As I’m sure no one but me cares, the 2018 Formula 1 season is just weeks away, and most teams have revealed their cars for the upcoming season. It is always exciting to see what new ideas teams come up with for this season. Now that all of the 2018 challengers have been released, I’m going to be taking a look at all of the liveries you will see on track this season. Please note that I am only discussing the livery itself, not the results of testing, since my thoughts on that as well as a season preview will be coming soon. I’m going to be examining them in the order of the Constructor’s Championship from last year. Without further ado, let’s get started looking at some of these beautiful machines.

Mercedes:

If you ever feel useless in life, just remember that there is someone who gets paid money (probably a significant sum to boot) to design a ‘new’ Mercedes F1 car every year. Their livery has been virtually untouched since 2014. That’s not to say that’s a bad thing though, I quite like the shiny silver paint with streaks of Petronas green and electric blue running down the sides. My only problem with this year’s car is that I believe they did the worst job out of every team in incorporating the mandatory new halo device. Still a beaut though.

Ferrari:

This marks a return to the liveries of old for the Maranello based team. Since the late 2000’s, this team has added different colors to the iconic Rosso Scuderia color that has adorned their F1. From the white in 2009 to the black in 2014, it seemed like the classic Ferrari red was taking a back seat. That makes it ever more pleasant to see their 2018 car adorned in predominantly red with just some subtle hints of black, white, and green. Keen viewers might see that the classic Ferrari logo has been removed from the rear of the car, as has the Santander sponsorship. I really like this livery, and they (unlike their main rival Mercedes) did a great job of blending the halo into the car.

Red Bull:

By all accounts and purposes, this may be one of the best Formula 1 liveries I’ve ever seen. The blue and black camo mixed with the faded white lettering is an utterly fabulous combination. It’s just devastating that this was only intended to be a launch livery. The traditional blue, yellow, and red will adorn the car later in the year. That’s not to say that it’s a bad livery though, in fact I think it has been one of the better ones over the past few years. It’s just that it has remained almost completely unchanged since Red Bull came into the sport. This blue camo look would have been a welcome change to the car, and it is truly sad that this is all we will see of it.

Force India:

This team shocked the world last year when they unveiled their almost entirely pink car. They went from black, grey, orange, and green to a completely different look. No one was expecting that. This year’s car has adopted the same pink color scheme. I think this car looks tremendous, especially with the influx of some white. The blue BWT sponsorship (literally no clue what BTW is) really helps this car stand out. (Update: its apparently some sort of water. Riveting) As does the black floor. I believe that this is subtly one of the best-looking cars on the grid next year.

Williams:

BREAKING NEWS EVERYONE: Williams has somehow beaten Mercedes to the ‘Least Original 2018 F1 Car’ Award. This car looks literally no different from the car that brought them a wildly mediocre year in 2017. Martini racing colors will never be out of style, and the Williams looks good, but a bit more effort would have been much appreciated.

Renault:

The car people once nicknamed the banana has come back to turn into more of a wasp. With the addition of the black, this 2018 Renault looks tremendous. They did a great job more evenly distributing the yellow and not making it as much of an eyesore as it was in previous years. This car looks more black than yellow, and therefore looks a lot sleeker because of it. Although it is relatively small, the new Castrol sponsorship really adds a lot in my opinion. Just a few more colors, but the green and red ads look great on this car.

Toro Rosso:

Last year, the Red Bull junior team decided to step out of the shadow of Red Bull and make a more original car. It was fairly well received last year, so they stuck with it this year. This is similar to the Mercedes and the Williams in the sense that they didn’t do very much to change it from the previous year. This should annoy me, but they made such a radical change the year before that they are forgiven. Overall, it’s a nice-looking car and the colors all come together really well in my opinion.

Haas:

When this American team came into the sport in 2016, they started with a pretty basic white and black car that was very sleek. In 2017 they came up with the bright idea to make a plain grey mess. Happily, the white and black is back for this year, and it even has some red too. This year’s Haas is very smart, and the red helps it break out of the shell of what it was in 2017. Murica.

McLaren:

Recently, McLaren started harkening back to the iconic cars from the team’s past. For years on end, the die-hard McLaren fans were begging the team to go back to their papaya and blue cars. This year, McLaren responded by coming out a car that was papaya and blue. You would assume that the fans would be thanking them and praising the car that they begged years on end to get. You would be wrong. There was an outpouring of disgust on McLaren’s social media channels as soon as this car was announced and the fans claimed it was ugly.

…

You people are too hard to please.

Sauber:

Swiss-based Sauber made the biggest change this year when they brought the Alfa Romeo name back to Formula 1 after an absence of way too many years. If I was to choose one word to describe this new Sauber, it would be classy. The new white on red looks stunning, as does the Alfa Romeo logo on the rear engine cover of the car. The part I really like though is the script Alfa Romeo on the back of the spoiler. This is particularly nice since the Sauber is so slow that we’ll be able to see the script Alfa as the Mercedes and Ferrari put this car multiple laps down every Grand Prix.