Sauber has presented its new livery for the upcoming season at a launch event in London.
The team which competed as Alfa Romeo last year has officially rebranded as Stake F1 Team for the 2024 season and entered its car under the identity Kick Sauber.Despite its latest change of name, the team will continue to use the same naming convention Sauber adopted before it entered F1 in 1993 with its C12. The team has only revealed its new colour scheme today and is yet to present its latest chassis.
The change of identity follows Alfa Romeo’s departure from F1 at the end of last year. However its is only due to last for two years until Sauber becomes Audi’s works F1 team in 2025.
Audi purchased a minority shareholding in the team at the beginning of last year. It is due to enter F1 in 2026, when the series revises its power unit regulations.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will continue at their drivers for the third year in a row. The team finished ninth in the constructors’ championship last year.
Technical director James Key, who rejoined the team from McLaren last year, described the C44 as “virtually a completely new car.
“The team had to take an ambitious direction well before I joined,” he said. “There are many mechanical changes, some of which you can’t see at all, but some are very visible.
“The front suspension is completely new, a tough and ambitious project for a team of our size, there are many aerodynamic changes, of course, as would be expected given that this remains the primary area of development – so, overall, the car will really look quite different to last year’s car. We took a lot of new, exciting directions, all of which appear to hold quite a bit of potential, so we’re looking forward to seeing them on track.”
Pictures: 2024 Sauber F1 launch
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Ciaran (@ciaran)
5th February 2024, 19:35
Dire and gaudy – I kind of love it for that!
BasCB (@bascb)
6th February 2024, 7:00
yeah, and it will be easy to recognize on track.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
6th February 2024, 8:18
@bascb or is it the latest attempt of a team greenwashing?
More seriously it’s nice to see some new colours coming to the grid. Initially found it a bit simple but eventually reminded me of old video games sprites and it works.
Pironi the Provocateur (@pironitheprovocateur)
5th February 2024, 19:38
Very cheap. Neon can be so futuristic and original, yet here it looks like a standard photoshop job done by a beginner.
Gthek
5th February 2024, 19:41
Looks like a standard livery in the F1 23 game.
BamBoomBots
5th February 2024, 19:42
0 255 0 summarises this one pretty well.
PacificPR (@streydt)
5th February 2024, 20:02
Just the G without the RB (and you can’t win without that)
SteveP
6th February 2024, 18:08
Are you suggesting that you can only win if you’re white? :)
f1alex (@f1alex)
5th February 2024, 19:43
Has “backmarker” written all over it
Yellow Baron
5th February 2024, 23:07
Any team that uses black or white as their main “colour” is absolutely garbage. There’s no such things as a livery in F1 anymore.
Other than mercedes TBF because they did it first and not for weight saving reasons. They also didn’t try make it a livery by having a black car with a few silver stickers on it. Now indycar also has better liveries than F1, alongside better racing.
It’s not a racing car without a proper livery. And if it’s the same basic idea as half the grid it’s not much of a livery either. No kid is watching thinking wow I love that black car because it has bright orange stickers instead of bright green!
S
6th February 2024, 1:50
Indycar has always had better liveries than F1.
The ‘corporate factor’ in F1 has always held back visual design creativity and freedom.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th February 2024, 5:09
The Mercedes cars would disagree
Yellow Baron
6th February 2024, 7:01
Shame you can only read one paragraph at a time before commenting.
Do you know the meaning of main?
I guess you didn’t read the whole thing so you missed the point as well.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
5th February 2024, 19:44
Flow-vis won’t be much use on it.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
5th February 2024, 20:01
they can always plaster it on the tires or near the radiator ducts.
DaveW (@dmw)
5th February 2024, 19:44
Kick Sauber. I can’t wait to hear what Brundle does with this one and I dread Croft’s coming comedic stylings.
dot_com (@dot_com)
5th February 2024, 20:26
I live in constant dread of Croftys ‘comedy’.
Kristian
5th February 2024, 19:46
Are you sure it’s only a livery reveal? Side pods and front nose looks quite different from Abu Dhabi last year.
dot_com (@dot_com)
5th February 2024, 20:28
I think it’s a car launch, although I’m sure it will change significantly before Bahrain. The Williams launch was just a livery reveal.
