for the points this weekend.
Updated: Tuesday 3rd July. Williams will show a bit of national pride at the British Grand Prix with a special Union Flag edition of its livery that Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant will race this weekend.
The design is made up of the names of all 1,005 Williams team members as a mark an appreciation for the hard work carried out at the team’s Grove HQ, New York and London bases as well as the team on the ground at each race.
Updated: Wednesday 3rd April. McLaren has revealed a one-off livery it will race at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix. The livery, designed by Japanese artist Miltz, is part of the team's driven by change initiative and features orange white and blue patters across the airbox, sidepods and front wing.
“When I first became a freelance artist, I never thought an opportunity like this was possible – this is the biggest international project I have ever done," said Miltz
"As I continue to build my profile as an artist, I want my artwork to champion the rich traditions of Japanese writing culture, such as Edomoji, but with a modern twist.
“From my work with local businesses in Japan to the McLaren Formula 1 team, there are so many beautiful stories to tell through art.”
Updated: Monday 26th February. Pre-season testing is done and dusted, and over the course of those three days we got a proper look at the new grid for the 2024 F1 season. It's always interesting to see these cars out on track where they belong, not only do we get to see them in their true form rather than place-holding launch specs, but we also get to see those shiny new liveries sparkling under the Bahrain sunshine.
The 2024 F1 season kicks off for real with the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday 2nd March, who's going to come out on top?
Updated: Friday 16th February. Red Bull has done it again in 2024, throwing the rest of the paddock into chaos with a new car that goes hugely against the grain. Featuring a concept we haven’t seen on any other car so far in 2024, although that could of course change come testing, the Red Bull looks to have turned somewhere towards the ‘no-sidepod’ concept that Mercedes tried and ultimately discarded after a series of struggles.
There are plenty of details missing from this launch-spec car, so we can’t tell for sure exactly how this new design will work.
Max Verstappen will also prove difficult to stop once again in 2024, the three-time world champion took 19 victories last season, in what was a terrifying showcase of dominance and speed. Sergio Perez returns once more to once more see if he can put up a significant fight for the title.
Updated: Wednesday 14th February. Mercedes has revealed its new challenger for the 2024 season, with some major revisions that bring it far more into line with the general developments we’ve seen from the rest of the grid. Gone is the left-field ‘no sidepod’ concept that failed so spectacularly in 2022, and now we see a far more conventional design that resembles far more closely that of the Red Bull that proved so dominant in 2023.
Perhaps more importantly however, Mercedes’ new F1 car features a very good-looking livery. The silver is back, but merged with black towards the rear end that results in a very pleasing design. There is some bare carbon-fibre around the sidepods, but we’re willing to forgive it because the overall look is stunning.
This will be Lewis Hamilton’s last Mercedes F1 car before he makes the move to Ferrari in 2025, and cards are being held close to chests as the team awaits to see how its new design performs on track.
Updated: Tuesday 13th February. Ferrari has unveiled its new challenger for the 2024 F1 season. It’s called the SF-24, and it looks to have followed a similar pattern to the rest of the grid thus far, in that it has taken more than a little inspiration from the Red Bull RB19 that won 21 out of 22 races in 2023.
An evolution of last year’s car, with the SF-24 Ferrari looks to build on a strong end to last season, with focus centred around making this new challenger "easy to drive”, one that “reacts predictably, with as a starting point, the positive feeling the drivers had in the cockpit over the final few races of last season."
Upon the launch of the new car, Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur said: “This year, we must start off where we left off at the end of last season, when we were consistent front runners, with a view to constantly improving in all areas.”
Driver Charles Leclerc added: “I expect the car to be a step forward in several areas and from the impression I formed in the simulator I think we’re where we want to be. This season the aim is to be front runners all the time”
Carlos Sainz Jr., who will leave Ferrari at the end of 2024 to be replaced by Lewis Hamilton, said: “The aim is to have a car that’s more driveable and therefore able to run at a consistent race pace, as these are the basic requirements to fight for wins. We drivers have done our very best to give the engineers precise feedback and I’m sure the workforce in Maranello will have listened to our needs.”
