The F1 colour confusion that needs addressing

I expected chaos and glamour at the Monaco Grand Prix this year and both appeared on demand. It was my first time back in the principality since I was one of five drivers who could have won the chaotic 1982 grand prix that nobody wanted to win. The podium photos this year of Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri made me think of a lady I met in Texas back in 2013. She was confused then and probably still confused now trying to understand the great sporting platform that is Formula 1.

At the United States Grand Prix in 2013, I was sitting in a hospitality suite overlooking Turn 18 at the Circuit of the Americas, when a new F1 fan asked me how she could tell what car Lewis Hamilton was driving. I told her to look for the silver car with his number 44. I watched with her and looked carefully as the silver Mercedes cars flew around the corner when I realised the number was impossible to see, so I told her to look for his familiar yellow helmet colour. As a Mercedes darted by, one with a yellow helmet in the cockpit flashed past. I then looked at the TV feed showing that Hamilton was not on track but instead in the garage and now I was confused. After a bit of time I realised that Nico Rosberg had a yellow helmet while Hamilton, for that race, had switched to a red design. I tried to explain to my new friend that helmet colour was usually the best way to identify a driver, except for maybe today. She just shook her head and went to the bar.

For the following season, Rosberg changed his helmet base colour to black but on that day, a new F1 fan walked away to get a drink instead of watching what she deemed to be too difficult a series to follow. This was clear colour confusion.

Switching back to Monaco and F1 in 2025, the issue is even worse today. Amazingly, both Ferrari and McLaren drivers wore plain white driver suits in the principality. No iconic Ferrari red suits for Leclerc and Hamilton and no familiar papaya colours for Norris and Piastri. Did they lose their normal suits? Surely after Enzo himself spent a lifetime establishing the Ferrari red colours, no one would have plain white drivers suits without a good reason?

Zak Brown, as one of the brightest marketing and management minds in F1, has firmly established McLaren again as a recognisable and successful brand – in part through on-track performance and because of the reintroduction of the familiar McLaren papaya colours.

In Monaco after McLaren finished first and third, I was surprised to see Brown flanked by his two drivers during celebrations, he was dressed in his McLaren papaya colours but his two drivers appeared out of place in what looked like rushed replacement suits that a Formula Ford club driver might wear. The principality of Monaco was the perfect place to continue to further enhance brand awareness but instead, many new fans may have also experienced the Texan confusion from 2013.

A well-defined brand with established colours creates a deeper connection with fans. Ron Dennis was one of my favourite team managers to drive for in F2, but it was a mistake for him to surrender the papaya McLaren brand to a variety of sponsor colours because, quite frankly, sponsors never stay around forever. Conversely, poor branding is confusing because it lacks clarity, consistency and coherence. Mixed signals in visuals creates uncertainty.

Throughout the Monaco GP it was impressive what F1’s new owners Liberty Media have built and without a doubt what they have done for the series is amazing. They are top shelf franchise developers and have to be applauded for their efforts, as F1 has exploded in popularity in America and Asia in particular. There were familiar brands everywhere you looked in Monaco – yet the on-track product lacked clarity in some of the most basic areas.

Dare I say it, but Hamilton has been creating visual uncertainty with his brand in recent years. He is one of the greatest success stories ever in F1 but has lost consistent on-track brand colours. He started with a rich yellow helmet paying homage to his idol Ayrton Senna, and with this colour in the McLaren he was instantly recognisable. Through his most successful days, he literally threw away his established colour brand in favour of a white coloured helmet, then a lemon yellow/black version, then a black one followed by purple, then a multi-coloured rainbow piece – which deserved its own credit as a statement of support for the LGBTQ+ community in countries with poor human rights records – before reverting to yellow when he moved to Ferrari.

The red livery and driver suits are a core part of Ferrari’s brand, instantly recognisable and deeply tied to its heritage. Seeing Leclerc and Sainz in black carbon fibre-themed suits at Monza clashed with this tradition and diluted the celebratory connection fans craved, making the victory feel less quintessentially Ferrari

It is an issue spreading across the F1 grid. During the 2022 French GP, Kevin Magnussen had an on-track incident and after a TV replay, Sky Sports F1 pundit Paul Di Resta mistakenly identified the Haas driver in strife as his team-mate Mick Schumacher. He said he looked at the helmet colour to pick out the driver and added that with so many helmet changes you just don’t know what colour each driver might be running. This was a professional TV commentator, who knows everyone, and even he was colour-confused.

At last year’s Italian GP the Ferrari drivers turned up in black suits and there was no explanation beyond a ‘special’ look for the Scuderia’s home race. Leclerc won and as thousands of Tifosi fans, dressed in red with red Ferrari flags, looked up to the podium, their victorious hero appeared dressed in black.

Ferrari is synonymous with Rosso Corsa, Italy’s national racing colour, which has defined the team since the 1920s. Today more than ever, the red livery and driver suits are a core part of Ferrari’s brand, instantly recognisable and deeply tied to its heritage. Seeing Leclerc and Sainz in black carbon fibre-themed suits at Monza clashed with this tradition and diluted the celebratory connection fans craved, making the victory feel less quintessentially Ferrari.

In 2000, former McLaren team-mates David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen both refused $1million each from team boss Dennis to ditch their personal helmet design colours for team sponsors. Good for them, they both understood the value of well-defined driver branding through familiar colours.

The Tifosi celebrates a Ferrari win at Monza – but without a driver in red overalls on the podium

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Branding is vitally important in any sport or series, but I fear that F1 is not paying enough attention while it builds its new fan base in America.

Eleven years after my encounter with the Texas fan, we were back at the Circuit of the Americas and Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft was the latest to be confused. Live on air he thanked the teams for the confusion, as he tried to muddle through the livery and helmet colour changes. Alpine looked like McLaren with temporary added papaya colours, McLaren turned up with a chrome livery, while Max Verstappen had an new blue helmet. When the pros are confused, think of the rest of the people new to F1 who attempt to follow what is going on.

It begs the question, how do we stop it? Should Ferrari never be allowed to go away from red, not even for their drivers’ suits, so that the Monza or Monaco faux pas never happen again?

I still wonder if that fan I met at COTA in 2013 is still watching F1 in Monaco this year. Hopefully she was not looking for an all-silver Mercedes, or maybe she changed her allegiance to Ferrari and was looking to identify Leclerc on the podium by a signature red suit. If either of these scenarios played out, she probably switched over to watch something else instead. Maybe F1 lost her because she had to work too hard to become a fan.

Ferrari in red and Hamilton in a yellow helmet is a return to familiar colour branding for team and driver

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images