AlanD
6th February 2024, 2:13
Knowing the F1 mindset, it is probably an “accidental” reveal of the 2024 design, so that rival teams will waste time pouring over it, only to find that when they turn up at the first testing session that it is identical to almost every other car, and suspiciously similar to the 2023 Red Bull.
f1alex (@f1alex)
5th February 2024, 19:47
Also, no amount of Stake logos will hide the lack of sponsorship. That front wing especially looks incredibly bare, not a great sign. I know sponsorship isn’t everything especially nowadays in the new franchise model, but it just screams “team that is treading water until Audi arrives” to me.
Jere (@jerejj)
5th February 2024, 19:52
I immediately started to like this livery design. The green fits perfectly.
SteveP
5th February 2024, 20:16
I may have to watch on radio if they show that on TV regularly.
osnola
5th February 2024, 20:24
Agreed,
Jungle
6th February 2024, 6:33
Reminds me of the Kawasaki green they use to race with in yester year
black (@black)
5th February 2024, 19:52
Well other than the team name which is ridiculous, as a livery it’s nice. Not perfect sure, but at least it’s not a generic boring grey/black/white/blue livery that fades into the back of the field, light green will definately set them apart from the rest of the field
If only Alpine dropped their livery and got re-rebranded as a yellow Renault once again, then we’d have a nice colorfull field.
PS : FIA should really make something, either about the weight that forces every team to use endless black carbonfiber, or at least the should limit how much bare carbonfiber each team can use… almost all cars are mostly black to save weight, it’s getting farcical.
MichaelN
5th February 2024, 19:57
Now imagine it without the background and the nice green framing. It’s so poor and basic.
Why are teams so bad at this? Teenage gamers making custom designs in Forza do better.
And; another backmarker team with basically no sponsors somehow being a better entry than Andretti. Nice!
SteveP
5th February 2024, 20:33
I think they would be well advised to sell up to a major motor manufacturer and become their works team. How about you?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
5th February 2024, 20:02
looking at it’s boot you can tell it’s dire straights.
ady (@sixwheeler)
5th February 2024, 20:30
After the dull Haas and even duller Williams, this is certainly something a lot more fun
Vegggen (@vegggen)
5th February 2024, 20:43
Team green, nice.
I imagine this is pretty close to how a Kawasaki F1 car would look.
Vegggen (@vegggen)
5th February 2024, 20:49
It even has a K on the nose…
OK, none of that stakekick nonsense, I am going to refer to them as Kawasaki this season.
MurasamaRA300 (@murasamara300)
6th February 2024, 7:48
+1 for Kawasaki. That K on the nose clinches it.
It just works. It’s a works team! :D
(And that “cash app team” shall be called Minardi.)
PlosslF1
5th February 2024, 20:56
Its got the Xbox colour scheme…
SadF1fan
5th February 2024, 20:58
Something recognizable from a mile away. Smart choice!
Forrest Gump (@forrestgump)
5th February 2024, 21:16
VB is going to look very cute in his neon green “undies”
;-/
“and that’s all I have to say about that”
Forrest Gump
Asd
5th February 2024, 21:19
I appreciate they didn’t go for the painfully generic colour strip along the top of the nose.
Neil (@neilosjames)
5th February 2024, 22:21
My initial reaction was ‘ugh’ but after a few minutes it’s grown on me. I appreciate the fact that even if we get Spa 1998 rain with Brazil 2023 qualifying light levels, I’ll still be able to recognise the thing from a thousand metres away.
That can only be a good thing.
An Sionnach
5th February 2024, 22:26
Looks better on video than in the photos, but the Jordan 191 it ain’t. Should be faster and more reliable, though!
Dex
5th February 2024, 22:41
As ugly as they could manage, I suppose. I know we live in a “digital age”, but I don’t see why visual design has to suffer so much because of that.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
6th February 2024, 0:51
Genuinely, I really like this. We need more liveries that stand out. This combination of fluro green and black is an excellent one. 7.5/10, and the only thing stopping me from rating this higher, is the recent trend of not painting the cars properly.
1. Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber – 7.5/10
2. McLaren – 7.5/10
3. Haas – 5/10
4. Williams – 5/10
F111111111111
6th February 2024, 6:58
Ugly… that green color tone of choice hurts my eyes, imagine when its very sunny… lol
that’s like puke green…
amateur level design screams the heck out of this
Ludewig
6th February 2024, 11:49
Not really that bad IMO. It’s a very visible color, but they use it fairly sparingly. It’s a new color as well, which is good for recognition.
From a technical perspective it is a smart design, allowing bare carbon in many places, but still not being at all just a black or dark car.
Peter707
6th February 2024, 12:21
Like the Kawasaki colour combo!