Excitement and disappointment collide as Matt and Tommy react to the launch of Ferrari's new F1 car. The duo dives into the car's livery, expressing concerns over the excessive use of white, which they feel dilutes Ferrari's iconic red identity. They discuss the implications of sponsorship obligations, particularly with HP, and how it affects the car's design. While they appreciate the overall aesthetic improvements compared to last year, their passion for the traditional Ferrari look shines through as they debate the balance between branding and heritage.
Just when you thought the Ferrari couldn't look any less Ferrari... they've managed it. And now we've seen this year's car, someone is not happy...
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"And of course, we all know that HP are still very much prominent as a sponsor at Ferrari, so you don't have the highest of hopes ever."
HP means horsepower, which is a way to measure how powerful a car's engine is. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster.
HP stands for horsepower, a unit of measurement for engine power. It indicates how much power an engine can produce, which directly affects a car's performance.
"Yeah, I think it's an absolutely beautiful Alfa Romeo livery. It's my thoughts on it."
Alfa Romeo is a car brand from Italy that makes stylish and sporty cars. They are known for their unique designs and involvement in racing.
Alfa Romeo is an Italian luxury car manufacturer known for its stylish designs and sporty performance. The brand has a rich history in motorsport and is often associated with high-performance vehicles.
"Yeah, I think it's an absolutely beautiful Alfa Romeo livery. It's my thoughts on it."
Livery is the special paint job and design on a car, especially in racing. It shows off the team's colors and logos.
Livery refers to the specific design and color scheme used on a vehicle, often seen in racing. It can include logos, patterns, and colors that represent a brand or team.
"So, yeah, I love that Ferrari from 2007, 2008. And this is the thing. We've gone about liveries and compositions..."
Liveries are the designs and colors on race cars that show off the team's sponsors and make the cars look unique. They are important for branding in racing.
In motorsport, 'liveries' refer to the paint schemes and branding on a race car. These designs are important for team identity and sponsor visibility during races.
"...like years, short view back to the past, years gone by, like Formula One used to be this kind of sport"
Formula One is a top-level car racing competition where teams race high-performance cars on tracks. It's famous for its speed and technology, and races happen in different countries throughout the year.
"I think that was kind of missed with what Mercedes did, although Mercedes then rolled their car out of Silverstone..."
Mercedes is a well-known car brand that makes luxury cars. They are famous for their high-quality vehicles and advanced technology.
Mercedes-Benz is a German automotive brand known for luxury vehicles, buses, and trucks. They are recognized for their engineering excellence and innovative technology.
"...but did you see that Mercedes rolled out the car at Silverstone and now the tech nerds think that they've found another loophole in their diffuser."
A diffuser is a part of a car that helps control the air that flows underneath it. It helps the car stick to the road better, especially when going fast.
A diffuser is an aerodynamic component located at the rear of a car that helps to manage airflow and increase downforce, improving stability and grip at high speeds. It plays a crucial role in the performance of race cars.
"...they weren't very good. So like maybe that's Ferrari's trick"
The suspension is what keeps the car's wheels connected to the body, helping to absorb bumps in the road and keep the ride smooth. It includes parts like springs and shock absorbers.
Suspension refers to the system of springs, shock absorbers, and linkages that connects a vehicle to its wheels and allows for relative motion. It plays a crucial role in vehicle handling, comfort, and stability.
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Hello, everybody, and welcome back
to the P1 podcast with Matt and Tommy.
Ferrari, Ferrari car launch.
Shall we talk about it?
Shall we talk about it, Tommy?
Because we are fresh off of a live stream
where we just watch the reveal.
You know, you're coming into it.
Viby, feeling good.
Ferrari, what livery are you gonna bring to the table?
This year, we're gonna bring you
this year.
And of course, we all know that HP
are still very much prominent
as a sponsor at Ferrari,
so you don't have the highest of hopes ever.
We're just gonna dive straight into it, Tommy,
because look, my emotions are high.
I wanna talk about the livery.
And I wanna talk about just what Ferrari
are, used to be, and what they're doing now.
So the first thoughts on the livery,
it's too much white.
It's too much white.
I'm sorry, it is too much white.
I have been a Ferrari fan
for a very, very, very long time.
And I will say as a positive,
and I think this is what's happened,
is that we had a poor one last year,
and it's better in terms of
if you compare it to last year,
it's done better, it's more flowing,
it makes a little bit more sense on the car.
However, I link red with Ferrari,
and that white is spilling over,
ever so slightly in my opinion,
into the identity of Ferrari.
