9th: Sauber. Trashed a great livery for this. this has promise, but the execution is lackluster. The shade of red is glorious, but there;s not enough of it. could have gotten more points if they didn’t scrap last year’s best livery for it. 5/10

8th: Ferrari. Looks rather dull and heavyset. I don’t have anything against all red liveries, but this shade looks too cheap too pull it off. I don’t get all the nagging about the white of previous cars. White has been a secondary colour for the scuderia since 1970. 5/10

7th: Haas. Still dull, 5.5/10

6th: Williams. The added black gives the car a more worksmanlike look, but that doesn’t really work with the Martini and it isn’t very inspired either. 6/10

5th: Mercedes. It’s a Mercedes. Not particulary pleasing on the eyes, but it could be worse. 6/10

4th: McLaren. The shade of orange is much better, and the blue just works as 2nd colour. there could be much more of the blue though, and the team haven’t done any effort to hide the fact they have no main sponsor. Good idea, slightly sloppy execution, 7/10

3rd: Red Bull. The team remain to have a much stronger identity than they had during their glory years. solid. 7/10, gets ahead of the McLaren due to better execution

2nd: Renault. I needed my time to get used to the RS 17, but once I did, I really liked it. This one, not that much yet. It’s still a very solid livery that leaves no doubt that this is a renault. the Yellow has a more retro-ish feel to it, side view is a bit too black now. 7.5/10

1st: Toro Rosso: 9/10

2 – Renault: for me the best livery since last years. Better shade of yellow and I really love the way the car looks all yellow from the front and all black from the side.

3 – McLaren: finally the papaya is back! Although at first I thought it was too simple (maybe due to the lack of sponsors) it’s a great livery, and those blue details are very smart.

4 – Ferrari: it’s not the best Ferrari livery but I kinda like it overall. I like the effect of the silver line and the way the numbers fit in the engine cover. Point down for the all red rear wing (I would love a return to black wings), point up for the best halo design of the grid.

5 – Mercedes: well they are nicknamed the silver arrows and turquoise is the main sponsor color, so it they are sticked to those colours they at least try to do something diferent every year. They are small details, is a fact, but I do like the movement effect of the turquoise lines in the dark background.

6 – Force India: better shade of pink, the white areas are a great add-on, but the sponsors placement make the livery a bit confuse. I liked the new Havaianas sponsor in the halo though.

7 – Haas: back to original livery thank god. I like the colour combo, but too simple, too boring.

8 – Williams: it’s a good looking car and we will do miss the Martini sponsorship but it’s like they don’t even try to change the livery a bit each year.

9 – Red Bull: it’s a Red Bull and it looks like a Red Bull, clase closed.

10 – Sauber: it really annoys me because they had all the ingredients to make a new and refreshing livery and they screwed it. It’s like they have designed a quick livery to announce the Alfa Romeo partnership and then just forget to design a proper one.

Mclaren:
Orange & blue, check. Sponsors, oh dear. Attempt to hide lack of sponsors, ah.
Never mind though because it’s orange! (9/10) [7/10]

Renault:
Nearly as good as the Mclaren, just missing something for me. (9/10) [8/10]

Ferrari:
VERY RED!!! Those wings should be black though. (8/10) [7/10]

Williams:
Sure I’m bored of it, but I quite like the random black. (7/10) [6/10]

RBR:
Where’s our camo livery?! 0/10
No only joking still like this one. (8/10) [8/10]

Force India:
Very cool & eye catching. (7/10) [6/10]

STR:
No I’m sorry I’m getting bored of this already and I don’t know why. (6/10) [9/10]
(I’ll go to the doctors don’t worry, maybe I’ll like it later, but not in Melbourne apparently)

Mercedes:
Well as usual it’s alright but not exactly great. (5/10) [5/10]

Sauber:
Please send sauber a bucket of any paint that isn’t white. (2/10) [1/10] (Yes I actually disliked last years Sauber, it was too busy for me)

Haas:
Dull as ever. (2/10) [0/10]

1. Toro Roso: again take the pip – and the clever ise of the cola logo on the rear wing to continue the red line. that, along with the placement of sponsors etc. wins them this round
2. McLaren: i can see what you mean Seb, but for me, i just love that they are heading in the right direction, and honestly, if you a space is going to look sparse on sponsors, do it properly 🙂
3. Force India: this has to be one of the biggest improvements in a winter break. if you look at the details you see that they (kind of) have a theme and stick to it from front to back of the car.
4. Renault: Likewise Seb, love the ‘2 views’ of this car, and the lighter yellow is great. other than that – its a good remake of last years.
5. Haas: just a really good remake of 2016’s livery with some added extras. good work.
6. Red Bull: One livery that always manages to look good. and this year is no different. i don’t think anyone will be too annoyed at seeing this again, although putting out the Camo livery wasn’t going to make it more popular.
7.Williams: although its essentially the same, i like that they have finally remembered that the front and rear wings are black and so ensured that the black is riding higher so it meets the martini stripes at both ends of the car.
8. Sauber: just because its new. not the most exciting livery ever but nice
9. Mercedes: yes its the same old – but limiting the lines to only 4 is a good idea. makes them flow all the way along the car.
10. Ferrari: they have kept some good features, but not filling the top piece of the rear wing was not one of them. if nothing else continue the white strip from the small fin or put the word Ferrari across it?