Updated: Monday 12th February. Aston Martin has kicked off a busy week of F1 car launches by taking the covers of its new AMR24 challenger.
One of the big questions as we head into the 2024 F1 season is how Aston Martin is going to fare. The team had the second fastest car during the early rounds of the season, with Fernando Alonso putting up the closest challenge to the dominant Red Bulls.
But form waned after the Canadian Grand Prix, as the team struggled to keep up with the development of its competitors, eventually dropping to fifth in the constructors’ championship behind Mercedes and Ferrari and McLaren.
The team says it has been working hard on developing the car to be more competitive on a wider range of circuits, which it hopes will make it a stronger challenger over the course of the marathon 24-race championship.
Updated: Friday 9th February. In something of a major U-turn, Visa Cash App RB might just be our favourite F1 team in 2024 after all, at least, so far, where liveries are concerned. While the name is certainly ungainly, at least the team has actually painted its car.
We were getting worried for a moment that this year’s grid was going to be a sea of indistinguishable carbon-fibre. Thankfully, we’ll at least be able to tell the RB cars from the rest, and isn’t it a stunner?
With Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda at the wheel, supported by a host of new names in key positions, including new Team Principal Laurent Mekies, this new-look outfit will be gunning for better results in 2024.
Updated: Wednesday 7th February. Another day, another F1 car launch as we roll ever closer to the start of the 2024 F1 season. This time it’s Alpine taking the wrapper off its shiny new A524 car, which the team says represents an ‘innovative’ and ‘bold’ solution to a lacklustre showing in 2023.
With several noticeable changes compared to last year’s car across all elements of the design, engineering and cooling, Alpine is clearly devoted to pushing the envelope as it continues to chase the fastest teams on the grid.
The scourge of naked carbon fibre continues to plague the 2024 F1 grid, as teams continue to apply less and less paint to their cars in a desperate bid to save weight. Regardless of the minimal colour on the car, Alpine has again seen fit to unveil two new liveries that it will race throughout 2024. The pink BWT colourway will run at eight different races during the season.
Updated: Tuesday 6th February. Finally we have something new to look at in 2024! This one has already split opinion here in the GRR office, but whatever you think of it, you can’t deny the new Stake F1 livery is certainly striking.
Sauber has made the decision to throw off the shackles in 2024 in the wake of its partnership with Alfa Romeo, with some big changes to the car itself that include a switch to pull-rod front suspension and a more aggressive packaging of the sidepods and engine cover.
It’s clear Sauber is on the hunt for a better season than 2023, while drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will both be pushing hard to prove themselves worthy of their place when Audi arrives in 2026.
Updated: Monday 5th February 2024 at 15:30. Williams has revealed the livery for its FW46 car that will challenge the 2024 F1 season, and it’s a very subtle evolution on last year’s design.
The deep blue remains in a cleaner, higher contrast colour scheme that also incorporates a small nod to the Gulf sponsorship, a small orange stripe along the nose and around the sidepods.
This launch car is but a place holder for now, so expect to see plenty of new details come to the fore when testing gest underway in a couple of weeks.
Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant return to race for Williams in 2024, and the team will be hoping to press on from a positive year in 2023 and continue to fight for points on a regular basis.
Updated: Friday 2nd February at 16:30. Haas has released the first images of its new 2024 F1 car. It’s called the VF-24, and it features a new predominantly black livery with the traditional flashes of white and red.
While Haas is referring to this new car as the real deal, expect to see significant changes between this and the final version that takes to the track in Bahrain for testing at the end of February.
Nico Hulkenberg will be the first driver to sample the new car during shakedown at Silverstone, but Haas representatives have been keen to impress that expectations are low for the early rounds as the team plays catch up after a hugely disappointing season in 2023.
The VF-24 also represents the beginning of a new post-Guenther Steiner era for Haas, who will be hoping to get back into the midfield fight before long.
Updated: Wednesday 17th January. McLaren has become the first team to unveil its new look for the 2024 F1 season, with a new take on its papaya and black colour scheme.
It looks as though the scourge of bare carbon-fibre will rear its ugly head once again in 2024, as teams continue to struggle to keep the weight down, with much of this new McLaren livery appearing to largely shirk the colourful stuff.
