We’re back again for the second year to rank all of the Formula 1 liveries, this time for the upcoming 2022 season. There have been plenty of changes this year, both forseen and unforeseen, and there is one team who has been encircled in the winds of controversy recently, but we are close to the start of another exciting season. This list is of course nothing but opinion, and we encourage you to put your rankings in the comments below!

10. Haas

Haas is in a very interesting situation right now after they took their title sponsor off the car for reasons that I don’t have the desire to get into right now. At testing in Spain, Haas went with this blank white look that presumably will remain the same for the foreseeable future while things continue to be messy on the global scale, so that’s what’s being ranked here. It’s blank, and obviously, that’s not what the team had intended, but it’s what they are forced to deal with right now. It would come as no shock whatsoever if this livery was to be redone before the start of the season, particularly if there is another sponsor who comes in and wants their name on the car. It’s just blank, and unfortunately, it could be the death blow to Haas if no one steps up.

9. Alpine

Alpine actually unveiled two cars for the season, but we will focus on the one that they plan to use for the majority of races this season. Their car last season was alright but by the end of the season, I found it falling down my list. If you couldn’t tell, BWT is now sponsoring Alpine, and that means the car is partially pink now. The pink itself is fine, in fact, Racing Point’s pink liveries were among my favourite, however, the pink and blue combination is not working here whatsoever. This is just one of those cars that will likely be forgotten about, especially if they aren’t winning races this season, but its ugliness will leave me cringing all season long.

8. Williams

The good news is that I got my wish with Williams ditching the design they had for the 2021 season, but the bad news is that this one isn’t much better anyway. The awkward stripes at the back of the car we saw on the 2021 version of the car are gone, but they have been replaced with different colours of diamonds. Additionally, the one thing that I really liked about the old car was the massive ‘W’ at the top of it, but that has been changed and is now much too small for my liking. The orange/yellow has been replaced with red, and really, I’m not a massive fan of that either. This car is just okay, honestly. There’s nothing to be excited about here, and it’s a shame because Williams has so much history to look at and come up with a good design with.

7. AlphaTauri

I have no idea how to feel about this car, honestly. I neither love it nor hate it, but it’s just not anywhere near as good as their 2021 livery. Last year, I ranked AlphaTauri number one and the white wheels were a large reason for that, but this season, those are gone and I don’t like it. The design is just funky with its ramp-like sliver down the middle of the car and fully blue nose top, but the lines don’t make too much sense in my head. One thing I do still love about this car is the massive AlphaTauri logo at the back of the car. It’s prominent and has been a staple of the Red Bull cars for some time, but this logo is better than the Red Bull version in my opinion. Overall, this car is okay, not great, but also not bad.

6. Red Bull

Speaking of the Red Bull, here it is in all of its expected glory. What has changed? Outside of a couple of sponsors and a larger section of yellow on the nose cone, nothing, but that’s the way Red Bull works. There’s a reason for this, of course, and that’s because it works for them, and after winning a championship, why would you want to change much of anything? The look is iconic now for Red Bull Racing, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with it. So why do I have it so low on my list then? I just don’t think it looks as good on this car as it did the last. I think it needs some work to fit on this car as well as it did for the previous generation of cars, but it’s not bad either. Oh, that number one looks pretty good on Max Verstappens’ car, too.

5. Mercedes

I have seen plenty of people who think the silver is boring or dull, but I happen to disagree with that. The silver combined with the Petronas teal is bright, vibrant, and perhaps most importantly, different from anything else on the grid this season. I have one massive complaint with this car, however. In the unveiling, the sponsors at the back of the car meshed nicely with the Mercedes logo that is somewhat transparent, however, when they hit the track, there was no cut out around the sponsors and it looked clunky and as if it had been done carelessly. I’m giving Mercedes the benefit of the doubt and assuming that won’t be the case when they hit the track in Bahrain in a few weeks, but that has the potential to tank them in my rankings.

4. Alfa Romeo

I will start this by saying that I think this car could be better if it was entirely red, but much like last year, the Alfa Romeo is among my favourite cars on the grid. The candy red and white combination has scored high in my books for some time now, and while this car is drastically different from what I wanted to see, I really can’t complain about it. I wanted to see the Alfa Romeo logo at the back as we have in the past handful of seasons, by the wordmark on the back is really nice. The choice for the numbers is also spectacular, and while the white in the middle is not my favourite thing ever, it isn’t bad looking either. The wheel covers are quite cool as well, I just hope they don’t end up looking pink when the car is in motion. Lastly, my favourite thing about this car is the Italian flag on the rear wing. When Alfa Romeo ran their special livery at Monza last season, I knew I wanted to see more green from them, and this season, they have delivered with their green accents.

3. McLaren

McLaren is often looked at as the young kid in the Formula 1 paddock, but when they do things like this, it’s easy to see why. The team knows how to have fun, and they have built their driver lineup with two drivers who fit that theme tremendously with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and now, they have a car to go along with it. While many were hoping that the Gulf livery would be back full-time this season, McLaren found a way to incorporate elements that people liked from that car and still find a way to make it modern and cool. The brighter orange and baby blue are a very striking combination, but they work together phenomenally. The black is added to create some contrast and a good spot to place the sponsors, and the baby blue on the rims makes the wheels pop. Some people have a problem with the numbering being blue, however, numbers on F1 cars are hardly visible, to begin with, so to me, it’s not a big deal whatsoever. McLaren, you smashed it with this one.

2. Ferrari

You have to love the simplicity of what Ferrari brings each season. This car is no exception, and man oh man, this car is good looking. They have brought out a darker shade of red than we are accustomed to, but they haven’t lost the iconic Ferrari feel that we have always had. The single biggest change that we will see this season is an increased usage of black on the car, both in the numbers and the wings. The black makes the car look classic and although the numbers could be hard to read at times, that has never really mattered in Formula 1. For a team that has hopes of winning a championship this season, this looks like a car that could be worthy of it.

1. Aston Martin

This is what we’re talking about, Aston Martin! When they joined back into F1 before the 2021 season, this is exactly what people were hoping for, instead, we got a dull and bland green car with pink accent lines. It combined poorly and looked black on many camera shots, but this time around, Aston Martin appears to have gotten it right. The neon green/yellow that replaces the pink is vibrant, bright, and exciting, something that Aston Martin hopes their future in the sport will be described as. There just isn’t much about this car that isn’t perfect, and wow, they are going to look dazzling both under the sun and under the lights.

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