The silver arrows are back! Mercedes return to the iconic silver livery this year, with turquoise and red accents showing off the new shape of the cars - the sharp contrast of the blues on the front and rear wings to the rest of the silver is particularly striking and gives a nice balance to the car.
For Redbull, “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” certainly applies. If you saw last year’s car, you've seen this year’s, some sponsors have been moved slightly with “Oracle” replacing the main Redbull logo on the side of the car, and the yellow section on the nose getting longer, but other than that, not much.
Mclaren’s MCL36 is certainly bright! Some love it, some hate it. The livery has more blue accents than last year and keeps its sensible sponsor placement. However, the brighter orange hue has led some to point out the team uniform’s similarities to that of B&Qs…
The F1-75 is a gorgeous and nostalgic Ferrari, reminding many fans of the cars they fell in love with through the eighties and nineties. The gradients on the car are softer and easier on the eyes this year, and the arguably cringeworthy “mission winnow” logos have been retired - thankfully, the neon green accent that came alongside said logos is gone too.
Aston Martin’s sophisticated AMR22 is definitely a fan favourite - replacing the pink accents with lime green gives the car a more mature and sensible look, suiting the image of the Aston Martin brand. The white flecks on the plain wheel covers give the wheels a more dynamic image, and will certainly add a little flair while in motion.
The AT03 of Alpha Tauri this year is similar to 2020’s AT01, with more white accents - a simple colour scheme and clean designs (as well as a simple name placement on the front wings) has led to a beautiful, clean design. Though, the plain flat wheel covers may leave more to be desired.
The rather controversial (well, F1 twitter controversial) Alpine A522 is a striking combination of pink and blue, with a super special season opener livery with even more pink! A wonderful throwback to the old, all pink Racing point. The reveal live stream for this car was certainly interesting too, with a bizarre, triangle themed, blue gloved interpretive dance, reminiscent of Ferrari’s 1000th race celebration.
The Alfa Romeo C42, while being the last to be revealed - certainly still made a splash with fans, and has my award for the most creative use of new wheel covers - the red and white aperture style pattern certainly sets them apart and makes other teams seem uncreative and less resourceful in comparison.
The simple red, black and white paired with their refreshed logo give the car a modern and clean feel.
This year, Williams swapped the white-nose for a slightly different blue hue to the rest of the livery, keeping sponsors rather simple. With red accents dotted around the car, it feels slightly reminiscent of the red Canon logo of the Williams FW14 and others from the early nineties.
Haas ended up removing the Uralkali sponsor logo and Russian flag colouring due to the current invasion of Ukraine and severing of the ties with the company itself, so as a result of this, the Haas VF-22 is now a rather simple black and white car - but in my opinion, the simplicity looks great! The mostly white car will be very recognisable on track and is a refreshing alternative to the other teams’ busier cars.
Overall, no matter what the cars look like, the most important thing is that they will be out on track and racing again soon! Preseason testing will begin on the 10th of March in Bahrain.