If F1 went retro for 75th anniversary: a classic livery for each team

There’s been no official indication that it’ll happen, but F1 is no stranger to a one-off livery. Teams from across the grid regularly apply a fresh wrap to their cars in a bid to highlight the arrival of a brand new sponsor, to commemorate an anniversary or to celebrate the addition of a new race — as was done in Las Vegas last year.

Some have been more memorable than others. For example, McLaren’s blue and orange Gulf livery from the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix was a crowd-favourite while Alpine‘s most recent attempt to promote the newly released movie Deadpool & Wolverine with a red and black colour scheme slipped under the radar of most.

But with most teams having decades of history to draw upon, a grid of cars in classic liveries has the potential to look spectacular. While you’re probably already drawing a picture in your mind, here are our picks for the retro schemes that each team could run.

 

Red Bull

Red Bull has run a white livery before — to be exact, at the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix in celebration of its partnership with Honda — but in celebration of F1’s origins, the Milton Keynes outfit could celebrate its own.

Stewart Grand Prix — headed by three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart himself — only competed in three F1 seasons but still managed to score four visits to the podium as well as a race win with Johnny Herbert before being bought by Ford in 1999. The team was then rebranded as Jaguar Racing, which after four disastrous seasons was bought by Red Bull and turned into the title-winning outfit it is today.

As well as honouring the career of Sir Jackie, thanks to the tartan strips that the team ran, a Stewart-inspired livery would also give Red Bull the chance to show off its new partnership with Ford before it takes effect in 2026.

 

Ferrari

Ferrari were set to shock with an old-school blue livery at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix — an apparent nod to historic uses of azzurro la plata throughout its history. Instead, it unveiled an underwhelming stripe across the sidepods with accompanying wheel covers. But, if given the chance, it could have a chance to redeem itself.

John Surtees won his 1964 F1 world title behind the wheel of a Ferrari 158 which ditched its renowned rosso red for a blue and white livery — specifically for the Grand Prix at Watkins Glenn and at the season finale in Mexico City — becoming the first and man to win world championships on four wheels as well as two.

How better to celebrate such a legendary accomplishment than with this classic scheme?

 

Mercedes

The last time Mercedes really went all-out on a classic one-off livery to celebrate their Silver Arrow heritage — complete with team members in lederhosen — the race weekend hardly went to plan. In fact, according to team principal Toto Wolff, the 2019 German Grand Prix “couldn’t have gone much worse” as both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas span out of contention.

But time is a healer and next year could be the perfect moment to dust off the classic all-silver livery with accompanying red numbers.

2025 will also mark 70 years since Juan Manuel Fangio won his second F1 world title for Mercedes aboard the all-conquering Mercedes-Benz W196 — with team-mate Stirling Moss occupying second in the drivers’ standings.

 

McLaren

It’s the livery we’ve all been waiting for. But will it ever return?

McLaren’s classic red and white Marlboro livery — made legendary through the title-winning success of Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna — was a staple on its car from 1974 to 1996 but has since been replaced, with the Woking outfit racing predominately in silver before switching back to its classic papaya in 2017.

Although the Marlboro brand is currently unable to make a return to F1 due to a ban on tobacco advertising, the blocks of colour alone would make for an inspired livery, as the team knows having referenced it in its one-off ‘triple crown’ colour scheme last year.

With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri becoming more frequent at the front, the timing has the potential to be perfect.

 

Aston Martin

It’s hard to beat the classic British Racing Green which is the basis of Aston Martin‘s current F1 livery. But it could take inspiration from its dominance at the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours.

In the British manufacturer’s best result at La Sarthe since 1959 the lime green-liveried Aston Martin Vantage won both GT classes and three crews stood on the podium.

Add white roundels with black numbers to reference Aston’s 1959 F1 debut, and it’s got the potential to look stunning.

 

RB 

In 2005, the origins of VisaCashApp RB spluttered into life as Red Bull bought the struggling constructor Minardi.

In 20 seasons, the Italian outfit had scored just 38 championship points. But there were highlights including Pierluigi Martini‘s front-row start at the 1990 United States Grand Prix and one head-turning livery after the next. The team’s multi-coloured scheme from 1994 — pictured above — is one of the best of the bunch.

Its return would not only shed light on a popular, if unsuccessful constructor as well as showcasing just how far the Faenza outfit has come in Formula 1.

 

Haas

MotoGP’s Trackhouse Racing is the world championship’s sole American outfit — and makes no secret of it. At last weekend’s British MotoGP, the team chose to celebrate some of motorcycling’s most famous stateside faces by including them as part of their official livery. As F1’s sole American outfit, Haas could do something similar and celebrate the careers of F1’s two American championship-winners Phil Hill and Mario Andretti

With the American flag embossed on the rear wing, Haas’s one-off livery could include flashes of red — paying tribute to Hill’s world title success with Ferrari in 1961 — as well as the familiar black and gold of Andretti’s Lotus 79, which he drove to a dominant world title win of his own in 1978.

 

Alpine

Michael Schumacher became only the sixth driver in F1 history to win back-to-back drivers’ world titles in 1995 — a feat he accomplished behind the wheel of a blue and white liveried Benetton.

2025 will mark 30 years since the German’s triumph, and it falls to Alpine to mark the occasion. Not just as the inheritor of Benetton’s former base of operations, but now with Flavio Briatore once again in a position of power, as he was in the mind-1990s.

The playboy Italian businessman was Benetton’s team boss from 1989-1997 and has returned to F1 in 2024 as a special advisor to Alpine.

 

Williams 

Williams‘ 1992 F1 campaign is widely remembered as one of the best ever — and the Grove outfit had a livery to match.

The deep blue has remained a staple of Williams F1 cars throughout its history. Sponsorship from Canon and Camel brought the yellow and white accents that completed the instantly recognisable colour scheme, often seen by rivals from afar, as Nigel Mansell eased to one race victory after the next — and eventually, a world title.

The FW14B won 62.5% of all grands prix it entered — a reminder of the days when Williams dominated top-level motor racing. And an inspiration to the current team hoping to return to that level with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz on board.

 

Sauber

Sauber will compete in its last F1 season in 2025 before it is rebranded as Audi, which is buying the team. It will be, in many ways, the end of an era.

The Hinwil outfit has won just a single race courtesy of Robert Kubica in a white-liveried BMW-powered car at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. But with white likely to be a popular heritage choice for many teams, Sauber could turn heads with an all-black look, similar to the one used when it entered F1 in 1993 with the C12.

Although far from a race winner, the C12 was plain, simple and was driven to point-scoring finishes in South Africa, San Marino, Canada, Hungary, Italy and Portugal.