Updated: 2021 F1 cars and liveries

Update: Which is the best 2021 F1 livery?

Updated 9:15 Thursday 11^th March 2021. With all of the 2021 F1 car liveries finally unveiled, we were wondering: which is your favourite? For Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Alfa Romeo it's more or less business as usual. Ferrari, however, has added a splash of green, AlphaTauri has done something similar but different, Williams has designed its livery on a sugar rush, Haas took a flag for inspiration, while Alpine and Aston Martin have all new looks to go with the new team names. So which do you like the most? Vote below!

When are the new 2021 Formula 1 cars being revealed?

All of the 2021 F1 cars have now been driven in anger. The first car to be unveiled came from McLaren, followed by AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo, Red Bull, Alpine, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Williams and Ferrari. Haas was the final team to launch its 2021 contender, showing the livery first on a 2020 car before revealing the real deal at pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Below you'll find links to galleries of every F1 car for the 2021 season. 

Update: Watch the 2021 Mercedes F1 W12 reveal

Updated 10:45 Tuesday 2^nd March. The first of a busy week of 2021 F1 car reveals is the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance, and the wonderful ladies and gentlemen at the team will be streaming the car’s reveal on YouTube. We’ll hear from drivers Lewis Hamilton, set to be gunning for his eighth world championship, and Valtteri Bottas, aiming for his first. Straight-talking team boss Toto Wolff will be on hand, too.

Update: Haas VF-21 launch date

Updated 10:00 Thursday 25^th February. The Haas F1 Team will reveal its new car, the VF-21, on Thursday 4^th March. The online launch will start at 08:00 GMT, with viewers hearing from team boss Gunther Steiner and its 2021 drives, including 2020 Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher.

Update: Aston Martin F1 car named AMR21

Updated 10:00 Thursday 25^th February. After a deal of speculation, the Aston Martin F1 team has announced its 2021 F1 car will be the AMR21. The chassis nameplate was revealed in a short video online, ahead of the car’s launch on Wednesday 3^rd March. The AMR21 name is a departure from Aston’s former naming structure, as Aston’s 1950’s F1 car was called DBR4, the DB standing for ‘David Brown’, then the company’s owner. Aston’s other racers also followed the same naming structure, including the DBR1 with which Stirling Moss won the World Sports Car Championship at Goodwood in 1959.

Update: Watch the Alfa Romeo C41 launch live

The McLaren MCL35M launch and the AlphaTauri AT02 reveal were relatively sedate affairs. The former involved the drivers but no cars, and the latter wasn’t a launch at all, just the release of a handful of images. The Alfa Romeo C41 reveal, however, with pianos, smoke machines and dancers, promises to be something very Italian, even if the team is based in Switzerland…

Update: Red Bull RB16B launch confirmed for 23^rd February

Updated 14:45 Friday 19^th February 2021. The Red Bull RB16B will be launched on Tuesday 23^rd February, it has been announced. The RB16B, a development of the 2020 RB16, will be shown for the first time as part of a digital reveal from the team’s HQ in Milton Keynes. The team’s drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will be on hand for the launch, as will team boss Christian Horner.

Update: Aston Martin F1 car launch date

Updated 17:00 Tuesday 16^th February 2020. Aston Martin, formerly Racing Point, has announced that its 2021 F1 car will be launched on Wednesday 3^rd March at the road car company’s Gaydon HQ.  Both of the team’s drivers will be on hand for the reveal, namely former Racing Point driver Lance Lance Stroll and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, having left Ferrari at the end of the 2020 season. It’ll mark more than 60 years since Aston Martin competed in Formula 1. 

Update: Alpine A521 launch date

Updated 15:30 Tuesday 26^th February 2021. Just hours after McLaren became the first team to unveil a 2021 F1 car, Alpine has announced it will launch the Alpine A521 on Tuesday 2^nd March. The team won’t just be launching a new car, but a new name too, as the Enstone-based team has flown the flag for Renault since it took over Lotus in 2016. As Daniel Ricciardo has moved over to McLaren there was a vacant seat alongside Esteban Ocon, which was duly taken by Renault’s 2005 and 2006 world champion Fernando Alonso. The team is currently without a team principal following the departure of Cyril Abiteboul in December, although ex-Suzuki MotoGP team boss Davide Brivio has been brought on as Alpine’s Racing Director.

Update: Watch the McLaren MCL35M launch live stream

Updated 18:00 Monday 15^th February 2021. McLaren is set to unveil its new Mercedes-powered MCL35M this evening, and you can watch the McLaren live stream with us here. You’ll hear from 2021 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl. We’ll have a full story on the car for you once the covers have been pulled away.

Update: Williams FW43B launch date announced

Updated 12:00 Friday 5^th February 2021. Another day, another 2021 F1 car launch date, this time from Williams which has announced it will reveal the FW43B on Friday 5^th March. Although the FW43B is a development of the 2020 FW43, it’s a big deal for Williams, chiefly because it is the first Williams F1 car to head out onto the track without a member of the Williams family at the team’s helm. The Williams family, including founder Sir Frank and Deputy Team Principle Claire, left the team in 2020 after a takeover by Dorilton Capital. The 2020 season was also the first in which Williams failed to score a single point, something the team will certainly be looking not to repeat as it looks ahead to 2022, with an entirely new set of technical regulations on the cards and an expanded technical collaboration with seven-time constructor’s champions Mercedes.

