With the team reinventing itself as Red Bull’s clothing brand AlphaTauri there was always going to be a livery change, and we kinda knew that it’d be black and white as they’re the colours of the brand.
It was a nervy wait to see what the car would look like because the old Toro Rosso livery was so damn incredible – but we needn’t have worried. Christened the AlphaTauri AT01, it’s monochrome – and it’s fantastic.
It’s not quite black and white – it’s more a very dark blue – but the effect is the same. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the Williams FW22 from the 2000 season (and that was a looker as well).
The only thing that perhaps slightly spoils it is the big red Honda logo on the sidepod, but that’s a small complaint from an otherwise fantastic livery. It’s a good job, too – you can’t have a fashion brand with an ugly livery, can you?
In fact, thinking about it, Benetton always had gorgeous colour schemes, too. Perhaps we need more clothing brands doing the liveries for F1 teams – how about a Gucci Mercedes? Or a Chanel Renault? Or, perhaps best of all, a George at Asda Williams!?
