F1 2025 livery predictions: Red Bull grant Verstappen’s wish; McLaren, Hamilton go retro?

On paper at least, F1 2025 car launch season should be one of the most memorable of the modern era.

For one thing, Formula 1 will host its first-ever collective season launch event attended by Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and the rest in London. For another, the sport has been eager to clampdown on the dull, exposed-carbon liveries of recent years for the new season. All sounds very promising – but how will it work in reality?

Tell us your F1 2025 livery predictions

McLaren MCL39 to embrace Singapore 2024 white

Each season there comes a eureka moment when a one-off livery almost accidentally ends up capturing an F1 car in its fullest form.

In 2023 it came in Las Vegas, where a few simple flashes of white took to the Ferrari to a whole new level aesthetically.

Sure enough – and as predicted here a year ago – Ferrari realised they were on to a good thing and incorporated more white into the design of the 2024 car.

All change for F1 2025 as Lewis Hamilton replaces Carlos Sainz at Ferrari

👉 Lewis Hamilton now finally has a chance to escape the ghosts of Abu Dhabi 2021

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Last year that moment came at the Singapore Grand Prix, where in conjunction with a sponsor McLaren ran a so-called ‘Legend Reborn’ livery in a nod to the Marlboro-branded cars of the 1980s and ’90s.

Finally, the MCL38 looked just right.

If commercial factors are to forever rule out a return to the red-and-white colour scheme of old, this – a classic look with a modern twist – was the inch-perfect compromise.

If F1 really is determined to signal the end of the bare-carbon livery, this mix of orange and white – a consistent theme on the team’s social media channels over the winter – is the ideal look for a confident, self-assured, title-defending McLaren team.

Wishful thinking? Maybe.

Red Bull to join the exposed-carbon gang with the RB21

Ideally, an F1 livery should be like any other form of sports attire: roughly consistent colours and themes, but with enough variation each year to easily differentiate one season from the next.

That’s where Red Bull have gone badly wrong with the matte-blue cars since 2016 and why one of the most striking and iconic liveries in F1 history now looks weary and often goes unappreciated.

Even Max Verstappen is sick of it these days, revealing recently that he hopes for something “a bit different” for F1 2025.

His wish will be granted – albeit not in the way he might expect.

Red Bull were among the teams to resist the exposed-carbon look in the early days, nobly refusing to chip the paint off even when running a heavily overweight car in early 2022.

Yet something changed last year.

As the title race intensified, and their advantage over the opposition evaporated, Red Bull’s plans for one-off liveries in Singapore and Austin were shelved over fears that they would have added excess weight to the RB20.

It was a luxury Red Bull could no longer afford, a sign that something that had not previously been a consideration for the team was now at the forefront of their minds.

Suddenly, marginal gains mattered.

Having lost their way so spectacularly last year, Red Bull will enter F1 2025 under more question marks than their closest competitors.

With everything to prove as they begin life after Adrian Newey, the new technical team led by Pierre Waché will take no chances.

Red Bull will finally turn to the dark side, becoming the last team to admit defeat and prioritise performance over looks.

Mercedes to retain black in W16 Lewis Hamilton ‘tribute’

Lewis Hamilton’s exit leaves Mercedes in quite a difficult position when it comes to the livery of the W16.

The natural thing to do, of course, would be to return to the team’s traditional silver colour in a heartbeat.

But do that and you’ll soon have the mob at the door, accusing you of treating Hamilton’s off-track campaigning over the last five years as a mere fad, as if you always intended to sweep it under the carpet the moment he walked out the door.

Now they’ve gone black, Mercedes can’t really go back.

Not right away, anyway. At least until F1’s new era arrives in 2026 and Hamilton’s time at the team recedes into the memory.

Toto Wolff recently confirmed that Mercedes will retain a black element in their F1 2025 livery, saying of Hamilton’s impact: “He’s a global phenomenon.

“For sure, he played a role in positioning the Mercedes brand a little bit more edgy, a little bit more contemporary and extravagant.

“But then the impact he had on the team in terms of diversity — we have a large part of our population today from under-represented groups, and it’s going to make us strong, because it’s different cultures, different perceptions and perspectives.

“He made us kneel when we needed to do it, he helped us to do the car black and it’s going to stay black.

“We’re not bailing out of there.”

Brace yourselves, then, for the same kind of guff Red Bull spouted in early 2015 when Christian Horner tried to convince the world that the short-lived ‘CamoBull’ livery was inspired by a funky helmet design Sebastian Vettel, who had joined Ferrari over the winter, had worn the previous season.

Yeah, right…

Williams to make the most of ‘Red 55’ as Carlos Sainz arrives

Is Carlos Sainz the most important driver signing in the modern history of Williams?

James Vowles seems to think so and the arrival of Santander on a multi-year sponsorship deal 24 hours after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix appeared to confirm it.

A driver of Sainz’s profile and calibre – only three drivers won more races than him in F1 2024, after all – has the power to be a transformative influence and open doors.

There will be a distinct Spanish flavour at Williams this year and it would be a shame if it is not reflected at least somewhere in the colour scheme with increased flashes of red on what is expected to be called the FW47.

The pièce de résistance?

It has to be a big, red ’55’ with a white outline on the car’s nosecone, with Sainz’s driver number offering a wonderful to chance to nod to the team’s past with ol’ Red 5 himself, Nigel Mansell.

It’s too good an opportunity to miss.

Lewis Hamilton to bring back the yellow helmet at Ferrari

Who says driver helmets can’t be included here too?

There is an unmistakable sense of Lewis Hamilton going back to his roots in F1 2025 by reuniting with Fred Vasseur, the man who oversaw his breakout title-winning GP2 campaign of 2006.

Almost 20 years on, it will be just like the good ol’ days when Lewis and Fred take on the world together again in F1 2025 – except this time they’ll be doing it on the greatest stage of all.

If it is too much to ask Hamilton to revert to being Lewis Hamilton: Racing Driver this year – discarding all the nonsense that comes with being an F1 superstar in 2025 and revelling once again in the simple joy of driving, racing, competing – a return to his classic yellow helmet design would resemble an easy win.

Having been an ever-present fixture during his McLaren days, Hamilton has not worn his classic yellow helmet on a consistent basis since his fourth title-winning season in 2017, competing over recent years with some fluorescent-yellow/purpley thing.

All very profitable when it comes to mini-helmet sales, no doubt, but it just isn’t Lewis Hamilton.

It’s time, at last, to bring back yellow.

And not just any yellow, either, but Ferrari yellow. Modena yellow. The yellow against which the horse prances on the Scuderia’s shield.

Make that a reality and Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, a partnership that still sounded alien this time last year, will instantly look like they were always meant to be.

Read next: Five ridiculously early F1 2025 predictions: Hamilton’s Ferrari debut, World Champion picks