Hello all and welcome to my overly opinionated and judgemental critique of the 2023 Formula 1 team liveries!
But first a little background on me. I’m in my tenth year as an art teacher, currently teaching elementary art at a public school. My background is in education along with training in the fine arts of painting and art history. I’ve always been a car girl, growing up in a family of automotive engineers, car dealers, and gearheads, therefore cars have always been a big part of my life. My husband and I really got into seriously watching Formula 1 together back in 2019 and we were instantly hooked.
Finding Girls Across The Grid from a random TikTok that my husband sent me one day was so exciting and I’m honored to be a member of the community and have loved being an admin and United States coordinator.
So buckle up, and get ready for my wildly opinionated views on how the grid is going to look this season.
Haas
First impressions are yes. Just yes. Haas came in strong as the first team to release their 2023 livery with their new VF-23, and they made big changes. They came out swinging, and in my opinion they knocked it out of the park. I was so impressed. Visually it is just stunning. The lines are clean and even the way that it looks, mostly black from a profile view, but from a bird's eye view it looks almost completely white? Genius. I thought that was such a smart design choice. The pops of red and the placement of the sponsors even flows with the shape and lines of the car. My hat goes off to their design team this year.
Solid 9/10. Consider me impressed.
Red Bull
Well, what's to say, Red Bull? Cause it's really not much. The team came out, working hard to hype everyone up with their launch of the RB19, and I have to say I was let down. But I was also not surprised. The livery itself is classic, yes, however there is a stark lack of creativity for me. For RedBull to come out and say that they’re paying homage to a “classic” livery? Well, that's not very impactful seeing as it's the same livery from last year and barely any changes from 2021. It's a pleasing design with primary colors that harmonize and work well together, and isn’t too shocking to any viewer and that makes it accessible. I personally think that the placement of sponsors could have been tackled more creatively to play with the shapes and lines of the car. I find this to be a missed opportunity.
Overall I would give the Red Bull a 5/10
Williams
Williams kicked off their 2023 season with the FW45 launch, and here’s what I have to say. Graphic, clean, interesting, familiar. While Williams did not make many drastic changes to their 2023 livery, we can say that they will stand out against a grid of blacked out cars. The geometric design that came out last year was different and new, for that I commend them for trying something out of the ordinary. Does that make it my favorite livery? No. But at least I can say that it's different, and I appreciate it for that. Not a lot to say as there aren’t any drastic changes this year, therefore I had no qualms with the livery last year.
So for me Williams gets a 6/10
Alfa Romeo / Sauber
I will first off say that my hats are off to Alfa Romeo this year because I’m impressed. All I can think of when I look at the livery on the 2023 C43 is evil Valtteri, and honestly I’m here for that. It really is just as simple as all the white elements turning black, but it really made a huge impact on both the look of the car, but also the overall vibes that the car is giving off. That, and it seems like they thought through their design and made some overall smart choices when it came to putting their sponsors on the car. The most stark thing about the changes beyond switching the white to black was that they changed the thickness and size of the Alfa Romeo logo, and placed it neatly along the side of the car. It's still there and noticeable, but it also lets the design and color of the car be the star. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to watching this go around the different circuits this year.
8/10 for Alfa Romeo
AlphaTauri
Let’s say hello to the new AT04 coming from AlphaTauri this year!
I’ll start by saying that I’m a fan of the livery this year. I think that it’s sharp and clean. They went bold with the logo, and blew it up to be the focal point of their design. A smart stylistic choice. In the bird’s eye view from the top, it’s so graphic, and creates a beautifully striped and graphic design with the blue and white. The pops of the red that bring in their new sponsor are so well placed, and they’re not forced, which can be a problem when implementing sponsors throughout a livery.
The simplicity of the design is a breath of fresh air on a grid that can easily get over complicated and over designed in their liveries.
I’m going to go bold with my rating and give the AlphaTauri a 9/10 this year for a smart, clean design.
Aston Martin
I truly can’t say anything bad about Aston Martin’s AMR23 livery for this year, but I will just say that I am slightly disappointed that hardly any changes were made. I wanted to be excited for a new livery, but I was just left underwhelmed.
