RB puts on some denim

One-off liveries are back, and this time RB have decided to go with something even quirkier, showcasing a denim livery for the Singapore Grand Prix. The VCARB 01’s design for the Marina Bay Street Circuit race comes courtesy of RB’s apparel partner HUGO, part of the Hugo Boss brand.

The livery is most prominent on the front of the car while zips feature along the sidepods as the car slips into its own pair of jeans for the night race. Team members in the garage will wear special one-off denim clothing, while RB drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda will also rock the denim look, racing in bespoke suits and HUGO outfits throughout the weekend.

It isn’t the first time an Italian fashion house has been involved in a Formula 1 theme, with the Bennetton team in the 1990s running a ‘united colors’ design.

Mercedes honour 50th anniversary of partner Petronas

Mercedes also joined the party, presenting its own one-off livery, paying tribute to its technical and title partner Petronas to mark 50 years of the company.

Petronas emerald green replaces the silver usually seen on the front wing and sidepods of the 2024 car. The Malaysian-based company has been a partner of Mercedes since 2010 with its logo unmissable on the team’s racing cars for over a decade.

Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Toto Wolff will travel to Kuala Lumpur after Sunday’s Grand Prix as celebrations are set to continue.

McLaren’s ‘Legend Reborn’ livery celebrates iconic MP4 era

McLaren and primary partner OKX have designed a one-off livery celebrating the McLaren MP4 era from 1981 to 1996.

Widely regarded as one of the most important period’s of McLaren’s history, the MP4 series produced cars driven by the likes of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Niki Lauda. The white used in the MP4 series has been combined with the modern day papaya colour to create a livery that honours the team’s heritage, with the names of 13 drivers from the era integrated into the livery on the cockpit.

The Legend Reborn livery is the second one-off colourway to be used this season after the Senna inspired tribute seen at the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

Red Bull opt out of one-off livery usage

Red Bull’s inconsistent form of late has seen the team opting out of its planned one-off livery for Singapore, instead dressing the car of F1 Academy start Hamda Al Qubaisi.

As part of its FOREVER REBL campaign, fans were able to create and submit their own designs to be used on Red Bull cars at select race weekends throughout the season. The recent British Grand Prix at Silverstone saw a one-off livery and further creations were set to be used at races in Singapore and the United States.

However, the plan for the livery usage on Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s cars was scrapped, with the team concerned about the additional weight repainting its cars would add.

Red Bull was overtaken in the constructors’ championship by McLaren at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix and now every percentage of advantage is being taken into account for the remaining races of the season.

A Red Bull Racing statement read: “Thank you so much for entering the REBL CUSTMS Livery Competition. Once again, the designs showed ingenuity and a progressive thinking that has come to be the benchmark, as our fan-designed livery campaigns have evolved over the past two years.

“Unfortunately, when we came to the testing phase of what some REBL CUSTMS designs could look like in real life, on the RB20, we found the paint used to create these bespoke, full car takeover liveries, added unforeseen and undue weight to the bodywork of the RB20.

“As I’m sure you can imagine, any additional weight compromises performance and the Team are continuing to prioritise making this car as competitive as possible for the remainder of the 2024 season. As a result, it is with a heavy heart that we must let you know the Team has made the decision to not run the REBL CUSTMS liveries on the RB20 at the Singapore and United States GPs.”

words: Mike Booth
pictures: Red Bull & Mercedes F1