This time last year Red Bull gave us the awesome Camo Bull… then sadly (and predictably) didn’t race it. It wasn’t the first time though that an F1 team launched a kick ass testing livery only for the main one to be no where near as awesome.
BAR 1999
When British American Tobacco bought out Tyrrell to form BAR, they tested their new race car in this slick silver and blue livery. Fast forward to the big reveal though and BAR launched two separate liveries before getting a telling off and revealing the infamous half-and-half zip design.
BMW Williams 1999
Williams had a habit of releasing cool navy blue testing liveries only to launch a dull official livery. This striped design was used for when Williams were testing their new BMW engines for the 2000 season.
McLaren 2006
Seemingly before every McLaren launch there’s talk of whether the team will go back to their traditional orange colour scheme. While it won’t likely ever happen, they did run an orange testing livery in 1998 and then again in 2006.
Honda 2007
I know what you’re thinking, even a plain black livery would have looked better than the awful earth car. Yep…
Force India 2008
While this Force India livery might not be their best one ever, the smart maroon, gold and white livery certainly would have stood out on the F1 grid. Instead they raced a cluttered rocket red, gold, silver and white livery that wasn’t all that memorable.
Red Bull Racing 2015
Ah, the Camo Bull. Wasn’t it awesome? Finally in 2015, Red Bull released a crazy cool livery that you’d expect from a company that let people sky dive out of space and backflip motocross bikes while giving the devil horns. It was of course just a testing livery, and while obvious, people still got pissed when Red Bull released their standard livery ahead of the season.
What is your favourite ever testing livery? Share it below in the comments.