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Tyres NorthamptonFormula 1 2023 is nearly upon us, and the new season promises an awful lot of change. The driver market went through one of the craziest silly seasons in recent memory, only for Team Principals to match the musical chairs in the off-season.
One element, however, only went through a slight evolution over the winter — the liveries of each team. Although technical and engineering developments feature on all released cars, on the surface, they look strikingly similar to 2022. Here's our ranking of the 2023 F1 liveries.
Alpine
The French team might've upped their game on track last year, but their blue and pink colour scheme was an assault on the eyes. Unfortunately, their BWT sponsorship means their bubblegum-looking car remains in 2023. There's a tad more black, but as is evidenced throughout the 10 teams, that's a running feature to save weight on paint rather than as a style choice.
It's another case of a sponsor's colour scheme contrasting with a team's identity for AlphaTauri. Sadly for them, the new red elements for Alfa Romeo's ex-title sponsor, ORLEN, do not compliment the Italian outfit's 2023 entry. They instead look like random dollops of Dulux— a crying shame after AlphaTauri's hyperclean first livery on 2020's AT01 showed what they're capable of designing.
After ditching the silver, black, and red look McLaren carried for two decades in favour of papaya orange, the Woking team keeps inching back to black. As a result, the 2023 MCL60 is a mess of brand logos on a pretty uninspiring livery that's somehow both dark and bright. While the blue accent that stood out so well in their 2019 and 2020 entries remains, it's reduced to a tertiary colour as black becomes the dominant force, but only as an undertone.
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Redbull
Well, it sure is a Red Bull. There's nothing wrong with brand consistency, especially for a team that solely exists as an advertisement for an energy drink. However, I can't be the only person who thinks it's a little long in the tooth. Instantly recognisable, it's a fine livery, but it has never been the best. At least Red Bull fans' 2015 merchandise gets another year of use.
You could play spot the difference for a full day with the 2022 and 2023 Aston Martin cars and lose. There are no significant changes for the Silverstone-based squad, but it sure is tough to make British Racing Green look bad, and it looks good enough. The high-vis yellow sweeping line continues to add that little contemporary something that was missing in 2021.
The 2023 Haas may be the best livery the American constructor have come up with in their tenure in F1. That's not to say it's a standout livery for the ages, but it looks every bit like a Formula 1 car should, uncluttered but not sparse, with colours that work together, and it's inoffensive. I'll forget it by 2030, but it's a solid entry that combines the best bits of their previous liveries.
The slowest team on the grid from 2022 also continues with their tried and tested last-season livery. But at least there are a few more sponsors, and luring Gulf away from McLaren is quite a coup. The Duracell battery air intake remains one of my favourite sponsor gimmicks in the sport's history, and I hope it makes more than just cameo entries as it did last year.
Mercedes
The not-so-silver arrows are back for 2023 as Mercedes returns to the dark side. As you would expect from Mercedes, the all-black livery is tastefully done, but the Anglo-German team gets additional bonus points from me. Instead of a gloss or matte wrap, it's a carbon fibre finish on much of the W14. That means the slight weight saving on paint can go to performance improvements. Genius.
Yet another team to add more black to their look in 2023 is Alfa Romeo. There's not even a hint of any Sauber influence this season, and I'm all for it. Ferrari has proved how pleasing red and black can look on an F1 car more than once, and the Alfa looks sharp with its half-copycat livery. It's slick, looks quick, and, thankfully, offers a rare departure from what is mostly a 2022-looking grid of cars.
Perhaps I'll score Ferrari down at some point as I did with Red Bull, but this current-era look is exactly like the car you'd doodle at school. That says everything to me; it's what a Formula 1 livery should be. 2022's example might slightly pip this year's look, but there's no denying the iconic 'Ferrari' logo on the rear wing adds something extra to the SF-23 that the F1-75 didn't have. It's another gorgeous example of a race car.
