How four classic F1 liveries might look on today’s cars

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Jeremy Hancox produced three brilliant alternative F1 livery designs for F1 Fanatic last year.

They proved very popular and now he has created a new batch of four images showing how some of F1’s most memorable liveries from past seasons could look on today’s cars.

1991 Jordan 191

Eddie Jordan’s first F1 car was an elegant creation crafted by Gary Anderson. It also had the benefit of an attractive green and blue livery.

The green colour was a good match for the Irish team but it came about principally through their association with 7Up. Jordan made the soft drinks brand a sponsorship target due to its strong sales in Ireland.

Jordan intended to make his pitch to 7Up’s executives in London with the assistance of Bertrand Gachot. But come the crunch meeting in February the driver was nowhere to be found. Jordan secured the deal but the reason for Gachot’s absence didn’t emerge until later in the year.

He had become involved in a row with a taxi driver on Hyde Park corner and was arrested. Later in the year he was sentenced to prison, beginning the sequence of events that led Michael Schumacher to make his Grand Prix debut.

Securing 7Up’s backing was a coup for a Jordan but it created a problem as another potential sponsor, Kodak, did not want their yellow branding to appear on a green car. Unperturbed, Jordan headed for Japan and concluded a deal with their green-coloured rivals Fuji.

1984 Toleman TG184

The Toleman TG184 will forever be associated with one race – the rain-lashed 1984 Monaco Grand Prix which a young Ayrton Senna looked set to win before it was red-flagged.

The car’s livery, painted in deference to Italian sponsors Candy (domestic appliances) and Segafredo (coffee) was revised later in the season to include a splash of red, as reflected in Jeremey’s design above.

After that shock second place at Monaco in only his fifth start, Senna took the TG184 to further podium finishes at Brands Hatch and Estoril.

1997 Lola T97/30

With sponsorship from big names like Mastercard and Pennzoil, Lola’s return to F1 in 1997 looked credible.

Unfortunately the car their logos were plastered onto didn’t amount to much.

at the team’s debut in Melbourne Formula 3000 champion Vincenzo Sospiri was five seconds off the next slowest car in qualifying. Ricardo Rosset, who’d finished runner-up to him in 1995, was a further second off the pace, and both were outside the 107% cut-off time.

Nor were their sponsorship arrangements as lucrative as they seemed, and the team folded before the second race of the season. Nice looking car, though.

1990 Leyton House CG901

The striking pale blue colours of Leyton House were introduced to F1 on their March-designed cars in 1987. The fashion brand created by Japanese fashion magnate Akira Akagi had not been applied to any products when the cars first appeared.

By 1990 Leyton House restaurants and hotels had sprung up. The team’s fortunes changed as well: from running modified F3000 cars at the rear of the field their upcoming designer Adrian Newey had fashioned the CG901. It pointed the way forward for post-turbo era F1 car design.

Powered by a comparatively weak Judd engine, the slim car pushed the envelope of minimising drag and maximising downforce further than its rivals. Although it was very sensitive to bumps, on the smooth Paul Ricard circuit it came into its own and Ivan Capelli nearly won the race.

But by that time Newey was already on his was to Williams to design his first of many world championship winning cars. Leyton House never came close to scoring a similar result again and by the end of 1992 their distinctive cars were gone for good.

More of Jeremy’s livery designs

If you liked these designs, be sure to check out Jeremy’s earlier work in this previous article, visit his official website and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Images © Jeremy Hancox for F1 Fanatic, others as described on images

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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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84 comments on “How four classic F1 liveries might look on today’s cars”

  1. The ’84 Toleman looks absolutely fantastic!!

    1. Amen! What a stunning livery.

    2. A bit French, but otherwise lovely.

    3. So weird with 2 backwings, still the best looking thing about it is the helmet!

    4. Toleman livery was ugly then, and it would be ugly now!

  2. Wonderful. The Lola livery especially. It breaks all the rules, but I love that livery and it works well on today’s cars.

