Another year...same old liveries

With the first Formula 1 car launches little more than a week away, excitement is building. But we already know what the majority, if not all, of the cars will look like.

We're not talking on a technical level, but in terms of the liveries. While there might be some shifting of the silver used, or a more Honda-influenced design on the McLaren, most car colours will be unchanged from 2014.

There are sound corporate reasons for this. But like most good, corporate reasons, that also leads to a certain dullness.

Take Red Bull for example. Its cars have looked much the same in terms of livery since 2005. Fine, the car went a bit purple when Infiniti got more involved a few years ago, but that was hardly a revolution.

Red Bull has a strong, clear brand and its race cars reflect that. But the fact is that its 11th F1 car will look much the same as all the others.

Even when things do change, often they are minor details, the odd shade here and there.

BMW has used 'art car' liveries to boost publicity at Le Mans © LAT

For the 2014 season, there was one very obvious shift. Williams switched from the dark blue that had been its colour since the end of its BMW partnership to a white-based Martini livery.

That gained huge publicity thanks to a combination of the return of an iconic racing brand and the fact that the visual identity of the Williams had become something far more interesting.

Beyond Force India changing its livery, which was nice enough as far as it went, that was about it for the F1 field.

Yes, some of the details changed, some of the sponsor decals were different, but the identity of the team in the mind of the fans was unchanged.

That's a good thing in certain circumstances. But not if your identity is very flat. The Sauber is another car that has changed a little over the past few years, but the main talk tends to focus on whether the car features black, very dark blue or dark grey.

This problem extends beyond F1 and into all of motorsport. How often does a really eye-catching livery get unveiled that takes your breath away?

Usually, it's the return of an iconic livery such as Martini (Gulf is another one that always looks good) that stirs the soul. Beyond that, it just tends to be same old stripes, same old understated colours, different day.

A decade ago, I was at the base of a well-known touring car team that was having decals applied to one of its cars. The person who was doing the work bemoaned the fact that, over the years, the liveries applied had become less interesting. And this was at a team that actually had a neat design on its car.

There are, of course, exceptions. Every now and again so-called art cars crop up. But they are usually short-term designs that don't embed themselves in your memory.

There are good reasons for this trend. Racing teams are now multi-million pound operations with investors, partners, sponsors, brand ambassadorial roles and their own corporate identity to serve.

It simply is not a case of one artistic individual coming up with a design that they think looks good, slapping on a few sponsor decals and then being good to go. Inevitably, the approval systems that need to be gone through to get a livery signed off lead to any degree of originality and individuality being strangled.

After all, for something to be art, it needs to have an impact. And if it has an impact, it will be a positive one for some, a negative one for others.

But at a time when F1 teams are struggling for sponsorship, often with vast empty spaces behind sponsor names that are often bringing far less cash than they once were, surely there is a window of opportunity for some imagination?

While there are no liveries in F1 that are offensive, few stir the soul. Perhaps a sport that is struggling to maintain the number of eyeballs needed to justify the spending needs to have a rethink about this.

Jordan built an identity from its colour schemes in the late 1990s © LAT

Imagine how much publicity a car would get if it was revealed with a genuinely impressive livery? The worldwide coverage would be enormous.

And imagine if that eye-catching visual can be used to build up a following around? Jordan did that pretty well with its yellow cars of the 1990s, and some clever touches to the livery that made it stick in the memory.

There are impediments to this. F1 persists with forcing teams to run the same livery across both cars. This was what prevented BAR from running one car in Lucky Strike and the other in 555 livery as planned when it entered F1 in 1999.

Perhaps such a move would leave a little more room for originality. And what if a team without a backer that demands too much control over its livery decided to invest in running multiple designs through the season?

With a co-operative portfolio of sponsors, could it be possible to have its looks changed every few races, each time gathering more interest, greater fan engagement and worldwide publicity every time?

It might not be possible, but at least F1 teams should have the scope to pursue this. After all, NASCAR teams can run multiple liveries, with each individual entry having its own identity. Those, too, can vary from race to race.

With sponsorship becoming harder to find, perhaps it's time not only for F1 teams, but those across many racing categories, to have a serious think about ways to ensure their colour schemes are imbued with greater artistic merit.

After all, they say the car is the star. Why send out your leading stars clad in sackcloth and ashes?