The colour of failure?
Posted by Bill Thomas at 1:05PM on Thursday 25 January, 2007 23 Comments
This is the new Renault F1 car.
It looks wonderful, especially the liquid-modelled sidepods and mirror extensions - they're fantastic, like the freeform organic shapes HR Gieger would have designed for the Alien movie set - but the paint scheme doesn't look quite right.
In fact, it looks like failure.
Harsh? Yes. And it's not fair, either. Who knows how quick this car will be, even without Alonso? There's just something about the way the Dutch ING title-sponsor's orange has splashed onto the rear of the car, and its lack of overall cohesiveness, which makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
It doesn't look like a Renault any more. It doesn't look fast. It doesn't have a single dominant colour. It looks like a team from much further down the grid, the kind that struggles for sponsors. Get it changed, Flav.
There have been one or two non-winning colour schemes in F1. I hated the new red look of the Winfield-sponsored Williams in 1998, and that car was dog slow. When I first saw it I thought 'that's not a Williams' and that's how it performed (thanks partly to its underpowered customer engine, but the colours had more to do with it).
I didn't like the silver West-sponsored McLaren when it first came out after years of very winning Marlboro white and red - that silver Macca took a long time to start dominating, and it took them a while to get the design right, too. Same goes for that gold Jordan. Yellow wasn't particularly winning as a colour, but the gold didn't work at all.
And remember the amazingly crap split-livery BAR they launched in 1999? It was the first of a succession of bitty, rubbishy, non-winningy BAR/BAT colour schemes that basically ruined Jacques Villeneuve's career.
No BAR looked good until Honda started getting heavily involved, sticking to corporate Japanese racing white, and only last year, after seven years or rubbishy paint jobs, did the Honda win.
Keep it simple, boys, keep it neat and clean, and your car will win. For that reason, and that reason alone - paint - I think Ferrari will walk the championship this year.
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23 Comments for "The colour of failure?"
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How does the old saying go? 'If it looks fast, it will be fast.'
Bill's right, the new Renault looks a mess. And do you know what makes it worse? The new R27 Renault that Fisi shook down at Jerez last week looked stunning in a dark metallic blue and yellow livery.
ING's orange has ruined it, not that the bean counters at Renault will care.
Honda's paint-job is indeed better these days, but have you seen the test car in its none-more-black livery? Beautiful.
It's a sad day when we lust over the test cars and not the actual racers.
The latest Renault could've looked good - the colours do work pretty well together - it's just how they're incorporated into the overall design of the car that's failed miserably.
The orange and black line curving around the sidepods just makes the pods look like giant whiteheads on the side of the car, and the yellow should run to the tip of the nose thus giving the car an more elongated, darty profile.
On racing bikes, it's acknowledged that all graphics, lines and words should angle towards an invisible point in the centre of the front wheel. It gives an impression of speed and makes the fairings look less slab sided.
F1 livery designers need to take a leaf out of their book and think about how to soften the naturally messy look of the modern F1 car, or at least highlight those areas worth highlighting.
Saying that, I wonder if there's no such thing as an 'F1 livery designer' any more, just an advertising oik selling real estate on F1 bodywork. I mean, where's the modern-day equivalent to the old Martini or Parmalat Brabhams, or the JPS Lotus F1 cars?
I REALLY genuinely agree with you. I almost cried when I first saw their new car. I am not lying - what you have just said was EXACTLY what I thought when I saw it for the first time. It is truly awful. The old colours looked actually quite good and, in fact, a friend of mine supported the team for the colour of its car. Needless to say, he will no longer support Renault.
What on Earth were they thinking? There was a blog about the Ferrari's name being bland. It concluded that there ought to be a protest in Modena over the name. I'd be willing to write a letter to Renault complaining about the colour of their car. It sounds pathetic, I know, but it might just be worth it in the long run. I encourage everyone to do something about it, send an email to a Renault guy, or go and protest somehow.
Couldn't agree more. It looks like one of those model kits which you can paint yourself - only a kid probably would have done a better job. We need something to keep us awake in the GP, not send us to sleep! Come on Renault, sort it out.
It looks like an ice cream truck, not a racing car. The drivers even look worse with their new white overalls since nothing about the look says 'racing driver'. Its a shame really, because I thought Renault had one of the prettiest cars in the grid last year, I loved the sky blue and yellow. At least keep the blue cos you're French Flav!
The teams shouldn't let a sponsor dictate how your car look all the time and they should bend the rules for the common sense for unified graphic design. The Japanese GT500 cars all look fast and racey, even with toliet and safety seat sponsors on them.
This year, nearly all the cars look like cheap Tonka trucks. Boring and unexciting. Its a shame when Spyker and Super Aguri will probably have the brightest and flashiest cars with the bright orange and red ninja blades.... Doing the slowest times, mind you! I hope Nick isn't right when he says F1 livery is dead.
The better cars look, the better they are to watch on tv, as simple as that! If they look like an airfix model, probably travel like an airfix model, then they will lose support. Wake up Renault!
It seems that nowadays, most F1 teams tend to stick to at least one/two particular colours to define themselves: Ferraris are red; McLarens are silver; and Williams are mostly blue. But looking at the new Renault, it looks like the team have walked into a paint shop, couldn't decide which one to go for, and ended up buying one of each colour. What was wrong with last years colours, or even those used during testing this year? The guys who sort out the livery must have been drunk silly when they showed this to the top people of the team. Then again they might???ve been as well to accept it. In my personal opinion there are 3 things that make an F1 car: power; speed; and looks, and in the case of the Renault, it fails completely on the third part.
the new renault colour scheme is awful, i could have done a better job with sonys paint cannons. The car is sculpted beautifully but it is ruined by random colour variations. it looks like manufacturers will do anything nowadays for sponsers (sponsers=money). lets just hup they clean up their act soon.
