The place as soon as the F1 subject was filled with vibrant liveries that basically stood out, F1’s newest floor impact period has witnessed groups strip again to as a lot naked carbon fibre as doable in a bid to avoid wasting crucial weight from their heavy vehicles.
It’s a development that exhibits no signal of abating – as Alpine’s excessively black new A524 has proven – and it has even prompted some discussions about whether or not or not F1 chiefs have to step in and do one thing about it.
Ought to there, for instance, be a rule launched that forces groups to color the whole thing of their automotive to make sure that we have now a grid filled with beautiful-looking equipment?
It’s a pleasant thought. However, as at all times in F1, the satan is within the element and framing such rules to power groups to color their vehicles could be very, very tough.
It’s one thing that one in every of F1’s main paint consultants agrees is difficult to see working, as he thinks there could be infinite problems from making an attempt to manage the realm.
Mark Turner helped discovered Silverstone Paint Expertise in 2008. The corporate now works with nearly all of the F1 grid, even when it can’t be particular about which groups it operates with.
Chatting with Motorsport.com about whether or not a rule change is the correct strategy to tackle F1’s livery downside, Turner mentioned: “I do not know the way you’d regulate it simply, as a result of clearly the floor space and the selection of livery design, [such as] the place you are portray, the place you are not portray, if you happen to regulate it at minimal, it would make it difficult to truly standardise that throughout all of the vehicles.”
Valtteri Bottas, Kick Sauber C44
Photograph by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
Whereas forcing groups to color vehicles seems to be a no-go, this isn’t to say that F1 is now trapped in a world the place carbon-dominated liveries are right here to remain.
Turner is assured it’s a downside that’s purely associated to the present era of vehicles – so one thing that ought to go away by itself when F1 strikes to smaller equipment from 2026.
He says you will need to perceive that the difficulty with paint now isn’t just as a result of groups are battling to get close to the imposed minimal weight restrict.
It is usually as a result of, as F1 vehicles have gotten a lot larger, portray them requires a lot extra materials – so it has began to develop into a correct efficiency issue.
“Paint mass has at all times been on the agenda, it is simply by no means been a precedence,” added Turner.
“I imply, oddly, I feel it is in all probability moved over time as a result of the vehicles have grown considerably in measurement.
“The floor space is considerably bigger than say the early 2000’s, once you kind of had the naturally aspirated engines.
Liveries had been all-encompassing within the early 2000s
Photograph by: Motorsport Pictures
“They had been a smaller automotive and, as we moved into the hybrid period, the vehicles bought loads larger, so the floor space clearly has a direct impact on how a lot mass the general paint and livery goes to price.
“We are able to’t speak about any crew particularly, however in all probability three years in the past we had been sitting with a number of the heaviest liveries at round three kilos of paint and branding.”
Paint expertise has moved on fairly a bit since then to deliver the burden of a full livery right down to someplace simply above 1kg. And, whereas F1’s 2026 plans are set to contain lighter vehicles that would assist tackle the difficulty itself, Turner thinks additional advances and nearer relationships with groups will deliver again the kind of superb paint schemes we had up to now.
“I feel finally there will be innovation,” he mentioned. “Generally it is collaborating with the engineering groups to know the place there’s potential to develop additional in areas the place it would profit them to not run model.
“There is a kind of a technical benefit if you happen to can innovate within the kind of paint and coatings space to supply a lighter general end that the industrial crew are proud of. That is type of what F1 is about in a approach: it is innovating and pushing the boundaries ahead. Generally it is good once you’re rewarded for innovation moderately than it being standardised.
“So it is push and pull. However once more, equally, if we wish iconic liveries that followers can determine and pick in a race, it’s essential.
“I feel there’ll even be marginal positive aspects available from collaborating nearer with the technical design crew and the industrial design crew. And that may finally get a number of the color again.”
