The highly anticipated 2022 season is well and truly underway, and the Bahrain GP has not only showed us the pecking order as it stands now but also how the brand-new cars look while racing under the lights. And we are well overdue for a livery ranking now that we’ve witnessed the cars racing wheel to wheel and sparks flying.
Also keep in mind this ranking is of course my opinion and there are no right or wrong answers, so please leave a comment with your rankings/ratings.
P14 – The Blue and Pink Alpine A522
Coming in at P14 – the back of the pack the main Alpine Livery that they will be running for the majority of the year (21 races). After their stunning glimmering blue livery last year this is certainly a down grade as it seems like too many cooks have ruined the race car and clashing design elements like the BWT pink, Mapfre red and the Castrol patch have come together to make it look unfinished and lack luster.
4/10 Rating
P13 – The Camo Alpha Romeo C42
And in P13 we have the camo Alpha Romeo which we were able to see thanks to Alpha Romeo not launching their livery until after the Barcelona Test and overall, it was a pretty standard black camo livery.
4.5/10 Rating
P12 – The Plain White Haas VF22
We saw the plain white Haas aka the default livery very briefly during its transition from its Uralkali livery to a different one due to cutting ties with the Russian company amidst the Russia – Ukraine war. But even as a stop gap solution the black floor and wing with red Haas branding with minimal sponsors pushed it up to 12th place.
5/10 Rating
The Mazepin Debacle
With a war raging on in Ukraine due to history between the 2 countries and NATO’s involvement in the region which Russia is against, Formula 1 took initiative and declared Russian drivers will not be able to drive under their flag so that Russia’s actions is not endorsed by athletes and UK banned Russian athletes from participating in any motorsport event in the country. Since this attracted a lot of attention to Nikita Mazepin – the only Russian driver in F1, Haas decided to distance themselves from Russian association by terminating their contract with Uralkali and Nikita.
Since Nikita’s departure from F1, he has revealed that many of his fellow drivers including Sergio Perez, George Russel, Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc have messaged him to show support. Furthermore, he has issued a public statement on social media stating his feelings and that he is starting a foundation to support Russian athletes in a similar situation to him, interestingly named #WeCompeteAsOne. It was also revealed that Uralkali would be pursuing legal action for a refund of their contribution to the team as their contract wasn’t honoured and the money would be used to fund the foundation.
To watch Nikita Mazepin’s video response on his situation and #WeCompeteAsOne visit https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca4bQuKAaQc/
Vast majority of people around the world agree that whatever the conflict, negotiations should have been the only solution and that war and loss of innocent lives is a grave matter. But even so, multiple F1 fans have shown their support of Nikita online stating he isn’t responsible for a decision made by his government. Moreover, fans aware of Palestine-Israel, US-Afghanistan and NATO conflicts and China’s involvement in Taiwan and South-China Sea, question why nothing was done then, and politics was kept out of sports and why that isn’t the case now. But for now, all we can do is pray for the people affected by the war and donate what we can to charities that are helping them out.
Donations can be make to organizations like Red Cross and UNICEF. To find out more about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, I recommend watching this video by RealLifeLore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If61baWF4GE as only portions related to F1 will be covered in this post.
P11 – The Uralkali Haas VF22
The tricolour and questionably Russian colour scheme on the car heavily influenced by Uralkali, in my opinion, although odd for an American team still looks better from a design standpoint compared to the Plain Livery. But wait up for Haas’s brand-new livery that it will be running further up the ranking.
5.5/10 Rating
P10 – The BWT Alpine A522
The completely pink BWT influenced Racing Poi… oh sorry, Force India… sorry uhm Alpine although looking much more complete in full pink than its blue counterpart still is much lower down in this ranking due to the Mapfre and Castrol issues I mentioned earlier.
6.5/10 Rating
P9 – The HAAS Haas VF22
Haas’s brand-new livery for this season driven by Mick and Kevin who replaced Nikita is sort of a simple but bold design with the red line giving the features of the car a nice accent and complementing the Haas branding on the side.
6.5/10 Rating
P8 – The Mercedes W13
Mercedes took a trip down memory lane and went back to being the silver arrows. But coming from the brilliant black liveries of their recent past, the silver looks much to dull and flat out on track, more like a sort of gray. And add in the patch of INEOS red and that’s why I am putting the Mercedes so low.
7/10 Rating
P7 – The McLaren MCL36
During the McLaren launch, I took one good look at the car and hated it. Its weirdly bright blue and disproportionate streak on the sidepod made me think I would never like this car. But seeing it for a while now and with amazing Google Chrome wheel covers and under the lights in Bahrain, I think it’s not terrible, hence why its not next to the blue Alpine.
7/10 Rating
P6 – The Alpha Tauri AT03
At first glance the new Alpha Tauri is a run of the mill above average livery with the colour scheme flipped from last year. Looking closer or maybe not, the orange “X” from the Flexbox logo really ruins the look of the car on track.
7.5/10 Rating
P5 – The Williams FW44
One of the renders Williams released during their launch showed a car with brilliant design – the best even with nice red accent providing good contrast against the blue. On track the car was much too dark and disappeared into the background even under the lights at Bahrain and red, instead of being a contrast, stood out too much. But nevertheless, the design elements with the Williams “W” on the side are a nice touch.
8/10 Rating
P4 – The Red Bull RB18
The classic Red Bull livery was revamped and upgraded with a bright yellow nose and Oracle branding on the side when they showed it off on the show car at their launch. By the time it arrived on track, it had horrific Bybit branding on it that screwed up how the front and back wing looked. This was by far the worst offender of not meeting its potential and missed out on P3 in the ranking.
8.5/10 Rating
P3 – Aston Martin AMR22
One word – Vibrant. This year Aston have made their last year car more vibrant and added a flashy lime stripe along the side and I think they have finally achieved what they were going for last year.
9/10 Rating
P2 – Ferrari F1-75
Ferrari have gone back in time like Mercedes but unlike them have brought back an iconic design and done right by it. The classic black and red Ferrari has returned to F1, and it looks magnificent on track.
10/10 Rating
P1 – Alpha Romeo C42
Although I have rated the C42 and the Ferrari equally at 10, I feel that this rendition of the Alpha Romeo looks fresh and modern – the other side of the coin to the 90’s inspired Ferrari. Slap on the dual tone wheel covers and my oh my does it look amazing in renders and on track alike.
10/10 Rating