    Really like how you’ve updated the logos of sponsors who have had a brand redesign in the years passed. The BP one on the Leyton House car especially. Looks great

    1. I also love the Lola! The Toleman is the second best, but all four are exceptional!

    2. I fully agree with that, lovely job to really update it, not just paint the old one on a new car. The thing closest to the Lola would be a Force India with less white and another colour thrown in :-)

      1. Really like how you’ve updated the logos of sponsors who have had a brand redesign in the years passed. The BP one on the Leyton House car especially. Looks great

        Speaking of sponsor logos on the Leyton; why was it sponsored by Bin Laden?

        1. Drop Valencia!
          6th April 2013, 3:31

          He was known as Usama before 9/11 so, no.

  3. So an F1 car CAN still look sexy.

    Incredible job, mate. Would love to have the template and make some of my own.

    Absolutely outstanding.

    1. Time for an F1 Fanatic livery design Contest ?!

      1. @f190
        See that is a fantastic idea!

  4. Great feature! The Leyton House is definitely one of my favourite liveries. I wish some of the modern F1 teams would take a few more risks with their designs these days; obviously they have to consider branding and sponsors, but these designs show that you can still have a range of sponsors and be creative.
    Also worth a mention is the double rear wing on the Toleman: F1 designers pushing the regulations to the limit as always!

  5. These are brilliant. There are plenty of these on the net but instead of just copy pasting the old logo’s on a modern day car he took the time and effort to search the modern logo’s. Excellent job I say! I like the Leyton House myself.

  6. Toleman TG184 looks absolutely awesome.Lola reminds me of Red Bull.

  7. They are all mighty!
    Jordan made great liveries.

  8. Jordan <3

    1. The Jordan livery looks fantastic.

      1. I may have to try and find the Sasol/1994 South African flag design I submitted to Eddie. Louise Goodman wrote back saying “thank you for your drawing”!

  9. Vincenzo Sospiri out qualified Rosset by a second. A driver that already had a fair bit of experience with arrows.

    Thats not bad going. Ok the car wasnt great. But i dont remember them donig any testing that year(might be wrong, just off the top of my head) back in the day when testing was constant in winter so its not surprising they were so slow.

    1. Seems impressive but I think my Grandma could out qualify Riccardo Rosset.

      1. Ha! Even *I* outraced Ricardo Rosset, albeit on the F1 97 game on the Playstation 1 in the Jordan staff cafe! True story!

        We had simultaneously had our first experience of F1 testing at the same time the preceding week, he as test driver and erm… me cleaning the wheels and polishing the car. But what a car to polish – the ‘Bitten & Hisses’ (Benson & Hedges) ’97 Jordan, complete with a snake on the nose with its fangs hanging down the front wing pylons. I felt like I was the only person to notice that a the snake’s eyes had subtle B and H letters reflecting in its twinkling catchlight.
        Anyway, that’d be the next livery I’d suggest the talented artist paints on a modern car.

        Here’s a nice pic of the car:

        And here’s a nice pic of Ralf crashing it:

  10. DAT LOLA

  11. That Toleman looks incredible! They all do, to be honest…

  12. more f1fanatics need jobs as livery designers!

  13. I approve.

    I’d also be keen to see a Yardley design on a modern car. Maybe McLaren could use it in 2014.

      1. That’s the one.

        1. I’ll just amend my comment slightly: I don’t think McLaren should use an exact replica of the Yardley livery, but rather that they should use it as a base. Keep the white, orange and red elements as a base, and add sponsor decals over the white space. That way, McLaren can have a livery with character, but which doesn’t bow to a sponsor’s demands (forcing them to run in corporate colours).

          It would work specially well if they found a sponsor with red as their primary corporate colour, as it would fit quite nicely with the base design. Maybe someone like Honeywell or Lukoil would work.

  14. Caterham sponsored by 7UP would look cool

  15. F1 liveries were definitely more colourful in the past, and I have to say that I miss that. A lot of the designs are very similar nowadays, and none of them really stand out the way that some of these liveries did, which is quite sad. Not to say that I don’t like the liveries that we have today, but many seem quite uninspired compared to these.

    I can also understand that teams may want to build an image by sticking with one livery, but those who do change may benefit from having a livery that really stands out from the rest.

