It’s quite pretty, actually – the white and red, as with last year, makes it look a bit too much like a Toyota, but generally it continues the evolution that last year’s livery went through over the course of the season, and I think it’s an improvement.

Although, with being a “sister” team of Honda’s, you wonder if they mightn’t have stuck an image of, say, Mars on the car somewhere…

The press release is here, with Colin Kolles admitting that “Whilst the bright orange was a very distinctive colour when you saw it in front of you in the garage or on the track, the colour didn’t transfer well when filmed”. Which is fair enough, and is indeed borne out by the way the car looked on some of the testing videos that are floating around on Youtube.

Kudos to Spyker for at least realising that the original livery didn’t work (although you’d think they might have been able to carry out some on-track testing before launch day, wouldn’t you? And it doesn’t half mess things up for those of us with lovely season preview posters from broadsheet newspapers…). As for the new livery… well, it’s alright. It’s not as striking as the old one, clearly, but it is at least still better than last year’s – the grey blends with the orange a lot better than the silver did, but I can’t help but think that black would be better still (remember how fantastic the Orange Arrows looked upon its first appearance in 2000, although that particular horse was beaten long past its death by the time the team folded). There’s nothing that really jumps out in terms of sponsor association, either, which is a shame – Spyker, with their friendly attitude and boundless enthusiasm, have done wonders to help rebuild the former Jordan team’s perception among the F1 fraternity in the wake of the Midland debacle, but they could still have done with forging a stronger identity and image.

Now, if only someone at Renault would have a look and follow their example…

Alternatively, someone high up in the team has simply gone bonkers. Or is perhaps on drugs. Anyway, I’ll stop waffling and give you the picture – we’ll find out on Monday if it’s real, and if so, there’ll be plenty of discussion then :

Remind anyone of anything?

Well, while it’s not exactly perfect, it at least demonstrates to Renault how it’s possible to put orange on a car and not make people want to throw up. Although, if anything, it is perhaps a little too orange in its patriotic fervour – a bit more black trim here and there wouldn’t have gone amiss, and as such it’s nowhere as lovely as this bad boy.

It’s an improvement on last year’s orange and silver job (which I didn’t hate as much as some, but which was a clear rush-job), and the chevrons are interesting, although I wonder how long they’ll last, and if a new sponsorship announcement is still forthcoming – I’ve heard rumours of DHL…

(picture from F1Racing.net)

It continues Williams’ recent tradition of having the nicest, smartest liveries on the grid; but weirdly, as I mentioned back when posting the leaked pictures, it actually feels more like a step back towards the 2001-05 BMW Williams livery. The shade of blue is lighter than on last year’s car, and the overall arrangement is more in keeping with that BMW design. I’m not sure it’s as nice as last year’s, but it’s still a good livery, which is pleasing to see when you consider how bad (or boring) some of the others have been this year.

The uniforms, too, are quite nice and simple – albeit with perhaps a bit too much white as opposed to blue. It’s interesting, too, to note the prominence that Lenovo get as opposed to title sponsor AT&T. It’s unclear as to whether or not this will be the car to help Williams bounce back from their 2006 slump, but it’s certainly a nice-looking one.

Meanwhile, two more launches have taken place since the Renault Monstrosity, but they were fairly devoid of interest so I didn’t report on them at the time, preferring to wait until the Williams launch to mention them. Honda launched their car, but we’re being forced to wait for their “dramatic” new livery (they’ve been running it in all black, which I’d be more than happy to see be the basis of the final look, actually – we haven’t had a decent all-black car since the gorgeous ’98 Arrows, and it’s about time); while Red Bull, as expected, launched something that looked almost exactly the same as previous years, albeit with a slightly different configuration of lines across the side and nose, and a new sponsor in the form of Metro. Nice uniforms, though.

Only three teams left to launch, now (along with the Honda livery, of course), over the course of February and March; and so, as the season starts to get underway, in addition to commenting on any changes that teams’ looks undergo, I’ll start getting to work posting some of the retrospective articles that I’ve got planned. I’ll be starting by looking at the histories of some famous teams’ liveries – so expect articles soon on Benetton, Jordan and Arrows…

(picture from F1Racing.net)

Here’s a hint, boys – when you’ve got a new title sponsor with new corporate colours, you don’t need to just try and fit them onto your existing livery, because it’s the ideal opportunity to get a new one. If they’re desperate to get their orange on the car, and you already have blue on the car, then drop the yellow. Don’t make it look like someone’s just glued two completely different liveries together. And also, don’t break the cardinal rule of having a light colour (the orange) crossing the white without a darker colour to bridge it.

The funny thing is, when the car first appeared under blue light, it was difficult to tell what colour it was, and it seemed like they’d gone for a fully dark blue and white colour scheme with hints of orange – and looked rather good (even if we really don’t need another blue/white car on the grid). Unfortunately, when the real colour was unveiled… well, I wasn’t at the launch, but I wouldn’t be surprised if mass vomiting was the order of the day. And I can barely bring myself to post pictures of the uniforms – remember when I said I thought the McLaren suits were the worst of all time? How very, very wrong I was…

Seriously, though, I would not be at all surprised to see this livery undergo a rethink when the Renault brass realise how bad it looks on TV cameras. As it is, the reigning Constructors Champions and providers of the Drivers Championship-winning car for the last two years suddenly look like a bunch of rank amateurs. Ugh.

In the meantime, though, it’s worth noting that both the main title contenders for this year have got new helmets to go with their new teams. Alonso, predictably enough, has removed the Mild Seven colouring from his lid with his switch to McLaren, but it’s disappointing that almost all traces of red and yellow have gone as well – the “Spanish flag surrounded by blue” had certainly become a signature look for him, and replacing it with the colours of his car means that he just ends up looking like a corporate slave to the team. Or, looking at that picture, Takuma Sato.

Kimi, meanwhile, had already ditched his trademark blue in 2006 to fit in with McLaren a bit more, so his new Ferrari design is more of an evolution of that, with more white on it. It’s a nice clean design, although it seems to me more than a little reminiscent of someone else who once drove for Ferrari…

I don’t know, though. Gone, it seems, are the days when each and every driver would have a distinctive design that they’d stick with throughout their career, no matter how it clashed with their current car. Great helmets – Senna, Hill, Mansell, etc. – can be just as effective and identifiable as a great livery, and it’s a real shame that so many drivers now feel the need to change their design from year to year based on what colour car they happen to be sitting in…

They haven’t even done much in the way of moving sponsors around! That’s a Toyota of a new launch, that is, pure and simple.

If these are fakes, they’re particularly good ones – so the smart money would seem to be on their being genuine. If so, it’s an interesting shift back towards the look of the 2001-2005 BMW years – but note the hint of the turquoisey blue from last year atop the sidepods and along the nose. It’s also intriguing just how little space title sponsors AT&T seem to command on the car – with far more prominence given to Chinese PC manufacturers Lenovo (they now make IBM’s Thinkpads, fact fans).

If this is real, I’m a little disappointed, to be honest. Last year’s Williams had probably the best livery on the grid, and this feels too much like a step back towards a look that had really run its course. Still, at the same time, it remains a very smart look, and it does positively cry “Williams”, at least. But we won’t know for sure if this is the final livery until the official launch on the 2nd of February!

Thanks to the Planet-F1 Forum for the scoop…