After Red Bull’s stunning ‘camouflaged’ livery was unveiled for the pre-season tests in Jerez, many Formula One fans were thinking of a time they saw such a great ‘one-off’ livery. Here are five one off liveries which got the whole community talking.

5: Red Bull – 2007 British Grand Prix – ‘Wings For Life’

As Red Bull’s famous slogan goes, Red Bull ‘gives you wings’, and the team chose this special one off livery to raise money for the ‘Wings For Life’ charity. Driven by David Coulthard and Mark Webber, the RB3 was coated in images of 30,000 fans. The fans pledged and donated to ‘Wings For Life’ and were allocated a spot on the car. The aim was to raise money and to reach a target of £1million pounds. Coulthard could only manage 11th while Webber retired eight laps in with a hydraulics issue. Red Bull have continually made special liveries for the British Grand Prix, such as 2012’s brighter blue livery.

4: McLaren – 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix – Yellow McLaren

This image isn’t distorted, there was genuinely a yellow McLaren. Formula One fans of the 80’s will be familiar with the Marlboro McLaren link. In the 1980’s McLaren's cars were donned in red and white Marlboro cigarette branding, and they dominated the period. Drivers such as Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won titles for them throughout the 80's and early 90's. However the team tampered with the colours for one race in Portugal. To promote Marlboro’s new ‘Lights’ brand, McLaren changed their cars from red and white, to yellow and white. Driven by Prost and 1982 champ Keke Rosberg, Prost managed second place while Rosberg retired after 41 laps with an electrics fault.

3: BAR Honda – 2004 Chinese Grand Prix – ‘555’

The 555 brand is more well known for its rallying success with Subaru, with the famous blue and yellow sponsored cars dominating the 1990’s, however BAR are now a team familiarised with the brand. In 1999 when BAR launched, they tried to race cars with two separate liveries, one in the 555 colours, and another in the Lucky Strike cigarette brand. This notion was denied by the FIA and they decided to run a ‘zipped’ car, which incorporated both liveries. It’s thought that due to then BAR boss David Richards’ well known association with Prodrive, a sponsor of Subaru’s WRC team, the 555 deal went through. Also the brand is significantly more familiar in the far east, compared to usual sponsors Lucky Strike.

2: Ferrari – 2001 Italian Grand Prix – Black Nose

Ferrari removed all sponsorship for the 2001 Italian GP.

Five days before the Italian Grand Prix, we saw the terrifying events of September 11th 2001, also known as 9/11. In the aftermath, Ferrari decided to pay their respects to the dead with a one off livery which removed all sponsors from the car, and a matte black nose replaced the usual red nose cone. Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher tried to organise a pact, with one of his reasons being due to the 9/11 attacks. These were denied and the race went on as usual. Schumacher finished fourth and team mate Rubens Barrichello finished second in what was described as a sombre affair, and understandably so.

1: Lola – 1997 Australian Grand Prix – One Race Failurpe

Lola's one race tenure ended in a rather ugly livery.

For the 1997 season, Lola, long time engine manufacturers felt like taking a step up and becoming a full works team for the new season. However their car was grossly uncompetitive, not only that, but the livery was a terrible mix of colours. MasterCard were the title sponsors of the team and the car was a mix of blue, red, white and orange, and was in basic terms, an eyesore. Neither Vincenzo Sospiri or Ricardo Rosset could manage to qualify within the 107% rule, being 11 and 13 seconds behind the polesitter, and so this ended Lola’s ill-fated career, with their livery being the most memorable thing.

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About the author
Aaron Irwin
Formula 1 editor, Football League co-editor at VAVEL UK. Writer since July 2014. Hull City correspondent. Currently studying for a Journalism degree at Hull School of Art and Design.