The 10 best motorsport liveries in 2024

1. Proton Competition (Porsche 963)

Racing in WEC

F.A.T. International was a trucking company in France, it sponsored Porsches from the Group C 962 through to the absolutely-not-Group C Dauer of 1994. The company no longer exists as its original concern, but the brand has since been bought by a member of the Porsche family and resurrected to do all sorts of cool things.

The coolest of these is to sponsor Proton Competition’s Porsche 963 which will be racing in the World Endurance Championship this year. It looks incredible. And, while we are happy to admit there is probably a whole load of nostalgia in that opinion, if you go back and read our article on the greatest liveries of all time you’ll see that it conforms to our rules for great liveries. Simple colours, simple patterns and big blocks of it. Lovely.

Before we move on we should say that it was quite hard to pick one car from Proton Competition to put in this list. The team has two 963s, one for WEC, one for IMSA, both look amazing (the second returns the Mustang Sampling brand to sportscars), and it is also running a couple of Ford Mustangs in GT racing, again one in IMSA, one for WEC, and both look stunning. Congratulations must go to team boss Christian Reid for being this bold.

2. AF Corse (Ferrari 499P)

Racing in WEC

Doesn’t matter how many times you try to argue that a racing Ferrari must be red, there are so many excellent non-rosso racers that the argument falls flat.

The latest is AF Corse’s privately-funded entry to the World Endurance Championship in 2024. While it is perhaps a little disappointing that the third Ferrari 499P is just the inverse colour scheme of the factory effort, rather than carrying some new livery, it’s still awesome. Having seen 499Ps racing all last year clothed in red with a little bit of yellow, to see the secondary hue take control is a masterstroke. Yellow is in fact just as important to Ferrari’s history as red, just look at the badge, but it has been a rare occasion that the team itself has gone far enough in bringing the sunnier colour onto its cars.

We can’t wait to see the AF Corse car cruising around Le Mans with Robert Kubica and the wheel.

3. Tickford (Ford Mustang)

Racing in V8 Supercars

Jumping down under we get to a bit of a classic. Castrol has a strong brand identity, and perhaps an even stronger link with motorsport. At every Revival, you’ll see someone walk through the paddocks, pause, raise their head to draw a large amount of air through their nose and just mutter ‘Castrol R’. It’s ingrained in motorsport to an extent.

In the Australian Supercars Championship, which for the purpose of it being what everyone knows the championship as we will call V8 Supercars from now on, Tickford is the latest team fortunate enough to be able to cover its cars in Castrol colours.

There is a slight change to the traditional. Castrol now has a new font. But we would argue that that actually makes this better. The font is crisp and clear, feels nice and modern without going too far and works well down the side of a V8 Supercar. The mixture of red, green and white across the rest of the car, matching Castrol’s latest logo and used in large blocks rather than staccato slashes, works brilliantly.

4. RB (VCARB 01)

Racing in F1

Our one concession to Formula 1 on this list is for Minardi. Yes, this year’s RB is frankly the best-looking car on the grid, sticking to a simple mixture of three main colours and not trying too hard to plaster them all over the place. The first renders that AlphaTauri showed us didn’t look that good, but it turned out there was a simple fix. All that the team from Faenza needed to do was reduce the weight of the red lines that separate blue from white and it worked beautifully.

We’d argue that this is the best livery a Minardi has worn since the famous yellow, black and white of the late ‘80s/early 1990s, and it just looks better than the rest of the field. The old AlphaTauri-sponsored livery worked quite well, but let’s be honest it is nice to see Toro Rosso back, because the mid-2010s liveries from that midfield team just worked well.

Hat tip here to Ferrari, which has added just a touch of yellow to its livery in a way that works very nicely, but it doesn’t get onto this list purely for not being bold enough.

5. Maserati (Tipo Folgore)

Racing in Formula E

This addition to our list is actually inspired by Williams recent testing exploits. In Bahrain Williams deep blue livery was absolutely covered in flow-fiz for a good portion of the first day. The colour of flow-viz chosen could best be described as ‘peach’ and covered the whole front wing and much of the front of the car. And it looked good. So good that we thought Williams should switch its paint scheme there and then to this new mix.