And that was my initial thing,
my initial feeling of that's just not enough
of my gorgeous, wonderful Ferrari red for my liking.
And it's as simple as that.
I know they have sponsor obligations.
I know they have to try and fit that HP in,
but that definitely fits it in.
Yeah, and that doesn't stop,
but that still doesn't stop me as a Ferrari fan
to be wanting what Ferrari has always been, which is red.
Yeah, I think it's an absolutely beautiful
Alfa Romeo livery.
It's my thoughts on it.
I completely, I really, really like it.
I think as a composition,
it's really well executed,
way better than last year with the big,
they had that big diagonal stripe on it, didn't they?
But my feelings are the same as you really,
in terms of just the fact that Ferrari should be red.
And there's too much white for a Ferrari.
As a Formula One livery for anyone else,
I think it's very well done.
I like the black wings.
I like the way that they've kind of, yeah,
they're always gonna try now
because this HP logo thing is such a meme.
It's so talked about all the time.
They're almost, it shows that they're trying so hard
to do something with it.
And it's almost like them admitting,
yes, we know it looks bad on the car.
We've got this blue logo on our red car
and we don't know how to incorporate it.
Yeah, they don't know how to incorporate it.
And also they know that it has to stand out.
But they could in theory just do a full red car
and plonk a blue sticker on, right?
Well, they did that, didn't they?
When they, because it actually,
HP got announced halfway through 24, didn't it?
You know, they'd got the livery already,
then they stuck the HP logo on it.
I would argue, maybe this is a hot take,
but I would argue that it looks better
to have an all red car
and stick one or two blue logos on it
than it would be to have half a white car.
Like Ferrari aren't white, they're red.
Like I don't get Ferrari's obsession.
Back in 1947, no, but I'm, as you know, I'm in agreement.
And I think that that's what I would prefer personally.
And I think it would still stand out just as much.
But clearly there are many things
that we don't understand as Formula One fans
to do with sponsor obligations and also, you know,
HP clearly spent a huge amount of money
to be part of the Ferrari sponsorship line-up
right at the forefront.
And they have a say, quite clearly,
they have a say very quite clearly
because, and this is why I'm still wearing Ferrari merch
from a few years ago where HP doesn't exist
because I like this merch, because it's just all red.
So, look.
It's annoying because I really,
I'm looking at it again, like all the angles.
If I take my, this is a Ferrari
and what I believe a Ferrari should be,
I really, really like it.
I actually think it looks really, really well done.
But Ferrari should not have that much white.
It should be half white.
You don't feel that passionate about the team, I do.
So I understand, yeah, exactly.
That's why I'm a lot more extreme
with the fact that I just, yeah.
Objectively, if that's a car, oh, yeah.
It's a good look.
I like the little stripes on the side,
the way it merges the white and the red.
But it's a Ferrari!
We're not merging any white with red.
Yeah.
Anyway, I'm popping off.
Question, P1 page remember, Longo1996.
Can we just go back to a Ferrari car being all red, please?
Yes!
Yes, Longo1996.
I've never agreed more with a question in my entire life.
But that's not going to happen.
And not until Ferrari decide
that they are bigger than the brands
that are on their car.
I don't know.
I don't know what's going on at Ferrari,
but I will still support them.
I don't care what they look like
if they win the championship.
They could be in a white car with green specs on it
for all I care.
So, but right now we're in car launch season.
And this is the only thing I have to care about
at the moment.
We don't know how fast it is.
So, yeah, I agree, as you know.
Yeah, completely agree.
The last time Ferrari decided to be just,
let's just paint the whole car red,
all of it red, red wings, red everything, was 2007
and 2008, the last time they won the world championships.
Is that a sign, Ferrari?
Maybe think about that one for a minute.
Maybe- Is that actually the last time?
Yeah, they were just like, let's just not mess about.
Let's just go for it.
So, yeah, I love that Ferrari from 2007, 2008.
And this is the thing.
We've gone about liveries and compositions
and oh, I missed doing that.
It's that Ferrari is beautiful
because it's just all red.
That is the whole aura of the team.
And I'd go as far as saying that I feel like in recent years
and it's all marketing at the end of the day and stuff,
but they seem so obsessed at the moment
where they're like, let's do black overall, Samonza.
Let's make it yellow.
Let's make it blue.
Let's make it like, you're red.
Like just be red, you Ferrari.
You have it easy.
Let's put white gradients on the caps that look terrible.
