Can you make 2009 F1 cars look good?

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Ferrari F60 by Bruno Mantovani - www.mantovani.zip.net

As we’re in the thick of the F1 launch season there’s much discussion about the look of the cars. Do the new wings make them look stupid? Are the teams’ liveries too boring?

Bruno Mantovani has designed alternative liveries for Ferrari (above), McLaren, BMW and Toyota’s 2009 which you can see on his website. How would you redesign the liveries on the 2009 F1 cars? Send in your designs below.

Seeing as we had such a high standard of entries for the track design competition last month I thought it would be interesting to see what you talented lot could do with the 2009 F1 cars. Afraid there’s no prize up for grabs this time though :-(

If you’ve got a design for a 2009 F1 car, post a link to it in the comments below. You can also upload files to the F1 Fanatic drop.io account here or post images on the F1 Fanatic Facebook Group.

Look forward to seeing you everyone comes up with!

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Can you make 2009 F1 cars look good?”

  1. Can’t say I like McLaren’s current red Vodafone livery. Silver and black would be nice.

  2. Easy to make them look good. Chop off all the wings.

    I would love to see the front
    wing shrunk, rear wings go, and allow complete
    engineering freedom for the diffuser (which already
    gives a surprising fraction of total downforce).

    1. wow, I definitely don’t agree, but I have never heard anyone express this as a possibility. cool

      also just give me my rear wing back and we’re cool. I understand why it’s so small but it’s killing me.

  3. I think all the cars thus far would look great with the rear wing’s height being dropped a bit. I like the front wing, and paint schemes don’t bother me much.

    The rear wing just makes the cars too radical looking. The width is fine, but the height is a killer.

  4. What is this guy fota baby is talking about?

  5. Sorry… this guy:

    babywantfota.com

  6. TommyBellingham
    19th January 2009, 3:04

    OK I got bored and did a Toro Rosso.

    Took me 2 mins so be nice.

    http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a67/TommyBellingham/toro.jpg

    1. See in two minutes that’s way better than I could do. I’ve never liked the Toro Rosso bull motif, I’d scrap it entirely and come up with something new.

    2. ChickenMcNuggets
      19th January 2009, 10:13

      Ah, well I think the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos are already really effective, actually (just look at those STR outfits!). Personally I think they communicate the energy and youth of the brand really well. So no, I wouldn’t really replace those of all liveries.

  7. I like the McLaren livery by ‘Bruno Mantovani’

    1. Like ’em all!

  8. I would like to see a team try all-black again, for once. I had somehow hoped McLaren would go for that.

  9. I think Bruno’s artwork too simple and obvious. The Ferrari’s should be all red, with maybe a hint of black underneath and a hint of white on the wings. I was hoping the McLarens would go all silver this year, with the branding picked out discreetly. Red Bull use their logo very well I think, but they need to be less subtle on the front, and maybe have Jordan style teeth.
    Also, don’t you think that the Williams ‘test’ livery always looks far better than what they ultimately race in?

  10. Out of all those designs, the Ferrari is the only one I like more than the actual paintjobs.

    0 points for imagination on the Toyota… it’s still white with red brush strokes.

    Everyone knows BMW’s racing colours are white, red, light and dark blue, and so aren’t likely to change, espicially to those ugly greys and teals.

    And the McLaren just swaps the red for black. I don’t think it really needs changing.

  11. ChickenMcNuggets
    19th January 2009, 10:00

    My instinctive first reaction on seeing that Ferrari was, “yeah, if you thought the (unFerrariesquely anonymous) ’93 design was a good idea!” But actually, the rest are genuinely interesting designs for an alternative F1 world, particularly that BMW. You could imagine it making good photographic fodder.

    I’m no expert at this, but Ferrari obviously haven’t always used the same shade of red, have they? There was a darker shade they seemed to be using until 1997 which I really liked, at which point they became lighter and more fluorescent. I’d like to see them return to that arrangement, ie. with black replacing white as well, although Marlboro presumably dictates otherwise.

    1. No, from what I recall Ferrari used the same shade of red for a long time, but a few years ago they changed it to something more photogenic, and which close up looks very un-Ferrari in colour.
      The 2009 car does appear to be a new shiny shiny colour, I suppose they are trying to out-glam McLaren…

    2. Ferrari have changed it a couple of times since having Schumacher on board, although I think this was more to do Marlboro as a sponsor.

      They’ve changed it this year as well because the paint weighs less.

  12. Is there any preferably open source software anyone can recommend to try this out?

    1. I haven’t tried Paint.net in a while, but here it is:
      h**p://www.getpaint.net

      It would be interesting if McLaren tried what Mercedes does in DTM, matte black with silver details.

  13. I don’t like Bruno’s designs – not my type of thing. However Tommy’s design for Torro Rosso looks really nice – and I actually like the Bull on the engine cover.

    I reckon Torro Rosso would also love to get their hands on the F60 rather than the RB5!!!!!

  14. StrFerrari4Ever
    19th January 2009, 16:25

    well me being an str fan im very anxious to see the car tommy good design but i think str should alwasy stay dark and the bull on the engine cover is nice but they do really represent their brand well fun youthful and that bull jus looks so ferocious rawr hopefully 09 toro rosso will win some races and maybe a championship :)

    1. Thanks it was just a bit of fun. I wouldn’t change it either cos i think the STR looks awesome

  15. Ferrari should be red and simple. Its like with a women: they are born beatiful, yet they still decide to cover all this beauty with make-up, which i dont understand at all ;) Thats why i love Ferrari livery and hate Renaults.

  16. Easy, paint them black!

    What more beatiful car than the JPS Lotus???

  17. For F1 cars to look good, first of all the regulations on car dimensions need changed:

    Car width should be 2000mm not 1800mm
    Low nose-cones should be mandatory
    The front wing should be 1450mm wide not 1800mm
    The rear wing should 1000mm wide and 800mm high not 800mm wide and 950mm high

    We’ll see if the new regs improve overtaking… but I seem to remember good looking cars being able to overtake back in the 80’s (and CART cars in the 90’s) so they don’t have to be ugly to be entertaining!

    the only things that are good about the new regs looks wise are that the front wing has been lowered (but this is negated by its length), barge boards etc are gone and slicks are back. I also thought those ugly ‘anvil’ engine covers were gone but judging by the new Renault not so…

    Once you’ve done all that then you can start worrying about liveries. On that front, I’d say simple is always best. The classic liveries are the Ferrari’s during the 80’s and early 90’s (before Marlboro paid them to go orange, although the current metallic red is an improvement) the red and white Marlboro McLaren’s and the JPS Lotus. Look at today’s Renault for a hard lesson in what a BAD livery looks like!

    In summery, this is what an F1 car should look like:

    http://farm1.static.flickr.com/27/101557976_dfdf43588e.jpg

  18. Whoa! Dank,nice job…..I see you did away with the ugly shark fin cover as well.

  19. His best is the BMW livery. That is freaking awesome! The company logo in the middle of the car is just brilliant.

    The McLaren livery is good, too, but I love the current McLaren livery and don’t want it to change.

  20. Dark colors seem to suit the new cars better, so far Williams’ looks best.

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