Well, it then occurred to us that there is already a team using this colourscheme. And that is Maserati in Formula E. Those of you stifled from watching Formula E this year due to its move to yet another paid channel, might not have seen the 2024 look for the Maserati Tipo Folgore, but it is simple yet effective. The majority is blue, but at the rear it blends into a peachy sort of orange/brown. It looks quite a lot like a reversed flow-viz Williams and we like it. The simple white pinstripes separating parts of the cars also work delightfully.

6. Wall Racing (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo)

Racing in GT World Challenge Australia

Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik is not a name that either trips off the tongue or you should really know. But if we shorten that to the initialism BASF, then it might trigger the memory of some motorsport fans. Back in the day BASF sponsored a few racing cars with a trippy red-and-white livery made of concentric circles.

In Australia Wall Racing has long run a livery reminiscent of this BASF design on its Lamborghini Huracan GT3s. For 2024 it’s retained this initial idea, but shaken things up as it moves to the Evo version of the racing Huracan. Teaming up with Australian artist Jason Christopher the trad circles have been played with, dancing from thick to thin and they move around the car.

We wouldn’t say it’s necessarily better than the original, but the change has far from ruined a classic. The car looks fantastic and did look great during the Bathurst 12 Hour.

7. United Autosports (Oreca 07)

Racing in IMSA

I (and I say I here because some in the GRR office, who apparently lack either taste or the sense of vision, disagree with this) think that the livery United Autosports has chosen for its McLaren 720S GT3s in the World Endurance Championship is disappointing. It’s just the same as all the other sodding ‘official’ McLaren liveries this year. BOOOOORING.

And what makes it worse is that United Autosports not only has a cracking ‘standard’ livery, but is running one of the best schemes you’ll find in 2024. I’m pretty sure that we’ve already said that Wynn’s sponsorship brings one of the best palettes you’ll see in racing. Purple, yellow and pink. It just shouldn’t work. But it does, and oh so well. And with Ben Keating racing for UA in LMP2 this year, that excellent design is now on a prototype again.

I think that the mix chosen for the Oreca 07 that United Autosports and Keating are racing in IMSA this year is one of the best we’ve seen. And I’ve had the fortune of seeing it in person at Daytona, where it looked spectacular. My only complaint is that Ben is racing a Corvette in IMSA as well and hasn’t brought Wynn’s with him for that. Just imagine it, a C8 GT3.R in that livery…

8. AO Racing (Porsche 911 GT3.R)

Racing in IMSA

Do we really need to say much about this? Yes, Spike looks really cool as AO Racing’s LMP2 car, but Rexy is the OG. It’s still the most innovative and impressive livery motorsport has seen this decade and long may Rexy live in IMSA.

I’ve seen people complain about Rexy. It’s childish or some such rot. But there has never been a livery to bring as much positive attention to motorsport? Certainly never one to help kids fall for racing cars as much as Rexy. It’s genius.

9. 23XI Racing (Toyota Camry)

Racing in NASCAR Cup Series

Bubba Wallace and 23XI racing have benefitted from support from McDonald’s for a few seasons now – and a little extra exposure in NASCAR: Full Speed can’t have hurt things. But largely the liveries that partnership has brought have been, well… meh.

At Daytona this year 23XI and McDonald’s got it totally right. Three simple blocks of colour, red, yellow and black, arranged down the side of the car with few attempts to overcomplicate it. It was perfection on a Toyota Camry. Yes, the sister car of Ty Gibbs looks pretty cool with its Ketchup-based design, but I prefer Wallace’s design. It’s just cleaner.

Wallace will run other liveries this season, including one from his primary sponsor, the US Air Force, which could be interesting, but it will take some going to beat the one he raced with in the big race.

10. Alpine Racing (Alpine A424)

Racing in WEC

Just where the F1 team has got it totally wrong, the Hypercar outfit gets it completely correct. The Alpine A524 F1 car looks, quite frankly, crap this year. It looks like a good livery was on that car and then stripped away completely. Even BWT’s vivid pink hue can’t save what is a lacklustre look. I mean, for goodness’ sake, the 0.001 seconds it saves a lap will not make a difference even in F1.

The hypercar however. That is a chef’s kiss of a livery. Mostly that delightful Alpine blue, with a convergence into red at the rear, and even with blue, red and white on the wheels for an extra splash of colour. We love it. It helps that it’s on a damn good-looking car, and that the Alpine ‘A’ logo will always look cool, but we will not tire of seeing the A424 flying past at WEC rounds this year. Alpine has always had a certain amount of style to it, and the A424 just confirms that it’s one of the coolest brands around.