It's a great livery, regardless. I can’t be mad at the beautiful green of the car, and that pop of the bright yellow line is a great way to accentuate the curves of the car. It does seem the small changes that they did make between last year and this year seem to flow better with the shape of the car, especially the way it curves around the side pods into the nose.
Aston Martin gets a 6/10 from me on this one.
McLaren
If I’m being honest, I find myself not sure what to say about this year's McLaren livery with their release of the MCL60. Maybe it’s because I was hoping to see them go big as they have in the past. Or maybe it’s because I know they are one of the teams that seems to embrace creativity, therefore I wanted them to show it.
Whatever the case is, I may not have a lot to say, but it's a solid livery. Orange and blue have, and will always, be one of my favorite pairings of colors that I love looking at. They always have a good handle on the shape of the car, and using the design of the livery, along with the placement of the sponsors to accentuate the curves of the car, so I give them credit for that.
But maybe it's just me projecting my own wants and needs out of a creative design that I am just left wanting more after coming out with their bold, special livery designs. In 2021 they released MCL35M and embraced the bright and bold and incorporated a rainbow design into the side and then they surprised us with a special Gulf livery for the Monaco Grand Prix, as well as a livery designed by Middle Eastern artist Rabab Tantawny at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. For the 2022 season we saw Mclaren releasing the MCL36 with a more simplistic design that was clean and bold and another special livery designed by Lebanese artist Anna Tangles at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. So here’s to hoping that they surprise us with another secondary livery later this season to give us a little more excitement.
McLaren gets a 6.5/10 this year and hoping that they surprise us next year.
Ferrari
Slick. Bold. And a bit aggressive. Will this new look for Ferrari coming into 2023 with their SF-23 reflect their performance this year? I sure hope so, because I know we would all love to see Ferrari come out of the gates dominating this season. Ready to show them who's boss, and that they’re ready for a comeback.
Visually I could just look at this car all day. Their team sure did something right this year when it came time to design their livery, because they stripped the car down to the black in all the right places, and made their classic red Ferrari mean, lean, and ready for a fight.
It's 9/10 this year
Mercedes
I’m just going to start this right off the bat and say that I am disappointed in Mercedes “livery” for this season. I put those in quotes because I’m not sure if I can actually call it a livery design, seeing as they just left the carbon fiber uncovered, and added sticker sponsors on top. So I guess what I’m saying with that is, “Where is the design part of the car? Is not having any design still a design?”
I can’t deny that this Mercedes W14 looks dangerous, slick, and a little bit evil. The all-color scheme of black is sexy and a bold choice to go with on a grid that is typically geared toward lighter, and more vibrant, standout colors. Therefore, I’m disappointed I am unable to see the artistry in it, but I also won’t mind looking at it throughout this season.
So for all that Mercedes can have a 9/10 from me.
Alpine
Once again we are blessed with a double livery reveal as Alpine showed off their A523 in two different versions. Does that mean I’m doubly impressed? No. But it's always fun to know that we will get to see different liveries on the track throughout the season. So let’s start with our main livery for the year, the blue and pink car. There aren't many major changes between last year and this year for the livery, which seems to be a common theme for a number of the teams. I do not dislike the blue and pink together, it’s honestly just fine in my opinion. But if I had to choose between this one and the all pink one, I would pick the all pink livery everyday. It’s just different, and whereas the bright pink would be a turn off to others, they roll with the sponsor’s colors, and just go bold with that. It even gives the black accents of the car a chance to help enhance the lines of the car, thus making it look a little bit more mean. These same lines and accents get lost with the blue in the car, and you lose the shape of the car because of it. For me the blue and pink livery gets a 5/10 while the all pink livery gets a 7/10.
In conclusion the theme for the 2023 grid is dark mode with many of the cars showcasing the black of the carbon fiber shining through. While I know that teams are using this design choice to their advantage, shaving every gram of weight off of their cars as possible, some have accomplished this better than others, and at this point we will have to wait to see how saving that weight helps those teams out once the lights go out and away they go. Thanks for tuning in on my thoughts about all things design and arts. I hope you enjoyed my know-it-all opinions, and an insight into all art related things that go on in my head throughout the season. Much Love, Joyanna All images sourced from www.skysports.com
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