In terms of car performance and engineering, the 2021 season is essentially just a continuation of last season. This is because the introduction of new regulations has been delayed to 2022, having been impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whilst minor changes with downforce levels have occurred, little else has changed on the cars. Unfortunately, the same thing is true for a lot of the liveries as well, in spite of new identities and sponsors. Here is my ranking of the 2021 liveries:
10th) Haas
I don’t have many nice things to say about Haas, so I’m just going to go straight in on the livery – it’s bleak, bland and back of the grid. The overuse of the Russian flag just looks tacky and feels like a petulant middle finger over the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The team seem to have paid little attention to the CAS decision to prevent athletes from competing under the flag, which most directly affects driver and de-facto heir to the team, Nikita Mazepin. Haas do seem to be winning over a smattering of fans, but mostly those who waste their time inciting social media arguments by defending the most problematic people in the world of sport. This is meaningless in my eyes. The American team have lost the minimal amount of credibility they had in the F1 paddock with their 2021 design.
Rating: 5/10
Photo Credits: Uralkali Haas F1 Team
9th) Williams
I give kudos to the team for trying something a bit different this year and it’s a shame that the interactive app launch was hacked and cancelled.
This doesn’t mean I’m a fan of the new livery though. The nod to historical liveries with the white, blue and yellow is appreciated, but there are just too many shades of blue, with the rear of the car looking particularly chaotic and clumsy. Simply toning it down to the navy shade present on the front wing would have made this an instant classic. At least they tried.
Rating: 5.5/10
Photo Credits: Williams Racing
8th) Mercedes
It took a few races to get used to the black Mercedes, but I really liked the design of last season’s livery and the ability to fuse Petronas’ teal with Ineos’ burgundy.
This season is, unfortunately, a hot mess. The Brackley-based team have adopted the BWT tactic of slapping large logos on the car and it doesn’t work for me. It seems particularly pointless to see the AMG branding when the car is at full speed – leading the field – and barely getting any television coverage. The car may end up winning an eighth consecutive Constructor’s Championship, but it definitely won’t be winning this ranking.
Rating: 5.5/10
Photo Credits: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team
7th) Ferrari
To quote Stoffel Vandoorne: “it’s red”. There may be two tones with a nod to the special 1000th GP livery they ran at Mugello last year, but it’s still the same base colour as every livery since I started following F1 in 2005.
Ferrari’s biggest questions will have to be answered on the track through grid position and results. A fresh livery will hopefully bring fresh results but it isn’t my favourite. It is an improvement on last season’s rather plain effort but it could’ve done without the green Mission Winnow sticker on the car.
Rating: 6.5/10
Photo Credits: Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow
6th) AlphaTauri
They often say the sequel is not as good as the original (Shrek and Toy Story being notable exceptions), and sadly AlphaTauri have fallen foul of this with their 2021 livery.
The shade of navy is nice but from multiple angles the car is just navy. We all know that navy is a colour which simply doesn’t stand out in F1, especially when so many teams decide to use it. The same criticisms could be leveed against their 2020 effort with the white being overpowering, but at least that had a more balanced mix of the two colours.
Rating: 7/10
Photo Credits: Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 Team
5th) Red Bull
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is all well and good, but having the same livery for a sixth season is getting too predictable.
Teams don’t have to change every year, but Red Bull don’t help their case when they produce such clean and crisp testing liveries like those in 2015, 2018 and 2019. I hope that the lack of effort that has been put into the livery has been put to good use by the engineers.
Most F1 fans hope to see a Red Bull car capable of challenging Mercedes regularly for the first time since their dominance in 2013 – the sport needs it. For now, the report card reads: must try harder.
Rating: 7/10
Photo Credits: Red Bull Racing
4th) Aston Martin
I’ve been pondering on this for a while. I’m glad to see racing green back on the grid but I’m slightly underwhelmed. I like the livery and think they’ve done a good job in pairing the green with BWT’s pink, however it essentially just a green car with a pink stripe.
I seriously don’t understand why some fans are against the colour pink. I think it makes a great change considering most of the grid is either white or navy, but there just feels like something is missing.
Maybe a pattern on the shark fin or utilising Aston Martin’s badge would have done the trick? Obviously in a more subtle way than Mercedes’ AMG design though. I do have to say the photos on track do more justice than in the reveal but that’s not enough to push it up this ranking.
Rating: 7.5/10
Photo Credits: Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team
3rd) Alpine
I’ll be the first to admit that I really don’t understand the Renault rebrand when the team is crying out for a junior team in F1.
Establishing Alpine as a new team would definitely have sufficed. This change also means we’re losing the bright and striking yellow and black livery from the grid to be replaced by… even more blue. It’s not ground breaking and the black winter livery really gave away all the clues to the design. Despite this, the chrome blue along with the French tricolour is clean and pleasing on the eye, a solid effort for Alpine.
Rating: 8/10
Photo Credits: Alpine F1 Team
2nd) McLaren
If Red Bull need tips on doing the least amount possible but still having some minute changes to a livery that improves it, ask the designers at McLaren.
Adding a blue ring to the nose and neatening up the rainbow on the sidepods are the two noticeable changes to the 2021 car, apart from the brand-new Mercedes engine in the back. This is another good livery for McLaren, just a shame that the livery for the Arrow SP McLaren IndyCar team is better.
Rating: 8/10
Photo Credits: McLaren F1 Team
1st) Alfa Romeo
To paraphrase George Russell, in all honesty I’m a massive fan of this!
The colours may not have changed since Alfa Romeo joined forces with Sauber in 2018, but swapping the white and maroon changes the dynamic of the livery completely.
The shade of maroon is also better than last season, which was slowly creeping towards Ferrari red territory. The switch to white for sponsors ORLEN also means that they don’t stand out like a sore thumb in being a different shade of red to what the Alfa Romeo had in 2020.
Keeping the maroon halo also means it’s easily distinguishable. This is especially important when comparing it to the 2020 liveries of Haas or Williams, which everyone as expecting to be similar in 2021, although this didn’t turn out to be the case.
Either way, this is a good design move for the team and hopefully the Hinwil-based team give Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi a more competitive car so this gets some decent airtime.
Rating: 9/10
Photo Credits: Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen
