For two consecutive years we’ve seen Ferrari bring a touch of blue to their livery for the Miami Grand Prix. This year’s design has been described as “cutting edge” and the “result of deep collaboration between the two companies”, combining Ferrari red with HP’s white and electric blue to celebrate the one year anniversary of their partnership.

Though the design itself may have underwhelmed fans, the technology used to create the livery and apply it to the car is unique. The car wrap is “up to 14% lighter and up to 17% thinner”, according to the team, with increased thermal resistance too. It’s PVC-free, fully recyclable and uses HP’s “latest generation of latex technology” – enabling a bold design in efficient time.

The livery is marking one year of the Ferrari and HP title partnership that began in Miami in 2024, which also saw the return of blue to a Ferrari design as the team acknowledged two special colours from their past.

‘Azzurro Dino’ and ‘Azzurro La Plata’ were combined with red to produce a livery that harked back to the 1950s and later the 1970s, yet also Ferrari’s history of racing in the United States.

The lighter shade of blue, Azzurro La Plata, was Argentina’s official race colour in the 1950s but holds significance for Ferrari as it was the colour worn by Alberto Ascari, the Scuderia’s first F1 world champion. The Italian considered a blue jersey and matching helmet to be his lucky charms.

Later, the colour was worn on race suits during the 1960s by John Surtees, Lorenzo Bandini, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Chris Amon, and Niki Lauda also wore the colour during his first year with the team in 1974.

Behind the scenes, Ferrari’s factory staff and mechanics wore the colour for their overalls too.

Azzurro Dino, the darker, brighter blue, is said to have been a favourite of Clay Reggazzoni, a driver for the team firstly from 1970-72 and later again from 1974-76. He was the last driver to wear a suit of this shade in 1974 (until it made a comeback more recently) as red became the team’s dominant colour reflecting the Philip Morris International sponsorship agreement from 1973. Even so, the colour passed on to the shirts and overalls worn by the mechanics from the seventies into the 1980s.

Beyond these two special shades, the Scuderia has a history of running a blue liveried car state-side and in fact, John Surtees drove a blue Ferrari to his 1964 title…

When Ferrari took blue to a title

Ferrari’s history of racing blue in the USA began in the early 1960s, as their racing empire was expanding.

In 1962, Ferrari were looking to homologate their 250 GTO to compete in GT racing. But to do so, the ACI (Italy’s motorsport body) and FIA regulations mandated that 100 road-going models had to be built before it could be raced – which Ferrari seemingly did not have…

The legend says that Enzo Ferrari fooled the FIA into counting enough cars, despite them falling short of the tally, by taking representatives to see the GTOs in one place, taking them for a coffee break while the same cars were moved to a new location, before then taking them to see this ‘new’ set of GTOs…

Legend or not, it has been cited as the reason behind the FIA denying Ferrari’s homologation of their new car, the 250 LM, later in 1964.

Angered by this, and the ACI’s unwillingness to back Ferrari in this dispute, Enzo Ferrari decided to give up his Italian competitor’s licence and promised never to race in red again – a visual demonstration of his severing of the ties between Ferrari and Italy given that the teams raced in national colours rather than independently designed liveries at this time.

With no works Ferraris entered into the penultimate round of the 1964 Formula 1 season, John Surtees and his teammate Lorenzo Bandini were entered under the North American Racing Team, or NART, for the race at Watkins Glen.

The North American Racing Team was founded in 1958 and operated by Luigi Chinetti, a former racing driver and business associate, and friend, of Enzo Ferrari who was the exclusive importer of Ferrari cars into the United States for many years.

Entering their two drivers under this marque meant Ferrari’s cars were also put into NART and USA colours – blue and white – not only for the United States Grand Prix but also the season finale, the Mexican Grand Prix.

Surtees finished second in Mexico, sealing the 1964 crown to become the first, and to date only, driver to win a championship for Ferrari in blue.

With both the Constructor’s and Driver’s titles wrapped up, neither the dispute nor Enzo’s threat to never race in red again lasted long. For 1965, Ferrari was back on the grid in rosso corsa, which would continue for years to come.