Whilst I realise the article isn't 100% serious, I'd just like to point out that McLaren went over to the West silver livery in 1997, and then dominated the championship in 98 and 99. Not such a massive wait really. Crap livery though, it's going to look very rubbish when in motion.
bill my friend you are so right that i have just gone outside with a tin of red hammerite and re-styled my baby blue punto.
The new Renault livery is out right awfull! Too many colours, no cohesion and orange! Yuk! Yellow and orangy colours are cheap colours associated with cheap products, just look at McDonalds, Burger King etc. Either go all white at the back or all blue. Flav criticised McLaren for spending millions on image and launching the new car. To my mind, he needs to take a step back, take off those blue tinted sunglasses and have a proper look at those colours.
I am in the graphic design field and as far as I am aware, allot of livery design is done in house these days as is all the advertising for F1. It used to be handled by design agencies, and sometimes, still is. Look at Honda, they approached a design agency for re-branding. Done a good job I think. So long as there is no graffitti-bakground driver photos this year!
Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to the Special Edition Renault Cadbury's Creme Egg F1!
Good article Mr Thomas, that scheme is more bad taste than the seventies decade. Perhaps they might sacrifice the (trad renault) yellow central background for orange - and gain some continuity. Theyll probably flog a few more renaults in clogland too.
Well I agree with everything it's said about the colours and speed and whatnot. But hey, ING seemed to have spat out a lot of money to help keep Benetton up and running. Even if they hired Italdesign or some of the other Italian maestros to come up with the proper colour design and its proportioning, in the end there would still be some pale 7 foot tall Van den Gouda dictating Giugaro on how much orange he'd want to see on tha car. Money, money, money. It makes many things possible, at the same time it ruins a lot more.
Shouldn't a car be made to be recognized at a glimse? You see red in the mirror, you're in trouble aFerrari is on your tail. Light keeps on flashing into the mirror well that's probably a Mclaren. Blue and yellow means a Renault is on to you. But now Renault might just become the laughing stock of all F1.
Team manager(on radio): The clown on your tail is having some problems and might pit early, push harder. Lose the clown.
Just think of how somebody new to F1 would react if you told him you liked the renault team, now how would you answer when he asks which one it is?
The Renault's paint job has all the planning of a bird-dropping.
It's a shame as I'm guessing it is one of the (if not the) most aerodynamic shapes of the coming season - but I just can't see the shape. Admiration of the aerodynamics will be reserved for the privileged few who get to run their hands over the sculpture.
Here's hoping the colour scheme isn't indicative of poor performance as has been suggested.
Don't blame Flavo. For $50 million (because that's what ING pays them annualy) I would paint my car Pink with Purple dots if requested. But then I'm might be a bit prejudiced because I'm Dutch myself. (But there's also the Orange Spijker so we can't really nag)
Chrome finish not exactly not the most auspicious either, I recall M Schumacher had a new chrome design at the Japan GP title showdown finale in 1998 and he stalled on the grid. After a few more bad races at the start of 1999 and ditched the chrome helmet design in favor of a more conventional one as he had previously.
Jean Alesi had a chrome helmet in the late 1990s, and lately we had JPM with a partially chrome helmet.
And lately we had the Mclaren in the chrome-silver-red livery and we all know what happened in 2006.
May be chrome symbolises a mirror and as any chinese feng shui followers would tell you, they had to used and placed with respect and not haphazardly. Sure messy multi-coloured livery be it the early BARs, Williams ( Winfield days ) or the new R27 certianly isn't going to help but chrome stands out for me as a omen for disaster.
Now this more like a racing car...
It's got a much better flow to the graphics - the car takes a fast, aggressive, winning stance, because unlike the Renault it has a single base colour and strong base graphic that emphasises the cars flowing form.
It works because it looks fast even when it's standing still and the brand marks and logos fit with the overall graphic rather than dominate it. Of all the cars that have been launched so far, the one thing that strikes you about the new Red Bull Ferrari is the simplicity of its form.
It's a proper Newey car - I reckon this would be a good each way bet for the first race.
If you want to compare 2007 liveries - for the cars launched so far - try these links from pitpass.com. Pitpass is an excellent F1 site and comes highly recommended.
Honda
BMW
Red Bull
McLaren
Ferrari
Renault
Toyota
Just to start I'd like to say that I do not like the new colour scheme however it does seem to fit with the new changes in F1. Before, Renault could be seen, and were by me and I'm sure others, as the young confident school boy going up against a playground bully, Ferrari. Now that they are near equals with Ferrari due to driver changes and tires etc, the young "rebelion" spirit has gone and I think the the whole sponsership colour change reflects the loss of this magic. But it is not just Renault that have lost magic, with all cars being similar and laws getting too tight, soon F1 will just be there to get eyes to screens and role money in for peolpe with little passion for the sport. I hope I am not alive to see it.
It looks cheap, tacky and inept. How can someone take a team seriously if they have an orange and yellow car? All it does is undermine the overall beauty of the thing otherwise. It makes the nose portion loks far too skinny and pathetic. Overall it looks far less agressive, more like a fun playful, dumb car. Which, of course, it is certainly not. Again, it undermines itself. It actually looks like an 'apro soya milk', or as previously mentioned a creme egg. I have to say though- the Toyota with its black finished highlights is pretty cool, and with a subtle 'tearing paint' effect, it looks the business.
coupled with fisichella's green helmet, the car's colors looks like a parrot or a bowl of fruit loops.