More than Just Stickers
In this lesson, we will start our journey
into the wonderful world of racing liveries.
I'll show you their style, their purpose,
and their evolution throughout the years.
Motor racing as we know it started a few years before World War I.
It was a way
for countries to compete against each other in a non-violent way.
The car looked like a great chance
to show off the national colour,
and that is how liveries were born.
In the beginning, racing cars were painted in their national colours.
For example, we have France with the Matra-Simca,
which has been painted blue.
Then, we have Italian cars, which were painted red.
Ferrari at Le Mans.
A red Maserati
and black-and-white but this was red as well.
Again, Britain, for example,
was painted in what is called British racing green.
Back then, sponsor logos were not a thing
because the whole "circus"
wasn't a big business as we know it today.
It was mainly made by companies,
supported by privateers, and so on and so forth.
There wasn't a need for a sponsor.
That was until the end of the '60s
with the Lotus 49, which was the first car
to ever break the rule of the national colours.
In fact, as we see it here, this is the first livery
branded with something other than the national colours.
This is called the Gold Leaf, which is a cigarette brand.
We see the iconic Lotus 49, which was a very successful racing car,
dressed in this wonderful cream gold and red livery.
This car won many races throughout the years
and wasn't updated for a long time,
which is something that is unthinkable nowadays
since the cars get updates almost every year.
This sparked liveries as we know them today.
They get attached to brands,
they get attached to cultural references,
as we say, the icons.
Probably the most iconic livery of all time is the Martini one,
which was dressing Porsches and Lancias.
The Lancia Martini racing team is a great example
of how pop culture and racing merged together.
The Lancia Martini team during the '80s and '90s
were incredibly successful.
First with the Group B and the Lancia 037 here
and the Lancia Delta S4 later,
they were dominating the rally stages.
The team itself was quite spectacular.
The team manager was called Cesare Fiorio
and the whole team
had an Italian flamboyant look to it
compared to, for example, their main rival, Audi.
Audi had a massive backup from the main brand
and they had a lot of mechanics, a lot of engineers,
a lot of very prepared people.
Stereotypically German, let's say.
The Lancia team was smaller, a bit more flamboyant,
and that reflects the main sponsor, which is Martini.
Martini is a liquor
that represents that Italian party time, let's say.
The cars reflect that.
It then carried on with Group A with the Lancia Delta Integrale.
We see here prototypes which are a bit more obscure.
A good way to get into the world of racing liveries
is to know the main columns of racing liveries, the milestones.
A good dynamic that develops in this world
is that you have racing cars.
They race in packs of 15, 20
and if you see pictures of cars driving at the track,
you have the chance to have a general vision
of more successful, less successful liveries
or even more obscure ones.
Here, I have prepared a list of liveries
that in my opinion are absolutely unmissable.
We already talked about the Martini livery.
The Gulf livery was made famous by Steve McQueen
and also by the car that it was applied on.
This is a 1970
Porsche 917-K,
which was one of the very first Porsches to win Le Mans.
This is the Gulf livery.
This then went on the other side of the pond
on the Ford GT40.
I say the other side of the pond but this is half-American, half-English.
This iconic baby blue and orange
is probably one of the most recognisable liveries of all time.
Plus, these were not so far away
from when people started using racing stripes.
Racing stripes were made roughly in around 1955
by a guy, I don't remember the name but the surname is Cunningham.
It's an American guy who used to race Maseratis
back at Riverside in America.
Again, with national colours.
The American national colours for racing were white and blue
and red sometimes, but mainly white and blue.
He started putting
two stripes over the car longitudinally.
This is one of the continuations.
This is one of the first evolution of the racing stripe.
This is a wonderful picture of a GT40
at the corkscrew turn of the Laguna Seca circuit
in California.
Now, I'll briefly
talk you through the different ways of styling a livery.
Motor racing mainly started in Europe.
So far, I showed you
a few of the most European/American liveries.
I identified three main ways of,
aesthetically speaking, intend the racing livery,
starting with the European liveries.
This is one of the most iconic liveries, Alitalia.
This is a Lancia Stratos from the '70s.
Then, we go back.
This is a famous livery but it's special to me
because this team was based in my hometown,
which is not a very big town, but they won.
The iconic Martini with the Lancia Delta.
Martini red.
Everybody into cars loves the Martini livery.
The white one.
The red one to me has a bit more of an extra kick.
This is worth seeing clearly.
As you can see, these European liveries
are not understated, but a bit more classy,
a bit more contained.
There's always very careful attention
to the colour combination and the space.
From a mere graphic design layout point of view,
always the sponsor's logos are placed very carefully.
There's a lot of understanding of composition,
there's a lot of understanding of colour combination and balance.
The black and gold JPS livery
is probably one of Britain's most iconic liveries
after the British racing green.
Alitalia.
Then, we go to the American liveries,
more specifically NASCAR liveries.
NASCAR liveries are nothing other than bonkers.
As you can see, compared to the Martini livery,
the power, the punch, the visual impact
is closer to a punch in the face in a good way
than an elegant, flamboyant Italian-sponsored racing team.
First of all, it seems like they have much more sponsors
and the fonts are bigger, brighter, louder.
This area here underneath the mirror,
to me, it screams NASCAR.
I like it because it looks like NASCAR,
but it defeats the purpose of having a sponsor
because how can you understand what's there?
Again, very traditional,
there are 35 to 50 sponsors
on just this side here.
The last...
big group of liveries is Japanese liveries,
which in my opinion, are in between America and Europe.
There's a safer use of colour.
We have a lot of blue and red.
This is Nissan 300ZX.
For example, this.
The colour schemes are similar to the Europe ones,
but at the same time,
there's a bolder approach to it.
Especially, in this case, for example,
this is silhouette racing, so a bit like NASCAR.
The body shape of a NASCAR
is mainly a sponsor to the brand
because, underneath it, it looks nothing like a production car.
The same goes with the super silhouette racing teams like this.
A car that has a square chin like that
can only rock a massive yellow lightning bolt on the side.
I'll need now to do a special mention.
The Porsche Carrera Cup, especially the '90s one.
Not a very broadly known championship,
but the liveries these cars had
are probably one of my all-time favourites
because as you can see here,
they break the rules of logo placement, for example.
They are in between...
They look a bit American in the sense that they are bold.
You have that European taste with a very careful choice of colour.
Here, this peak '90s.
I love how this is not about racing stripes,
this is not about careful layout.
I love it.
This is Schumacher driving this.
I'm mentioning this because I intend
to pay a little tribute to this racing series
with this course, especially with this image.
It's so iconic
with the little trashy pizza logo on the bonnet.
I love it.
Now, you have a general idea
of what role liveries played in the world of motorsport,
so you will be able to pick your car and your style.
Let's head to the next lesson and we will do that.