F1 2024 Liveries Rated – First Six Teams Ranked
6 min readThere’s still a while to go until the F1 2024 season roars into life, but the first six teams have revealed their liveries. We’re going to rate all of the entries we’ve seen so far from McLaren, Haas, Sauber, Williams, Alpine, and the Racing Bulls out of ten for you today.
If you’ve missed the high-profile livery reveals over this past week, this is the perfect place to catch up! How does your favourite team stack up from a look point of view? Keep reading to find out!
F1 2024 Liveries Rated – First Six Teams Ranked
Before a wheel is turned in pre-season testing, the cars and by extension the liveries are revealed for each team. All of Formula 1’s ten teams put on an event to reveal their challenger for the upcoming season, with the livery being the easiest part of the car to dissect.
Teams don’t want to reveal what their car will look like in terms of aerodynamics and its chassis when it hits the track in testing. So, they often show their car from the final race of the previous season with the new paint scheme.
There may be one or two changes from the previous Grand Prix, but the cars we’ve seen so far will certainly not be the cars that begin testing later this month.
While the 2023 drivers have remained with the same teams for 2024, the teams have changed names and sponsors, so there are unsurprisingly some major changes to the liveries from 2023.
McLaren MCL38
McLaren were first out of the blocks to reveal their 2024 challenger’s livery on 16th January. The Woking outfit had an excellent 2023 season, recovering from an awful start to finish fourth in the end. Their striking papaya orange colours return, but with significantly more black than last season.
Unfortunately, this will become a bit of a theme, but teams are utilising unpainted carbon fibre areas of their cars to save weight. Yes, in order to try and get their cars to be as light as possible, even paint is spared when it can.
While the MCL38’s look is definitely a downgrade on the MCL60, it is still one of the better liveries on the grid we’ve seen revealed so far. Plus, we actually like those Google Chrome wheels, as they add some much-needed colour to what could be a rather dull grid in 2024.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Haas VF-24
Trying to find what’s changed for Haas between this year and last isn’t an easy task. A side-by-side comparison between the VF-23 and VF-24 is the only way to do it and the only thing that jumps out is that some white areas have been painted over with black.
The VF-24 is very much a newspaper car, black and white, with splashes of red. The American outfit will be hoping and praying for more success on the track thanks to an improvement in performance.
In 2023, they finished bottom of the constructor’s championship and they won’t get a quick win in our livery rankings.
Rating: 4 out of 10
Williams FW46
This is more like it from Williams, though! Williams weren’t revealing much in terms of the car’s performance, but the livery that has been revealed is definitely a winner.
Like most of the 2024 cars, the FW46 is definitely a darker colour palette used from 2023. That’s not such a bad thing, though, as the dark areas aren’t all black, and those dark blue areas complement well with the predominantly blue livery.
The Duracell battery on the air intake at the top of the car, as well as the other sponsors and the subtle red, white and blue pinstripe all work well. It’s a slight downgrade on the 2023 entry, but Williams won’t care if it gets them further up the grid.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Sauber C44
Sauber have reverted back to their factory name after the Alfa Romeo sponsorship ended this season. Before Audi comes in for 2026, the Swiss outfit will have to go it alone in 2024 and 2025. While there has been controversy around the team’s name, there’s no doubt that the team’s livery is unique.
While there’s plenty of black like a lot of teams, there’s a striking amount of neon green that makes the C44 a unique look on the 2024 grid.
Whether the sponsors stay the same for the first round in Bahrain isn’t clear, but regardless of that, the C44 looks the part! Zhou Gunayu and Valtteri Bottas will be hoping it’s quicker on the track too, as last year’s entry was a poor one for sure.
We have thought this looks as if Monster Energy drinks had an F1 team of their own, or if there was an Alienware F1 car. That might come across as a bit garish, but we think it works for this car, there are definitely worse on this list!
Rating: 6 out of 10
Alpine A524
So much potential, but so much disappointment with this livery. Alpine has claimed that their new look for 2024 is “modern and striking”, but we’re not buying it. Both the “pink” and regular liveries are very dull and have far too much black on them to stand out.
When Renault morphed into Alpine for 2021, their liveries were quite striking, being predominantly blue, the brand’s colour.
Like the team themselves, Alpine’s livery has potential but has failed to impress. The French outfit will be praying the A524 breaks the team out of the midfield, because the car will not stand out compared to the competition from an aesthetics point of view.
This car is a classic example of why the FIA needs to clamp down on unpainted carbon fibre. It’s purely to save weight and it’s to the detriment of appeal of the Formula 1 grid. If they mandated that, for example, 80% of the car had to be painted, then this would stop overnight.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Racing Bull VCARB 01
The name is an absolute mess, but the livery isn’t bad! Unlike a lot of entries on this list, there aren’t many black carbon fibre areas on the Racing Bull VCARB 01. So, this car will stand out against the crowd, with its blue, silver and red areas working surprisingly well together.
Although, Racing Bulls won’t be getting many points for originality, as this livery is almost a carbon copy of the 2019 Toro Rosso. It’s on par with the AlphaTauri from last year, with maybe a slight edge because it is brighter than the AT03.
We have to mention that it looks as though it’s a 200 miles per hour credit card with the VISA logo so prominent. Although, being a 200 mph energy drink isn’t that different, in a sense. Minardi will be turning in its grave at this, but from a purely looks point of view, it’s not bad.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Which Teams Are Left?
With six down, there are four still to go and those will be revealed this coming week. We know when this quartet will be unveiled, so we’ve put when the liveries for Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Red Bull will be confirmed in the below table:
Team | Car | Reveal date |
Aston Martin | AMR24 | Monday 12th Feb |
Ferrari | SF-24 | Tuesday 13th Feb |
Mercedes | W15 | Wednesday 14th Feb |
Red Bull | RB20 | Thursday 15th Feb |
Red Bull’s 2024 challenger will be revealed six days before pre-season testing commences in Bahrain. Bahrain also hosts the first round of the 2024 F1 season, with the race taking place on Saturday 2nd March.
https://f1chronicle.com/f1-2024-liveries-rated-first-six-teams-ranked/
Author: George Howson