The person who looked at the intake of a Formula One car and said “That looks like a battery,” deserves a million dollars. There are some attractive racing paint jobs in the F1 world (or, liveries, as they like to call them), but they’re usually only clever when they’re trying to hide tobacco advertisements. This Duracell batter built into the top of the new Williams F1 car’s design is just so, so, so good.
F1 has leaned hard into becoming a reality show about luxurious people doing petty things while driving fast cars and, frankly, I’m here for it. If you only care about the racing you can be one of the 17 people who watch IndyCar, where the cars are closer in spec and the competition is way more egalitarian (at least by modern motorsports standards). This isn’t actually what the new F1 car will look, this is what’s called a “livery reveal” where they, uh, show off the livery. You’ll all notice Gulf Oil is back in the fold, albeit without the stripes.
Duracell’s bit is the best, though. It steals the show. I can’t imagine anyone doing anything better than this. Hopefully, when the actual car is shown it’ll still have the same intake shape.
The sport is slowly becoming more American, including the addition of an American driver to the Williams lineup in the form of Logan Sergeant. True to F1 form, Logan’s the nephew of a billionaire with a questionable background, so I’m sure he will get along great with the other rich kids. The other Williams driver is Alex Albon. “Drive to Survive” made me care for Albon, who sort of has has nepotism on his side (his dad raced), but clearly has had to work a lot harder than the other kids to get and keep a spot. It doesn’t even bother me that he now looks like a Swedish boy band reject with his silver-dyed hair. It’s his hair, he can do with it what he wants.
I’d argue the last time anyone was this clever in F1 was when tobacco advertising was banned from sporting events by the EU and Marlboro and Ferrari came up with the barcode workaround. I can’t imagine the EU is going to be mad at this. Also, congrats to Williams for scoring the first, and probably last, victory of the season.
UPDATE: Thanks to commenter sdstone for pointing out they did this once last year, too:
Has anyone noticed our special @Duracell livery for the #MiamiGP? ???? pic.twitter.com/l9SKd0ss2h
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) May 8, 2022
Photos: Williams F1
This would be perfect for a Formula E car… except they don’t have intakes.
Matt
Although I do enjoy a good ol barcode from Marlboro and Ferrari there is no contest between that and Eddie Jordan’s masterclass of turning
Benson & Hedges
Into
Be on edge
And yes he kept the spacing exactly the same
IndyCar is rock-n-roll. F1 is disco. Rock on.
This just means that by the end of the season, something will be leaking out of that intake and will inevitably ruin the car.
Okay, do I have to be the one to say it?
Considering that Williams has stunk up the place over the last few years, this could be a performance upgrade.
“I can’t imagine anyone doing anything better than this.”
Just wait until Fleshlight is a sponsor…
It’s F1, not “Monday Night Rehabilitation”.
Well Penthouse did sponsor Hesketh back in the day so…
xHamster sponsored the Promosport Racing cycling team back in ’16
https://www.mbr.co.uk/news/porn-website-sponsors-italian-mountain-bike-team-338599
My favorite blending of body work and a physical product is this 1972 Chevron B21 with Canon. It was perfect to make it look like film was loaded into the car.
https://adamsykes.co.uk/cars-for-sale/competition-cars/2016-chevron-b19/
Uh, Logan is the war profiteering billionaire’s nephew not son
Ah, yeah, fixed
So now nieces and nephews are infected? Good to know.
Some analogy about an apple and a tree. The exact wording escapes me ATM.
That car looks hot! I read somewhere that they might run full Gulf livery at some point this year too.
That is a good design. I love integrated designs/artwork and wish that motorsports would use it more. Duracell should be the KERS promotor for F1.
Count me in as one of the 17.
I love IndyCar and find it much more enjoyable to watch than F1. F1 at this point *is* kinda a reality show with some often fairly stilted racing thrown in.
I am sad though that Jimmy Johnson is giving up on IndyCar though and returning to the sweet-tea embrace of NASCAR (though I heard he’s doing some IMSA too). I really respected that he left something he was great at to learn something new; he may not have won anything, but his sense of sportsmanship and pure love of racing was a victory in itself.
Wow, so at least two of the 17 are Autopian readers! I too love IndyCar, it’s excellent racing and is still accessible in a way that F1 is not anymore if you like to go to races.
Make that 3! Indy has been the best in the past 6-8 years in terms of racing product
Lots more IndyCar fans here than 17, much less total. Not sure why it was necessary to take a swipe at another form of racing – maybe a bit insecure because in IndyCar you can’t predict the winner ahead of time, unlike F1? And before the mob chimes in, I watch F1 too. Although each year I keep wondering why, but at least the last couple we’ve had a few different winners there.
I like the cut of your jib.
What I esp. enjoy is IndyCar’s throwback-style lack of drama over anything but the actual racing.
The drivers and teams are usually laser-focused on the work at hand, and it’s odd when someone goes totally cuckoobananas over something. I mean, except Helio, and it’s always in a good way when he does.
TBH, I’m also a fan! Maybe we gotta have a meetup or watching party or something.
Meetup at Road America this June! Bring the Autopian RV.
IndyCar fan here too, though I much prefer the ovals to the road courses (which strike me as F1 Lite). Also, old dude yells at clouds…
4/17 now. The racing is just so consistently good, the only way to improve it would be to add another superspeedway on the calendar. I’ve been to the Nashville race for both years its been held and it’s been a lot of fun each time, especially since my favorite driver on the grid Marcus Ericsson won in 2021. I’m going to try and make it out to Barber in April if I can find the time for it.
IndyCar fan here as well. Lots of people turn their nose up and IndyCar, but I think these people forget how big IndyCar’s predecessor CART was before The Split. CART was WAY more popular in the States that F1 and was as big if not bigger than NASCAR.
They’ve still got some issues to sort out (and for the love of petrol can they please go to standing starts like a proper race series), but IndyCar’s star has been on the rise the last few years. They’ll have their largest full-season field in like a decade this year and the racing is still great.
If you want to convert someone, take them to the race at Road America. That usually does the trick.
Indycar is the best racing series that almost no one is watching.
IndyCar kicks ass. Upset with them for the iracing debacle, but the racing is phenomenal. Went to the Nashville race last year and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though that track is a bit of a shitshow lol. I was impressed with how cool the cars sound in person, way more crackly and snarly than I would have expected from how they sound on TV.
TV in general does a really poor job of translating motorsports sounds accurately into your living room. For a perfect example see: NHRA.
I agree with the live sound of a modern IndyCar though; I took my wife to her first race at Road America in 2020 and she did not expect the immediacy of it. It really conveys power on the edge.
Not sure if you’re old enough to have heard the last of the CART cars, but they were today’s IndyCars turned up to 12.
The rest of the livery is so ‘meh’ that all I noticed was the lack of Gulf colors. Completely missed that bit! Clever, but I’m also not going to be shocked if it disappears after testing is over…..
I agree it is a great livery, but they also did this last year:
https://twitter.com/WilliamsRacing/status/1523225916176232450