Haas livery launch, Royal Automobile Club, 2019

Haas reveals new livery for 2019

2019 F1 season

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Haas has revealed its new livery for the 2019 F1 season featuring the branding of title sponsor Rich Energy.

The car presented at the Royal Automobile Club in London on Thursday is not the VF-19 it will race in this year’s Formula 1 world championship, though it does feature a 2019-style wider front wing. The VF-19 is expected to appear in time for the start of pre-season testing on February 18th.

“We’re absolutely over the moon to be in Formula 1,” said Rich Energy CEO William Storey. “It’s a perfect platform for our brand.

“We’re looking forward to taking Red Bull on, on and off the track, and challenging them. We’ve got a perfect partner in Haas who I believe are the best-run team on the grid and we’ve got an awful lot in common as organisations.”

Haas announced last October it had secured backing from the British energy drink brand. It is believed to have beaten competition from at least two rival F1 teams who were linked to Rich Energy.

The American-owned, British-based team is heading into its fourth full season in F1. It has worked its way up the constructors’ championship standings during its first three seasons, rising to fifth last year.

The team has retained its driver line-up of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen for a third consecutive season.

Video: Haas reveals new F1 livery for 2019

Pictures: Haas reveals new F1 livery for 2019

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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85 comments on “Haas reveals new livery for 2019”

  1. Dam that’s nice

  2. It’s rather like Grosjean’s old Lotus livery.

    1. @hove9 – agreed, it reminded me of that.

    2. Ah so now we know where the money is coming from……….does anyone have a light?

  3. Well that’s…ok…I guess. Not great, not offensively bad.

    1. lets face it, everything about Haas is just vaguely dull

      1. @mrboerns: Indeed. Black is the new gray.

  4. Not bad given that I like black cars… the 98 Arrows, the first Sauber…

    But what is it with Haas and its liveries? why do they make it so basic? appart from the lines at the nose, it’s basically a black car with lettering.

    1. everything is a billboard

      1. @johnmilk you mean blackboard :P

        1. The chalk they’ve used is not regulation though. Principal Todt might have to take action against Mr. Steiner.

    2. I’m also a fan of the 1998 Arrows; though I’d say the 1999 edition with the Repsol orange was tastier! One of my favourite seasons of all time livery-wise, with the Arrows, Prost, Jordan and Sauber painters bringing all kinds of colours with them.

      1. Don’t forget Williams! Red, white, yellow and blue all on one car!

  5. I rather like this, I have wanted a black car which resembles more the sauber C12 than another car trying to run a JPS livery so I am rather happy with the amount of gold they are running.

  6. Not bad. Nice color!

  7. I think this is rather smart. Entirely expected since the day they announced the new sponsor, but it’s neatly executed and I do like the black.

    I like a black livery if the other teams are bright… a fleet of black/grey/white cars doesn’t excite me!

    1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      7th February 2019, 11:23

      we can expect Renault to use a decent amount of black as well, even though they’ll complement it with vibrant yellow, and Red Bull will likely have a very dark car too, albeit with the characteristic splashes of Yellow and red.

      1. Yes, I think it was a few years ago (maybe 2016) when we had Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, Haas and Force India all with a fairly dreary white, grey/silver or black livery.

        I mainly just like variety, which is why I hope to see the pink Force India/Racing Point still on the grid; though I’ve heard rumours it won’t be (pink that is…).

  8. Looking at it in the flesh, it’s a big improvement over what they had before. I don’t think the gold lettering will show up well on television though. Which is probably why haas have got their logos in white.

    1. Good to hear it’s an improvement @keithcollantine; I myself am rather relieved it isn’t too much faux-JPS livery but still in the HAAS mold, even if the nose changed from red/grey to goldish, and apart from the mirrors it’s just the lettering, and logo on the halo (that bit is clever). Though I have to admit, it is still a bit, well solidly unspectacular looking. I think that’s fitting with the image HAAS wants, but wonder how that suits Rich Energy.

      I agree with what you say about the gold lettering – there’s a reason the Enstone Lotus quickly switched to pale yellowish instead of gold, so it was visible on TV; wouldn’t be a surprise to see that happening here either.

    2. @keithcollantine good point about the gold… maybe as @bosyber says, they’ll tune it after they see it on the telly.

      Although it was fairly easy to improve what they had, tbh!

    3. Oh, good to know I wasn’t the only one who hated their battleship gray colour palette.

      I really liked their smart driver kit (black with bits of red/white), though; it was just the car that looked boring from ahead. Granted, their 2017 looked boring from more angles!

  9. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
    7th February 2019, 11:21

    Looks better, and I like that they have got some more sponsorship presence

    doesn’t look much like the Haas we knew tho

  10. Absolute meh

  11. Not too bad, but could have been so much better. The ‘Peak’ logo looks so out of place and ruins an otherwise fairly clean design.

