May 31 (GMM) F1’s governing body is preparing to intervene in order to improve the quality of the teams’ car liveries from 2025.
As the size and weight of the cars swelled in recent years to accommodate ever-more-expensive hybrid technologies, teams gradually began removing paint – which can add up to several kilograms per car.
Increasingly, many of the F1 cars of 2024 now have a naked black carbon base and are covered sparingly for colour and sponsors.
According to the Spanish newspaper Diario Sport, this has become a “problem” from the FIA’s perspective – and it’s a position reportedly also backed by Liberty Media-owned Formula One Management.
“One problem is that the cars have too much bare carbon, due to the weight of the paint, so the cars have too much black,” said Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single seater boss.
“A lot of work has also been done by all the teams to change the type of paint. In fact, a lot of it today is extremely thin film, to keep the weight as low as possible,” he added.
“The result is that some teams seem to use similar colour schemes, so they end up with cars that look very similar to each other,” said Tombazis.
“We are still discussing it with the teams, and it will be discussed at the next F1 Commission.”
However, he said an easier solution would simply be for the teams to informally communicate with each other and say “Well, if your car is blue here, mine won’t be blue there”.
“We don’t want to be making regulations on liveries, but we do want the cars to be distinguishable,” Tombazis added.
The problem has also been worsened by the drivers, he explains.
“In the past, drivers had more recognisable helmets because there were simpler designs,” said Tombazis. “And now with the change in regulations, which allows helmet design changes, they all have these fun designs.
“Plus, the spectators don’t see the helmet anyway because of the halo. We need to find some way to make it so people can tell if it’s (George) Russell or (Lewis) Hamilton.”