The lack of colour in the 2023 Formula 1 grid may have been expected but has nonetheless been to the dismay of many fans.
F1 teams have long appreciated the benefits of leaving areas of their cars unpainted. Dark shades made it more difficult for their rivals to inspect the geometries of their aerodynamic surfaces.
But in recent years teams have had another reason to incorporate bare carbon into their liveries: Less paint means lower weight.
When Aston Martin appeared on the grid in 2021 the team soon began seeking a lighter paint for their shade of British Racing Green. This was partly because the new technical regulations coming for the following season increased the minimum weight limit to 798kg.
After the beginning of last season, several teams reduced the painted areas on their cars in a bid to trim off a few more grams. Aston Martin was one of them. Its technical director Dan Fallows admitted changes in the weight of parts they don’t manufacture, such as Pirelli’s tyres, posed a problem they hadn’t entirely foreseen.
“The weight limit did go backwards and forwards,” he conceded. “There was an increase in the weight of the tyres.
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“There are ways that we can integrate that into the regulations, so that’s really what it came down to. Yes, these cars are, as we’ve seen, a reasonable challenge to get them down to the weight limit.
“We’ve worked extremely hard to make sure that we have the ability to do what we want with the car. And so that’s been a big focus on getting there.”
Fallows says Aston Martin made good progress reducing the weight of their car during 2022. “AMR22, by the time we’d finished with it was in a much better shape than we were at the start of the season,” said Fallows. “So we’re in a pretty good position, I think, going into AMR23.”
Nonetheless their new AMR23 appeared with much the same livery as last year. Its front and rear wings were left black, as is also the case on Williams, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes and Ferrari’s new cars. But do fans hoping the grid doesn’t become overrun with dark liveries have cause for optimism?
One team which scaled back the paintwork on its 2022 car presented a machine with a splash more colour this week. McLaren’s MCL60 sported an orange rear wing at its launch on Monday.
Team principal Andrea Stella said they have been successful in slimming down their chassis. That has allowed them to use a little more paint.
“I would be comfortable to say that our engineers have done a good job,” Stella explained. “They’ve been able to take off weight in several areas of the car and so for what concerns our car we are, I think, in a good position from that point of view and we can finally give some more space for orange and vinyl [stickers] on the car rather than taking off up to the last bit.”
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He expects McLaren’s rivals will be able to do the same. “In all honesty I think all teams will have made a good step from a weight point of view. We should be hearing less about this topic as we enter the second season of these new regulations.”
On the face of the evidence so far, that seems a little optimistic. Most teams appear to have stripped off as much paint as they can. There will have been fraught conversations between many engineering and marketing departments during the off-season.
The proof of whether Stella is right or not will come over the season ahead, and whether we see teams trimming back the paintwork as they did last year, or following McLaren’s lead in adding a splash of colour.
F1 car liveries revealed so far
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