This is just a livery reveal for now, the full launch of McLaren’s 2024 challenger, the MCL38, will take place on 14th February. Drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will be hoping the upcoming car will pick up where the MCL37 left off at the end of 2023.
Red Bull will reveal its 2024 F1 car on February 15th. The RB20 is the follow-up to the RB19, one of the most dominant F1 cars of all time.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez both return as Red Bull drivers for 2024, where Verstappen will have a tough time trying to improve on what was pretty well a perfect season in 2023. Perez on the other hand will have all eyes on him as he bids to prove himself a worthy occupant of the second Red Bull seat. Daniel Ricciardo is primed to make a move back to the top team should the opportunity arise.
All eyes will also be on the launch of the new Red Bull car, fans and teams alike, as we look to see what the class of the field in 2023 is bringing to the table. It has been suggested that the RB20 will make a substantial step from what we saw from the RB19.
Updated: Monday 15th January. Alpine will launch its new F1 car on 7th February. It will reveal its 2024 contender alongside its all-new World Endurance Championship Hypercar which is due to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
A team caught in a perpetual cycle of midfield mediocrity will be looking to break out of the rut and finally make a move towards its goal of challenging for the championship. With the doubtless talent of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, the pressure is all on the engineers to put together a car that can match their speed.
The team itself is still suffering from instability, however, in the wake of Otmar Szafnauer’s removal as Team Principal after just 18 months, Bruno Famin remains in place as interim team boss.
Updated: Monday 15th January. Mercedes has revealed its new 2024 F1 challenger will be unveiled on Wednesday 14th February.
The launch event, which will showcase the new Mercedes-AMG F1 W15 E Performance, will be streamed live from Silverstone.
In the wake of two disappointing years for the Mercedes team that have yielded just a single win courtesy of George Russell at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, Team Principal Toto Wolff will be hoping for a major change in fortunes.
Expectations are that this new car will be vastly different to the 2023 car, which failed to win a single race, and was largely bemoaned by both its drivers.
Lewis Hamilton called for wholesale change throughout the 2023 season, and eyes will be on his performance as he targets a record eighth world title.
Updated: Thursday 4th January. Aston Martin will launch its new F1 car, the AMR24, at Silverstone on 12th Febuary. It joins Ferrari, Williams and the newly renamed Stake F1 Team as those with confirmed launch dates.
The team made a stunning start to the 2023 season, as Fernando Alonso surfaced as the closest challenger to the Red Bull team for the opening third of the year. However Aston weren't able to maintain that performance, and Alonso along with team-mate Lance Stroll ended up fighting for the midfield places as the team slipped to fifth in the constructors' standings.
As the F1 calendar continues to expand, the winter break, which used to span almost six months from October to March, is now reduced to just 97 days as the rollercoaster that is F1 continues at unabated pace.
That leaves very little time for the teams and designers to apply the finishing touches to their 2024 F1 cars. Some, like Mercedes, have committed to wholesale redesigns of their cars in a bid to close the gap to Red Bull, others, like the dominant champions of 2023, will likely have been working on their cars for far longer as they switched focus to their latest challengers.
Testing for the 2024 F1 season gets underway in Bahrain on 21st February before the opening race of the season takes place on Saturday 2nd March (scheduled a day earlier to accommodate the beginning of Ramadan). So far we have four confirmed launch dates from Williams, Stake (Sauber), Ferrari and Aston Martin.
The age of glamourous launch events has been consigned to the past, with F1 teams generally now preferring a more scaled-back online launch of their cars to save some cash in the new era of budget caps. Many choose to simply roll the car out of the garage on the first morning of testing. As always, we can’t wait to see what the teams have been getting up to behind closed doors. Here’s hoping for some stunning liveries as well.
Team |
Date |
Red Bull |
15th February |
Mercedes |
14th February |
Ferrari |
13th February |
McLaren |
14th February |
Aston Martin |
12th February |
Alpine |
7th February |
Williams |
5th February |
Visa CashApp RB |
8th February |
Kick Sauber |
5th February |
Haas |
2nd February |
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.
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