1. Toro Rosso – Still amazing, but the color of the inner rear endplates clash horribly with the design. 9/10 for that.

2. Mclaren – Would be perfect if it had any decent sponsors. It’s a shame that the same could be said about the 2016 Manor. 8/10.

= Mercedes – The application of the blue with the turquoise of Petronas turned an okay design into a really strong one last year, they were right to keep it. But what were they thinking with that horrible Tommy Hilfiger logo? It’s not like Mercedes needed that little money for bread. 8/10

= Haas – Back to their original livery with some tweaks, it works really well. The US flag should be in colour, mind. 8/10.

5. Red Bull – The hue of the sickening pinkish red logo on the sidepod ruins it all. Also, it’s disappointing how they didn’t extract anything from the possibilities offered by the arrival of Aston Martin. A strong design otherwise, but also a case of what could have been. 7/10

6. Williams – The last Williams in white with Martini stripes, it’s not half bad, but it’s nowhere as iconic as the first one was in 2014. The black areas don’t seem to be designed at all, their only purpose is to hide certain part of the bodywork. (Which is a bit pointless, seeing as that Williams became one of the weakest cars of the field during the winter, it’s quite unlikely anybody is going to copy their solutions.) Should have tried shaking up the livery along with the changing of team wear. 6/10

7. Ferrari – The choice of red is wrong, the logo placement is wrong, the portfolio of their partners seems to be getting weaker. Plain airbox, plain rear wing, plain front wing endplates, what is this, a 2003 Jordan? Also, that gray stripe. 5/10

= Renault – Point off for the ridiculous flourescent shade of yellow from the launch pictures, for starters. The amount of black areas are just too much now, and I’m not impressed at all with cars that look like different cars from the front and the side. Both versions of their 2016 livery (the noir and the yellow) were easily better than this one. Decent sponsorship, though. 5/10

9. Sauber – They really should have just turned all blue surfaces to crimson from last year’s design. It would have represented some continuity, as well as some class. Also, their halo would have looked less bulky in carbon. A very poor attempt. 4/10

10. Force India – If you try to look like a ’98-’99 Williams in pink, expect the same treatment from F1 fans that those cars got. Some will like you, but the vast majority won’t. 3/10

1st- McLaren: I said when it launched that it would probably end up top, and sure enough it has. I agree that while the lack of sponsors on the side are annoying, overall it looks great. A better livery than last year? Debatable, seeing as the MCL32 had some design elements to its livery but for McLaren it’s just about perfect. Simple but effective. Hopefully they’ll be at the front of the midfield behind the big three, I’m predicting either 4th or 5th in the Constructors at seasons end (hopefully 4th).

2nd- Toro Rosso: Same as last year and just as gorgeous, will be really interesting (and potentially annoying) to see where they end up with the Honda.

3rd- Renault: Improving year on year, this car seems to be near the top in terms of livery in a lot of people’s eyes and it’s easy to see why. The yellow and black make for quite a menacing combo. Will be another dark horse this year, like McLaren.

4th- Force India: Much, much better than last year. I like the brighter shade of pink and I also like the white. Granted it looks like a sweet (I showed it to a friend of mine and she immediately compared it to candyfloss), but this stands out more than 2017 and is all the better for it.

5th- Red Bull: Still a great looking car, no change in the ranking compared to last year (like the top two), the Aston Martin logos are bigger which doesn’t do it any harm at all.

6th- Haas: I saw the livery when it launched and I immediately thought 2016. It’s as though they realised that last year’s liveries weren’t great and went back to their debut year and improved on that. And perhaps they have, it’s hard to tell as it looks so similar.

7th- Ferrari: I wasn’t a fan of the all red prancing horse the last time they did this (2007-09), and I’m not particularly enamoured this time around. I prefer the red and white Ferraris of the Schumacher era and since 2010, and now that’s gone (along with Santander) I feel like it needs something particularly on the wings, like McLaren have done with the blue. White, black, anything. Just put something on there (a sponsor wouldn’t go amiss on the rear wing either). The main bright spots are that it still looks as though they have a lighter shade of red and that they’ve retained the white fin.

8th- Williams: I was probably too harsh last year in placing the Grove sqaud bottom of the livery rankings, as the Martini cars do look nice and have done since the first one was launched in 2014, it was just that nothing really changed each year (kind of like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull over the last couple of years). It’s nice to see that they’ve done something to it this time, even if it looks a bit odd at first sight.

9th- Sauber: What happened here!? Last year’s car was really pretty, this one’s lost something. The colours themselves are fine, I like the red but they could have done something more with it.

10th- Mercedes: Not a terrible looking car by any means but I’m not sure about the black on the sidepod. It seems to overpower the turquoise while at the same time making them stand out. The turquoise lines looked good last year, but now it feels like they need more (although maybe not as many as the W08).