As early as February 1999, the newly established British American Racing Team tested in Kyalami before its debut season. The singleton car presented on the racetrack was in metallic blue and was complemented by the golden logos of its majority shareholder British American Tobacco.
BAT had decided not to cut the cost of advertising its main brands – Lucky Strike and 555 – ahead of the expected tobacco advertising ban, and found that F1’s global reach is the most cost-effective platform for its marketing campaign. Cue funding a new team working at turnkey facilities in Brackley, England, which has since delivered multiple titles for Brawn and Mercedes, but not a single win for BAR.
The program depended on entering a car in the colors of each of the two brands, so one car in white / red / black from Lucky Strike and another in blue / yellow from 555. In fact, the team put their cars in these Liveries hit the market in early January despite F1 regulations from 1999 for the first time including a clause that stipulates that the liveries for both vehicles are largely identical.
Team boss (and shareholder) Craig Pollock called the clause “unconstitutional” and challenged the FIA in the Lausanne-based International Chamber of Commerce, where arbitrators unanimously decided against the team. I was in Kyalami with Pollock when the verdict was pronounced and the shock was evident – especially as possible sanctions included the championship suspension because the F1 had fallen into disrepute.
Original 1999 BAR ‘555’ livery
Original 1999 BAR ‘Lucky Strike’ livery
BAR’s possible solution to the paint dispute looked like this. However, Craig emphasized that the team had a plan B: The two cars would be painted identically, one stamp per side separated by a huge zipper in the middle. The revised color scheme met BAT’s commercial requirements, although it looked very naff, and of course, fully complied with FIA regulations, which were then administered by a governing body chaired by Max Mosley.
However, the paintwork clause was tightened in later versions of the F1 sports regulations, with the latest provisions being: Both vehicles submitted by a participant must be presented in essentially the same paintwork at each event; any significant change to this paintwork during a championship can only be included Approval of the FIA and [F1] the holder of the commercial rights.
The key words are, of course, “with the consent of the FIA and the trade rights holder” as these suggest a degree of flexibility, provided that all requests are justified and the alternate livery becomes a world championship. That said, the governing body appears to be more pragmatic than it used to be, while F1 obviously welcomes any initiative that generates additional offers
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This flexibility was evident at the 2019 German Grand Prix, when Mercedes drove in special colors from white to silver to mark the 100th anniversary of motorsport. The team had reason to regret the tempting fate, because the event was an absolute disaster for them. Team boss Toto Wolff later remarked: “It just couldn’t get much worse” and added: “It shows that you shouldn’t be fooled with things.”
“You shouldn’t be fooled with things,” said Wolff after Hockenheim 2019Ferrari had tempted fate last year by (officially) holding its 1000th Grand Prix on the company’s Mugello racetrack in the historic scarlet red. The team’s own race report says it all:
“It was a chaotic race that was red flagged twice because of crashes, which meant that a total of three starts were off the grid. The SF1000 struggled to fight in packs, even though Charles [Leclerc] got off to a great start and was third for a couple of laps. Sebastian [Vettel’s] The race became difficult right after the start as he was involved in a first lap incident and sustained damage that caused him to fall to the back of the field. “
The moral seems clear …
Now comes the news that McLaren will drive under a special Golf livery in Monaco after receiving all the necessary permits. The McLaren Racing CEO said it was “a simple permit”.
“[The change] requires FIA and Formula 1 approval, ”he said. “You convey your design and rationale to them, and they all loved and approved it.”
The retro paintwork made little difference to Ferrari’s bad 2020 season. Three years ago, Brown asked F1 to allow teams to do special paint jobs. As an example of a race, he cited Monaco where he hoped to introduce a unique design. Now he has his way.
“The teams used to have to vote, but governance has changed,” said Brown. “[It was] A bit silly that some teams should have said about what other teams look like. Fortunately it was a simple approval for the FIA and Formula 1. “
Brown made it clear that changes to the livery should have a clear purpose – in this case, to celebrate a partnership that dates back to 1968 with team founder Bruce McLaren: “A change shouldn’t confuse fans or lead to a team making their own Loses identity, ”Brown said during the paint job launch last week, the details of which were locked until yesterday.
“At the same time, I think that I have to do something special a couple of times a year, which in my opinion creates excitement and extra commitment from the fans.
“At the moment we only want to operate it in Monaco. I think if you want a special paint job you have to keep it special. As you all know, this is not done that often in Formula 1. “
McLaren will hope for better luck with its unique color scheme. There’s no doubt that the Golf livery is noticeable, as were the previous Mercedes and Ferrari liveries, but in F1 the acid test is the result and not fancy historical colors. So the big question ahead of Monaco is: will McLaren and Gulf beat F1’s traditional paint bogey?
Brown is confident that happiness will be kinder to her than it is to Mercedes. “I think it had to be a coincidence,” he says.
“The weather was difficult so the drivers kicked it off the track. If I remember, Lewis had a reputation for “pitting”, “not pitting”. I don’t understand how that is related. “
He glanced at Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo in their duck egg blue overalls and added, “When these guys put on their helmets, they’ll forget how the racing car looks different from the steering wheel and the two tires in front of them. So I’m not worried about it at all. “
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