  16. these look absolutley better and closer to their real life ancient counterparts than nowadays Lotus, Williams and Caterham designs, which also should reflect a former livery

  17. As much as I love the designs, it is silly to think that the sharpness of the images would be present if an actual car was painted like this. The liveries shown here looks brilliant with the different tones under different layers of lighting. Such lighting does not exist in real life. Same goes the varied colour tones. But, then again in the corner of my mind, there is a small boy saying-“OMG! I wish I had toys that looked like these.”

  18. Did I just see Osama on the Jordan?

    1. Yes. But not the one you’re thinking of, though – that family sponsored Williams.

      1. @ilanin Whoa! Was that really “the” Bin Laden family sponsoring Williams? As a theoretical, who do you think would Osama sponsor now? I reckon Lotus on the condition that Kimi always has a seat.

        1. Yeah, but that Bin Laden is the Saudi Binladen Group. The Bin Laden Group is a major player in the Middle East construction market, their annual revenue is well into the billions of US dollars. Yes it is technically “the family”, but it was around long before Osama.

          1. not to mention that they have long since tried to cut most ties with their most well known member at least as far as official ties go.

      2. Oh my…well I never knew that!

    2. Don’t act so shocked… F1 is money, always, and nothing changes.

      Jacques Villeneuve could have walking up and down the grid with a Gaddafi as little as 3 years ago.

  19. Where is the 80’s/90’s Benetton that to me was a classic team livery.

    1. I agree, Benetton was the reason I got into F1. The colors were amazing!

      1. Exactly! Benetton Ford B188

  20. amazing work jeremy. they all look mint and much better than the originals!

  21. One of the F1 teams should hire Jeremy to design their liveries for them. While all four are recreations of existing designs, and have associations based on events on and off the track, they are all brought to life brilliantly by Jeremy on the modern shaped machines.

    Some of today’s liveries just lack imagination and are truly forgettable. Designers should be trying to create iconic and distinctive designs that make their team instantly recognisable. Everyone that’s watched F1 for awhile would remember the iconic yellow Jordan of the 90s, or the chrome McLaren. Who will remember the 2013 Sauber in years to come?

  22. Love the 7up. Lola too busy. The rest rather bland.

  23. The Benetton of 95. That was also sweet.
    Also the Renualts of the 80’s.

  24. I don’t like the Lola. At all. It’s far too busy.

    The Jordan on the other hand… WOW.

  25. The Jordan and the Toleman are both beautiful. And just to give it a little more cred, they gave debuts to two of the greatest drivers of all time.

    1. @serv

      Only Michael Schumacher comes to mind, and the other is Ralf, Irvine, Zanardi (Did very well in Cart), Giancarlo, Rubens?

      1. Senna at Toleman.

        1. Oops, totally didn’t see he mentioned Toleman.

  26. Thumbs-up!

    New Jordan is definitely best for me.
    Old Toleman seems to me obviously better than the new one, new Lola have great updated color scheme.
    Leyton past colours seems to me weakest of these and even the update havent made it better.

    When I read “classic liveries” in headline, I ve been looking forward to Brabham Parmalat, Williams FW11, McLaren Marlboro or to some of Benettons.

  27. I particularly like the “Osama” sponsor on the Jordan with what looks like a bulls-eye. Was it prophetic?

  28. Damn, I’ve left my rose tinted specs at home.

    Got to say these liveries look no better or worse or even that much different than any other liveries since Lotus 1968. They’re just adverts folks, some better (some worse) than others. But adverts nonetheless…

  29. Juan M Navarro
    5th April 2013, 15:58

    you should also make the john player special modern design or the lotus camel both from Ayrton Senna

  30. The Blade Runner (@)
    5th April 2013, 16:09

    All four look fantastic, especially the Toleman and Lola.

    The recent Sauber and Williams cars have really lacked character with some of the blandest use of livery and colour I have ever seen. Hancox’s “Toleman” shows how they should really be doing things with their respective colour schemes. Likewise the “Jordan” should serve as inspiration to the achingly bland Caterham.