They could do things that sort of use shades of red
or things that still very much are Ferrari,
but I agree, doing yellow this and this, that and the other.
And I know, of course, they have been different colors
many, many years ago,
but red is what they are known for nowadays.
And yeah, it almost feels like they're not allowed
to express maybe how they feel similarly to us
through the car livery.
So they do it via the outfits instead.
Yeah, it's an interesting situation.
P1P, remember a good Karen comes in with,
how is it that some soccer team can get HP
to do a color match logo for their kit,
but the most famous racing team on the planet
gets that big blue splotch on way too much white?
Well, I imagine that what they're paying the football
or soccer team is a lot less than what they're paying
for Ferrari and at the end of the day,
it's very easy for everyone at home
to make concept liveries and go, just make the car,
just make the HP logo black and white
or white on the red or whatever.
But the HP don't pay as much as we don't like it,
HP don't pay millions and millions and millions
to be the title partner of the team
and go, no, actually for the good of Ferrari,
we'll merge and unfortunately at Ferrari's expense,
the one thing we're always talking about at the Frile
every now is HP.
So is it genius marketing or I don't know,
but yeah, it's always being spoken about HP, isn't it?
It's so annoying.
I keep looking at the car going, I really like that,
but Ferrari should not be with that much work.
I'm trying to envisage what it's gonna look like
from a driver's on-board perspective
and I might well think that some kind of Williams
or something.
A house, a house.
Because it's gonna be white all around the driver
when we get helmet caps, which is gonna be very bizarre.
But yes, it's clearly money, money talks, right?
And they are clearly spending a lot of money
for Ferrari to go down this route.
I think as well, like years, short view back to the past,
years gone by, like Formula One used to be this kind of sport
and Ferrari, that only team
that really can't get away with this,
where McLaren would be like, we're sponsored by Marlborough.
They just, that's their title sponsor.
The whole livery is Marlborough.
We're sponsored by Vodafone now.
The whole livery becomes a Vodafone livery.
Did it, you know, Ferrari aren't gonna be blue
because HP are blue.
So they're kind of tied in that sense.
Other teams, look at Alpine, they make their car pink
because they get a lot of money from BWT.
Ferrari in a weird, like they don't have that luxury to do it.
So they are gonna have to be red,
but that's the problem that they're now,
they want the Ferrari red, but they need to put in the HP
and the HP looks better with white.
So they're putting in white
and yeah, it just ends up being a bit messy, doesn't it?
It's so funny as well,
because every other team, Red Bull included,
they do the same livery for 10 years, people complain.
I genuinely wouldn't complain
if Ferrari just rolled out a red car every single year.
Yeah, exactly, they're the ones
that can get away with it, aren't they?
Yeah, it's that brand identity, isn't it?
Question from Mr. Idiot, did Ferrari take,
just show the car, too literally?
Ferrari, again, similar to, I guess,
Haas, Video, Bishbash, Bosch, we are done.
What that says in my head,
do they not want to make a big song about their dance?
Do they not want to aura farm with a little car launch
because they don't think anything good
is gonna happen in the new regulations?
I don't know.
It's a shame.
I would like to have seen a car launch, you know,
Ferrari, as we were kind of,
I think we were speaking on the live stream,
weren't we, Tommy?
A few years ago when they did
just the most amazing car launch at Fiorano,
they put the car out on track,
I get it, there is a lot of investment
that is required to do such a production like that,
and perhaps they just thought it's not worth it,
but yeah, there is a part of me that just,
I'm happy to sit through half an hour of spiel
listening to John Todd,
and that's who we saw.
You're still thinking about the good old days.
No, I'm thinking about the Autosport Awards
where he was there.
But you know, just to have Fred there,
and I don't know, I enjoy it,
but clearly I'm biased.
So it was quick, it was fast,
a little bit too fast,
but it's not the first time we've seen it,
and I was kind of ready for it this time.
The only fast there'll be this year maybe.
Yeah, Ferrari are,
they're known for like doing like
these big extravagant launches a lot of the time.
I guess in recent years, they have done it.
I think Teams makes it up.
This is exactly what we said with Mercedes,
that, you know, Mercedes just drops some pictures.
I'd much rather this, we said this in the last one
with the whole house thing,
that I'd much rather them,
if they can't do a big extravagant launch,
at least put a video on YouTube,
because it gives that kind of community feel.
