Ricciardo said of the design: “Over the years we’ve seen fashion brands join forces with F1 teams and drivers, especially when it comes to outfits, but never have we seen any of them take this step in full immersing themselves on track too.
“We’re really raising the stakes here and paving the way, showcasing that there’s so much more that can be done for brands to explore. I think we’re definitely going to open the eyes of these fashion houses and see more fashion-inspired liveries come to life.”
Tsunoda added: “Fashion is one of my passion points, so to see our team collaborating in such a unique way, beyond our team kit and our daily HUGO outfits is super cool, especially since no one else has ever done it before.
“Doing something like this is a real reflection of our identity and creativity; at VCARB, we’re looking to speak to fans from all industries: art, music, fashion, so this is a real step towards everything we’re striving to do as a team.”
Meanwhile parent team Red Bull Racing was planning to run special liveries at Singapore and U.S. Grands Prix this season, but this idea has been shelved. With Red Bull’s sudden performance drop off in the latter half of this season, it has decided to stick with its regular livery for the remainder of the season for fear of the extra weight of its planned looks. As it turns out these fan-designed liveries would have weighed an extra 2.2 pounds over the standard RB20 livery, and they can’t risk the performance drop, estimated to be around 0.03 seconds per lap.
I, for one, hope that more teams experiment with fun and interesting partnership tie-ins in the future, because that’s how the world has gotten some of its best liveries.