    The implementation of the Rich logo (aka ‘Whyte Bikes’) is inconsistent too – the emblem appears above, to the left and to the right. When it’s on the right, it reads as ‘Richy’.

    1. Oh yeah, I wondered why the logo seemed familiar… it’s incredibly similar to the Whyte logo, wonder how they got away with that!?

      1. They haven’t, yet – Whyte are taking them to court apparently.

    2. That’s major rip off! I didn’t know Whyte Bikes, great tip.

      1. There’s two more offshoots to the horns on the extreme right and left, so I think Rich Energy is safe. /s

  12. I love this time of year and I had high hopes as it is black and gold, the colour men of a certain age remember from f1 cars of their youth. I blame CAD but they’ve blown it.

  13. Disappointing, the concept liveries that Rich Energy were posting on their social media were far nicer :(

  14. At 160mph, even in HiDef, it’s going to look like a black car with HAAS written on the side.

    The quotes from Rich Energy don’t placate any fears that the product doesn’t really exist; “The detractors have never met me” is not exactly multinational CEO speak.

    1. On the livery – I wonder if that’s exactly what HAAS intended :p

      Ahm, yeah, those quotes. I still wonder whether HAAS got a covered check, and where that money comes from, but I guess it’s not my problem :)

      1. @bosyber @bernasaurus Yawn at those comments. Sure Haas are stupid enough to put someone’s logos on the car that they’d yet received a payment from… yeah right! I guess that’s why Gene Haas is a billionaire and you’re armchair experts. Some CEO’s cultivate a non-corporate or even anti-corporate image that’s all. Richard Branson is another example like that.

        1. Well, at least they have a fan then @montreal95 and you yawned strong enough to then respond.

          I have nothing against Haas, he seems a smart and capable guy. I do think that the image he wants is a bit solidly, capably boring (as their livery showed), and at the same time plucky, American upstart team; doesn’t quite match what Rich seems to go for, so in that respect it is a bit odd.

          But, I ‘d guess he saw a kindred spirit in Storey, and I am sure he has got some solid money before committing. Still remain sceptical obout goals and setup of Rich Energy though, and Storeys bluffing comment only accentuate my doubts.

          But I won’t buy any caffeine/sugar unhealthy energy drink anyway, so it doesn’t affect me personally, and nor does Haas F1.

          1. @bosyber Don’t drink energy drinks and not a fan of the Haas team. However an F1 team getting a solid amount of sponsorship money is always a good thing whether it suits the image or not. Whatever, the point of my reply was the sort of comment like “Oh the CEO’s comments don’t inspire confidence his product exist” or “did Haas get the check upfront”. Well no one cares if you’re not confident because his comments were not made for you. And who are you to question Haas financial acumen, they do all right without the armchair experts auditing thank you very much. It’s just very easy making comments on the internet everyone is suddenly an expert in everything right?

  15. Was fan of previous greyish liveries but this one looks decent. Kudos for Rich Energy logo placement on Halo – perfectly fitted. Lotus comparison is obvious, can’t deny that, but also reminds me McLaren MP4-30/31 a little bit.

    Wonder if this colour scheme will play out as “Black Arrow” during broadcast…

    1. Lewisham Milton
      7th February 2019, 12:33

      They’ll have to be careful how they say “black Haas”. Everybody’s matey Crofty will be able to chortle at his own joke all year if he thinks of that one.

  16. I don’t know whether I should like it because it looks similar to an old Lotus, or whether I should not cause I it just looks too… dark?

    Eh, guess I’ll wait to how it looks on TV.

  17. A decent livery color scheme, although I slightly prefer the previous grey/red/white combination.

  18. Best livery of 2019 so far! The images they posted online are of the 2019 car right?

  19. From the text above:
    “However the car presented at the Royal Automobile Club in London on Thursday is not the VF-19 it will race in this year’s Formula 1 world championship. That is expected to appear in time for the start of pre-season testing on February 18th.”

    1. That was supposed to be a reply to @kpcart

      1. I know that the car presented was a show car from 2018, but motorsport.com says they released photos of 2019 car online.

      2. @squaregoldfish check the new article, I was right.

        1. Nothing like smugness… ;-)

  20. Is HAAS only team to not utilize the sidepods for title sponsor?

    1. Haas is using F1 to promote their machine tools, so technically Haas is the title sponsor of Haas. Rich is just coming along for the ride.

  21. Like a fancy black coffin.

  22. Well I didn’t even notice the halo at first so I like it

  23. Underwhelmed.
    I was expecting more from the marketing input by Rich Energy (you won’t succeed selling sugary drinks unless you’re an ace at that).

    Of all the sponsors only HAA5, Jack & Jones, and PEAK stand out.

