When you’re Ferrari, you have a mostly red Formula 1 car. When you’re Mercedes, you have a mostly silver Formula 1 car. When you’re any other team with a long history in F1, you draw inspiration from whatever aesthetic came before you (like McLaren’s Papaya Orange), add a pinch of newness to make it feel fresh, and call it a day. But what exactly do you do when you’re new to the game? That’s the challenge Audi faced when it came time to design its first-ever F1 car.
Audi unveiled its new F1 contender, the R26, on Wednesday and demonstrated that a livery featuring simple shapes and three basic colors (I’d even argue that it’s actually two, since the “black” is essentially a dark carbon weave) can create a stunning race car. And while it’s bizarre to call Audi “new” when it comes to competing in any form of motorsport, the truth is that there’s never been a Formula 1 car with four rings on its nose. And no, the pre-war Auto Union Grand Prix cars aren’t considered F1 cars, merely because the Formula One World Championship didn’t exist until 1950.
So, how did Audi’s design team go about creating a livery that not only paid tribute to the automaker’s rich racing heritage but also moved things forward? After all, the R26 signifies a transformation for the brand—if not a complete renaissance. Audi’s lead designer, Marco dos Santos, shared his design process with me as he navigated the exciting yet monumental task of decorating an F1 racer.
“Our first point to start from was to take a long and good look at our own history, to understand what made us great in all the other racing series we’ve competed in—but also, what will make sure that we can keep on striving for greatness,” dos Santos told The Drive. “So this is the first step, and then we figure out how to expand on that.”
Now, from where I’m sitting, it would’ve been super easy to do a retro livery and make the car liquid silver—especially given that Mercedes’ racer gains more black and turquoise every year and less silver—so something à la pre-war Auto Union Type C would’ve definitely worked out. However, according to dos Santos, that wouldn’t have explored the limits of his team’s creative freedoms, and there was always a desire to explore something new as much as there was nostalgia about the brand’s former famous race cars.
“What’s made Audi great through the years is that we continue to push the limits—that’s our overall philosophy. Obviously, there are many guardrails to consider when approaching a design for an F1 car,” he added. “It’s an extremely specific architecture, very specific topography, but luckily enough, Audi has a lot of cool things from the past to twist and to build on.”
“We had to understand that the racecar is a design object first and foremost—there’s a purpose to every part of the body, that’s why we cut through it [with colors] the way that we did. We color-blocked it. For example, this is why you can see how the carbon fiber matches the engine cover exactly, where the sidepods are being divvied out with the Audi Lava Red. We tried to have a look that screams performance engineering, while keeping an aesthetic that matches the overall Audi spirit.”
As for the colors, what appears to be a gunmetal-ish grey in these photos is actually a very silky-looking hue called Titanium, which debuted in the Concept C car back in September. It adorns the front wing, nose cone, driver cell, and approximately 70% of the sidepods. From there, the Titanium gives way to Audi Lava Red, which provides the livery with that pop that will help it stand out on track, and perhaps more crucially, on TV. What appears to be black is actually a very dark exposed carbon fiber pattern, which covers most of the engine cover and the entire rear wing. Lastly, the Audi rings on the nose and the rear wing are also finished in Lava Red.
If you remember the great Audi prototypes that dominated Le Mans in the 2000s, you’ll see some resemblances in the color palettes. However, the methodology for displaying these colors is completely different. Whether it’s the Audi Quattros from WRC, the R18s from Le Mans, the S1 Hoonitron from Gymkhana, and even the Q8 e-tron from the Dakar, there are many elements from all of those historic machines present in the new R26, though it still feels like its own, new thing and not something upcycled.
After enough serious talk, I bluntly asked dos Santos how much fun he had designing his first-ever F1 livery. His eyes lit up.
“It’s unreal. It is an unreal thing to get to do this, and it’s a huge honor,” he said. “And I also have to add that, man, the coolest thing is not even being able to get to have a hand in this, but working with those crazily hyper-obsessive F1 people that you meet along the way that are so, so, so dialed into different aspects of an F1 car.”
“Like, when it comes to materials, when it comes to performance, there are people who are so great with translating things from 2D to 3D, how to match the character of something, surface finishes, other aspects of a car—like, it’s mind-boggling. Yes, I’m happy to contribute in the design area, but that’s really the coolest part of all this,” he said.
“Are you going to be just a little bit sad when you see this beautiful design covered in sponsor stickers?” I asked.
“No! I already know how it looks, and it’s going to be great, man.”
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As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive’s short- and long-term coverage.