  31. That Jordan 191 livery!!

    *swoons in a manly way*

    Tis a thing of beauty, so it is!

  32. I read somewhere Leyton House was a Japanese estate agent…

  33. I don’t know whether it’s just because they are different to what we are used to but all of these liveries look amazing compared with today’s!

  34. Always loved the 7-Up Jordan and the Leyton House March, but these images by Jeremy are superb. Lots of lovely shaping and glow patches.
    I remeber doing associated print work with the 7-Up brand at the time, and they used that sort of pipe-cleaner cartoon of a kid with spiky yellow hair. We were shown advance images of the livery on the Jordan car; I was so impressed.

      1. That’s it!
        Thank you. My life is now complete.

  35. Nice.
    Didn’t know Osama sponsored the 1991 Jordan.

  36. I’ve seen that Leyton House livery on a Star Mazda (now Pro Mazda) in iRacing

  37. Would love to see the Marlboro livery on today’s mclaren with like a pearlescent white.. ANYONE!?

    1. Totally had the same idea dude…It would be awesome seeing those colors again back in action for atleast a Grand Prix Weekend.

    2. I actually prefered West. Made them look cool and Star Wars Imperial.

      1. Thank you. Thank you so very very much.
        :’)

  38. I’ve always liked red, personally

  39. Wow, can that Jordan 191 mockup just…be on the grid already, some how?

  40. few years ago I had proposed some old livery with modern cars, this is the result:

    http://shinjirhcp.deviantart.com/art/F1-Vintage-n-2-113677668

    I love Jordan and Leyton House! :D

  41. Beautiful work. But this exercise primarily has shown me how beautiful the cars of the 90s were, including compared todays cars, which look clumsy by comparison. The Leyton House March, for example, is exquisite. However, I wouldn’t bear to watch a race now with such cars–with drivers’ shoulders right in the breeze and trivial side-impact protection.

  42. Am I the only one that think these are hideous?

    I mean the artist did an AMAZING job, but somehow it just strikes me that these cars look like multicolored advertisement billboards without much if any artistic feeling, creativity, or just brand power(like Ferrari all red car).

    Again I complement the artist for the amazing modern renditions of these liveries, but as far as the liveries themselves, just serve to remind me how unimaginative and restrictive the sport is when cars are required to become moving billboards rather than fast, beautiful, stylish machines.

    Not to say that all F1 liveries(past and current) fall into this rant, but most do, I feel…

    1. So with the exception of Marussia, Sauber, and Williams, all the present cars are billboards?
      McLaren is all Vodafone.
      Lotus is a tibute to JPS scheme of the 80’s Lotus. (Brand Power)
      Redbull… and with it’s Infinity sidepods?
      Mercedes is all silver, more brand power.
      Force India is a flag.

      Sorry, but really can’t see you arguement here?

      1. Sorry, but really can’t see you arguement here?

        Not really an argument, did you miss this:

        Not to say that all F1 liveries(past and current) fall into this rant, but most do, I feel…

        And I couldn’t agree more, they’re just adverts, many enhanced through nostalgia. Most peoples memory of Leyton House is upside down anyway ()

        1. (sorry, messed up link above)

          Maurício Gugelmin

  43. Love the Jordan and leyton House but I mean on the 1990 cars , they were simply beautiful back then. A shame that we have such bland livery on today’s f1 cars. Love the 1993 Ferrari the F93A and the 1994 F412 t1

  44. When I compare the old and new versions, I have to say I am amazed at how much better the Lola-Mastercard livery looks on a new car. I found it rather bland back then, but the new version is just great. Perhaps it is a bit unfair because some of these liveries were great right from thew start, so there’s not much room for improvement, but it shows how important the interplay between the shape of the car and the design is.

  45. I just thought that the new cars have one big disadvantage: There’s not room enough for the Penthause beauties (see Hesketh).

  46. I really do like the Toleman. It’s the sort of livery USF1 would hopefully have used had they actually decided to build a car. That Lola in today’s field would easily stand out from the rest of the cars!

    One livery I would like to see on a modern day car, the 1993 Sauber C12!

  47. Beautiful work, more of these please! :)

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