We'll have to get used to it.
Formula 1 cars are getting darker and darker.
This year, Haas, Sauber, Williams, McLaren, Mercedes and even Red Bull are presenting single-seaters with numerous black elements on the starting grid for the 2024 season. A question of look?
Not really.
Besides, it's not really black, it's raw carbon fiber, just not covered with paint.
A choice from the teams to gain performance.
Since the new technical regulations in 2022, manufacturers must play with the minimum weight of the car: 798 kg.
So when we know that the paint on a Formula 1 car can weigh almost 6 kg, each less brush stroke can make it lighter.
Sauber all in black… and fluorescent green!
The solution was therefore to keep this raw carbon fiber on many parts of the car.
At the start of the 2023 season, Aston Martin technical director Andy Green estimated that removing the paint and displaying bare carbon fiber would save around 350g.
Sauber's 2024 livery is black and fluorescent green.
2024 Icon Sports
We are therefore very far from the arguments of 2020 and 2021 when Mercedes displayed a Silver Arrow painted entirely black to support the “Black Lives Matter” movement in which Lewis Hamilton is known to be very involved.
Tested in 2023, this carbon fiber fashion has convinced all the teams, even Ferrari has abandoned a little red on its front wing.
Read alsoFormula 1: RB20, W15, SF-24… The single-seaters on the grid in images
Obviously to the great dismay of marketing managers.
Sponsors still find their place but certain cars are less and less recognizable from a distance.
Others have found the solution like Sauber which sports a striking fluorescent green in addition to black.
Enough to do double duty, at least in the look!