Update: AlphaTauri AT02 to launch 19^th February

Updated 14:30 Thursday 4^th February 2021. The AlphaTauri AT02 will be revealed on Friday 19^th February, the team has confirmed. AlphaTauri finished seventh in the 2020 constructors’ championship after a number of top ten finishes, including a shock win at Monza for Pierre Gasly. The 24-year-old Frenchman will line up on the grid alongside his rookie team-mate Yuki Tsunoda after Daniil Kvyat was dropped after the end of last season.

Update: Mercedes W12 to launch 2^nd March

Updated 12:10 Tuesday 2^nd February 2021. Formula 1’s 2020 champions will reveal the new Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance on Tuesday 2^nd March in a virtual launch. Mercedes is only the third team to confirm a 2021 F1 car launch date, after Alfa Romeo (22^nd February) and McLaren (15^th February).

In a statement, Mercedes said: “The designation 'E Performance' is the new technology label used in product names and badging on all forthcoming Mercedes-AMG hybrid cars, with the W12 being our first Formula 1 car to feature 'E Performance' in its name.”

The W12 will be a development of the W11, the car that took Lewis Hamilton to his seventh drivers’ title and the team to its seventh consecutive constructors’ championship. The coronavirus pandemic meant the new set of radical technical regulations due for 2021 were pushed back to 2022, giving teams some technical, and therefore financial, breathing space. In an attempt to increase competitiveness across the grid, however, a number of rules have been put in place to reduce car performance. The W12 therefore is expected to be more than a second slower on an average lap than the W11.

Update: McLaren to launch MCL35M on 15^th February

Updated 10:10 Thursday 28^th January. The McLaren MCL35M will be revealed on Monday 15^th February at the McLaren Technology Centre. The Mercedes-powered MCL35M will debut at 19:00 with the team’s latest signing Daniel Ricciardo alongside Lando Norris. McLaren is only the second team, after Alfa Romeo, to confirm a date for their F1 car launch.

Update: Alfa Romeo C41 launch date

Updated 15:30 Wednesday 20^th January. Alfa Romeo has said it will reveal its new F1 car on Monday 22^nd February in Poland’s capital Warsaw. Set to be named the C41, even though the 2020 car was the C39, Warsaw has been chosen as the launch location as the title partner ORLEN is based in the city.

Update: Alpine previews new livery theme

Updated 13:00 Friday 15^th January. Alpine has given us a teaser of its 2021 livery, or rather previewed some design assets we can expect to see on the A521 this year.

“The livery presented today is the first evocation of the Alpine F1 team’s new identity,” said Antony Villain, Alpine’s Design Director. “Some of the structural graphic elements will remain on the racing livery while others will change. The ‘oversized’ Alpine emblem in a tricolour graphics system is the first clear-cut symbol of the brand’s identity in motorsport. The blue, white and red refer to the colours of the French and British flags, which is very important to us. Numerous variations on all the motorsport assets are still to come.”

The final Alpine 2021 livery will be revealed in February.

Update: Aston Martin ditches pink for British Racing Green

Updated 7^th January 2021. The new Aston Martin F1 team has announced that American IT company Cognizant will be the team’s title sponsor for the 2021 F1 season, bringing with it a change from the bright pink livery it had used under its previous name, Racing Point. The bright pink colour scheme was introduced in 2017 when Austrian water company BWT became the title sponsor of the then Force India. As Force India became Racing Point, under the new ownership of Lawrence Stroll, the ‘Pink Panther’ livery remained, and when another major sponsor, betting firm SportPesa, quit, pink became the sole livery colour. The team will be known officially as the “Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team”, and the new colour scheme? British Racing Green of course. Aston Martin previously announced that it would reveal its new livery in February and has now added that the new car will be unveiled in March before pre-season testing.

How many F1 teams are launching cars?

There were ten teams and 20 cars on the grid in 2020, and for various reasons 23 drivers occupying those race seats. For the 2021 season there are new F1 drivers and established names in fresh overalls, but as in 2020 there are 10 teams.

What F1 rule changes are there for 2021?

There are some key rule changes that will affect the 2021 F1 cars. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting financial strain put on F1 teams and other businesses, the big F1 car rule change that was scheduled for 2021 has been pushed back to 2022. The knock-on effect of that means 2021 F1 cars will be developments of those from the 2020 season. The FIA wanted to see a 10 per cent reduction in downforce to reduce tyre wear, so aerodynamic devices like holes and vents on the outside of the floor have been outlawed and the floor must be cut diagonally 1,800mm back from the front axle. There must be less flex in the floor, too, down from 10mm to 8mm when a 500Nm force is applied. The rear diffuser must be simpler, too, as must the ducting in the rear brakes.

The minimum F1 car weight is up for 2021, by 3kg from 746kg to 749kg, with the minimum weight of the power unit up to 150kg to stop engine suppliers spending money on new hi-tech lightweight materials. Then there are the materials teams can use, as the FIA has opened up the rules to allow the use of bamboo, cotton, hemp and linen.

What else in F1 will be different in 2021?

The provisional 2021 F1 calendar is a record-breaking 23-race marathon, or at least it will be if COVID does the decent thing and goes away. Before the season kicks off, though, the new cars need to be revealed to the world. And it’ll feel quite different to 2020. For the first time in the team’s history there will be no one from the Williams family at the reveal of the Williams FW44, as the team found new ownership mid-way through the turbulent 2020 season. Renault F1 becomes Alpine, meanwhile, and Racing Point becomes Aston Martin F1.