    PS I assume the Rich CEO wasn’t present given the strict dress code ;)

  24. There’s something about this that’s so black, it’s like how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.
    Nigel Tufnel

    Well, almost ;-)

    1. Hay you should’ve seen the previous f1 car they had on the stage. It was so bad people were still booing when Haas’ car was wheeled on

      1. You should have seen the car they wanted to do.

  25. A bit too much black for the JPS look, but a great looking car none the less. Shame it has to come through the charlatans of Rich Energy.

    1. What makes them different then other capitalist companies already in f1? Red bull for starters, also an energy drink.

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        7th February 2019, 13:04

        Red Bull had a successful energy drinks company before venturing into F1.
        Rich Energy appear to be trying to do it the other way round.

      2. Nobody has ever seen a can anywhere, let alone someone drinking one. They’re jumping in with Coke (Monster) and Red Bull but with money from the ‘Dildo Brothers’, who’s wealth isn’t going to make a dent in a market they’re at least 10 years too late to jump into. It’s got disaster written all over it, until someone actually spots a can.

        1. Well they have the funding so who cares. I don’t care for any companies, and I would prefer car manufacturers didn’t have so much power in f1.

        2. Having “Fyre” documentary seen recently, I won’t be surprised if Rich Energy at some point would turn out to be not so rich…
          I mean being able to pull out scam of this caliber would be quite achievement, but I think there is nothing those shady CEO’s can’t do these days.

          1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
            7th February 2019, 14:20

            CEO William Storey reckons the companies detractors are ‘living on another planet’, and ‘not in possession of all the information’, but as a UK registered company, their information is publicly availalbe.
            Their website boasts a ‘£50m manufacturing facility’ yet they have declared £1.7m total assets.

  26. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    7th February 2019, 12:32

    I’m dumbfounded this day has actually arrived. Looking forward to the familiar Haas livery later in the season.

  27. I noticed that they have moved the mirrors further outboard, But did they not move them inboard in 2010 (In both F1 & GP2) because drivers complained they didn’t have a good view of the outboard mirrors?

    If I recall the problem was that with them on the side of the cockpit drivers can get a glimpse of a car having a look to get alongside them in there peripheral vision but when they were mounted outboard until 2010 they didn’t have any sight of the mirrors unless they actually glanced over at them which was leading to situations where drivers were been suddenly surprised finding a car alongside them which was leading to some silly looking accidents.

    1. You know this is not the 2019 car, just the livery…

      1. Look at the released renders, it’s the 2019 car. Keith just put another article up to reiterate that. The car at the presentation was a 2018 show car.

        1. Persistent fellow, aren’t you…? ;-)

  28. For a while there were whispers rich would replace martini as Williams title sponsor… I can’t imagine the comments if Williams had this livery. I actually like it, but reading the comments above…

  29. Wow I love it. The grey they had before was disgusting.

  30. [I]Macross 7 intensifies..!![/I]

  31. The video of the unveiling is pretty amazing:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrBWoMqpVI

    Guenther Steiner, the only F1 team manager unwilling to spout a bunch of press-release BS about the synergy between their new sponsor and the team. Love him.

  32. You really never know how the F1Racefans set are going to react.

    I scrolled down expecting praise heaped upon praise sprinkled with adoration. But.. Not so.. More of a MEH..eske response.

    IMO it looks like a car livery that hasn’t been corrupted by a committee of competing sponsors and ticks many of the boxes I like.. Simple, old school and aggressive but that’s just my opinion

    1. +1 – I thought it looked good. Much better than bland grey.

    2. Its a missed opportunity when the colours of the title sponsors give you an easy win. This is a comments section, people gonna comment, its all IMHO, that’s a given. No need to say it twice

      1. What do you mean by easy win????

    3. The association with “Rich” does cheapen the livery. I was initially judging the livery on face value. Interesting that it would influence people’s (including mine) opinion.

  33. They should put that haas logo in gold too.

  34. Rich energy, poor livery.
    If only it was golden with black details…
    But no. A car to confuse with Renault, which will probably come black as well.

    Glad that Haas is making some bucks, though.

    1. Renault should be yellow, the predominantly black livery of previous Renaults was because of a disgusting sponsor JPS tobacco. Renault’s normal corporate colour is not like rich energy or JPS.

  35. too safe.. I like black and gold but not this… I would have liked to seen flat/mat black like what RBR did.

  36. It’s alright, but boring really. That logo is begging to be much bigger, could spread out from the nose and down along the sidepods.

  37. Bort (@alsonamedbort)
    7th February 2019, 15:29

    Ew.

  38. Hmmm, not sure how I feel about black, gold and white. It’s different I suppose. Perhaps it’ll look better on the new car.

  39. I wish the HAAS logos were given a thin outline in the gold, or Haas red, to make them pop a little more. Otherwise, not bad.

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