I think that was kind of missed with what Mercedes did,
although Mercedes then rolled their car out of Silverstone,
which is another kind of classic Mercedes move,
which, you know, we mentioned about Ferrari and how,
is it because they didn't think they're very good
that they're kind of doing this,
but then Mercedes dropped renders
and we all think they're gonna be miles clearer
than winning the championship with 20 races to go.
So we're, this is the way that they've decided to do it.
And I'm not against mixing it up each time.
I mean, literally Alpine are next
and they're launching on a massive cruise ship.
So they're going for something big
and then maybe next year,
they do just drop some pictures,
like the teams just mix it up, don't they?
Well, they finished ninth in the championship.
They're like, well, okay,
we thought we were gonna do well
and no more cruise ships for us.
Question from Fire Breath.
Has P6 in the constructors ever looked this good?
Wow.
I mean, it does look like a midfield car
with the white and red now.
So maybe that's what they're going for.
It doesn't look like a Ferrari, a front running Ferrari.
It does look like a kind of, you know,
an Alfa Romeo or a house.
So maybe that's what they're kind of going for here.
Great, cool, great insight.
I don't want to comment on this thing.
It's a little rubbish, but may have some truth to it.
We will reflect on that question.
P6 might be generous actually.
Okay, all right.
Well, you think about the teams.
This is the thing.
Someone's got to be there.
There's 11 of them now.
Look, I know that four teams have Mercedes engines
that does not guarantee them to be in the top eights.
No, no, no, but like, you know,
there's Red Bull that we're all like,
oh, Red Bull surely gonna be good.
That's the mind of God, Adrian Newey, you know,
some team is gonna be, everyone's got something,
like Ferrari can't be that bad.
One of the big teams are gonna be like six and the six,
seven days.
That is if this Mercedes stuff actually has weight, all right?
We don't know.
No, no, but not even that, not even that.
Like, say the Mercedes engine is bad.
They could be, I don't think they will,
but they could be, do you know what I mean?
Do you want some Ferrari gonna win it all?
No, you turn it around.
Okay, good, good, good, good.
Did you see actually, please keep watching,
but did you see that Mercedes rolled out
the car at Silverstone and now the tech nerds
think that they've found another loophole in their diffuser.
This always happens though.
I'm taking it with a pinch of salt,
maybe because it's copium,
hopeium and everything else in between.
But look, loophole this, loophole that,
ban it all and let Ferrari win the championship.
That's what I would say.
And finally, I guess we have been touching upon it,
but how do we think Ferrari are gonna do this year?
Yeah, you are so true.
I mean, honestly, you do talk a lot of waffle,
but something that was true
is that it does look like a midfield car.
That's the concern.
I think the Alfa Romeo shout was huge from you.
I don't like to admit when you might be right,
but no, we're winning it all until the first weekend,
maybe the first test, maybe the first private test
when there's a picture of a Ferrari car
with smoke on it over the barriers
and we need to talk about that,
but until then it could well be a championship
where lots of DNFs happen and some miracle,
it just Ferrari needs to finish and maybe they will.
Maybe, but I mean, to answer this question,
I've already made my prediction pretesting
and said that they'd be the biggest flop of the year.
So we'll find out, or a big flop as it were,
but yeah, we'll find out.
Like it could all change, like you say,
we're all going on rumors and hearsay and stuff
until we roll out to testing and at the end of the day,
simulators, they've been wrong before,
like all these things, McLaren one year,
turned up to testing, they were absolutely miles clear
or thought their car was amazing
and then realized they'd put their suspension
on upside down and when they put it on
in the legal way, they weren't very good.
So like maybe that's Ferrari's trick
that they're gonna do in testing.
Maybe Ferrari have put on their suspension
the wrong way for the last 17 years
and they've finally realized with the new regs
that it's the other way around.
We will see, thank you everybody for tuning in,
we'll be back for an Alpine reaction very soon,
the same day, so look forward to that.
Tommy, final thoughts?
Final thoughts are, what a shame.
You're smirking, you're smirking.
Just what a shame, what a shame
that such a great livery is wasted
because it shouldn't be that way on a Ferrari.
There you go.
All right, thank you everybody, we'll see you soon.
Let us know your comments and your thoughts
on this livery in the, let's say comments
and we'll set that in the section below.
Thank you for watching, we'll see you soon.
Take care, bye-bye.
I already can't wait for the comments going.
In 1970, they had white on the air box,
it's just a tribute to that.
Is that their actual real identity?
No, it's red.
Be red, be red Ferrari.
How hard, how hard is it?
Very hard, clearly.
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