The F1 75 Live event appears to have brought back the phenomenon of testing liveries as teams have to wait to reveal their real designs at the event but are also wanting to run their cars in shakedowns before this.
Let’s take a look at some camo liveries of the past, and present:
Williams FW47 (2025)
Williams launched their FW47 on February 14th at Silverstone, including a live shakedown as part of the event. As such, the car was presented in a temporary, dark blue camo livery with the team’s partners. This included their new title partner Atlassian, a partnership James Vowles said is one of the “biggest” in the sport.
Carlos Sainz was behind the wheel as part of the event, but Alex Albon joined later as the pair completed 200km for their filming day.
Credit: Williams Racing.
McLaren MCL39 (2025)
McLaren became the first team to use a camo, testing-specific livery this year as their challenger broke covers on February 13th at Silverstone, 5 days before the livery launch event.
The team are hoping to not only defend their Constructors’ title but also claim the driver’s title for the first time since 2008, and to do so they’re taking what they learned last season and using it to inform their approach to this year.
Zak Brown, McLaren Racing CEO, said, “We believe we have made further steps forward since the Championship-winning MCL38 but we won’t know where we sit in the standings until we get into Qualifying in Australia.”
The one-off livery not only features a distinct papaya and black pattern but also nods to the team’s founder Bruce McLaren, the drivers’ numbers 4 and 81 and the car’s name, MCL39.
Credit: McLaren.
Alfa Romeo C42 (2022)
Alfa Romeo had planned their 2022 season launch for February 27th, two days after the conclusion of pre-season testing in Barcelona. As a result, the team ran a grey and white camouflage livery on their C42 car for the first pre-season test in Barcelona to keep their season colours a secret until then.
Their full burgundy and white livery and team colours were revealed at the event later that week and the team ran their 2022 season livery from the second test in Bahrain in mid-March.
Credit: By Courtesy of Pirelli.
Renault R.S.20 (2020)
The Renault R.S.20 was initially launched on track in an all-black testing livery at a filming day, after the actual car had been absent from their launch event on February 12th.
Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon ran this test livery for a filming day/shakedown but also for the entirety of the six days of pre-season testing in Barcelona, during the pre-covid season launch phase.
The yellow was later added to the design ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, but due to the pandemic, it would take until June of that year to be properly put to the test.
Credit: By Courtesy of Pirelli.
Red Bull RB15 (2019)
Red Bull have run a few different testing or camo liveries over the years, with the most recent being in 2019.
The team ran a dark navy and red patterned livery at their pre-test Silverstone shakedown, picking up on the tone of their logo across the front wing. This was the first time the team had run a Honda power unit as part of their new agreement, so the shakedown held additional importance in determining how this partnership may look from the outset.
Max Verstappen gave a positive verdict after the shakedown in this striking livery, saying “it felt good and we had no problems, so I’m very happy with that” but also rated the livery as “very beautiful, even though it’s only for today.”
Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images.
Red Bull RB14 (2018)
Going another year back in time and we find another Red Bull camo livery, but this time with a blue and black theme. This ‘digital camo’ look was run again only for the RB14’s shakedown at Silverstone.
The camo livery also featured Aston Martin’s logo as this was the brand’s first year as a title sponsor of the Red Bull team. RB14 broke cover on February 19th 2018, with a shakedown on the same day with Daniel Ricciardo wearing a matching one-off glitch pattern race suit. Though the livery was stand out, it was also the first time a halo had been seen on-track as the device made its debut for the 2018 season.
The RB14 was in Red Bull’s usual racing colours a week later at pre-season testing, but this one-off livery certainly made an impact over its 100km run.
Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images.
Red Bull RB11 (2015)
Red Bull’s first camo livery appeared in 2015 when the RB11 made its on track debut in Jerez for pre-season testing. The black and white look was described by the team as a “striking new test livery” which Daniel Ricciardo took on track as one of the first cars out over the four-day test.
The livery was a fan-favourite, with them urging Red Bull to run the design all year but Christian Horner reassured fans that the 2015 livery would be “even stronger” as an evolution of its 2014 design.
Horner also revealed to Autosport at the time that the livery had been inspired by a helmet Sebastian Vettel ran at the 2014 Italian Grand Prix. Horner said the late co-founder and owner of Red Bull GmbH, Dietrich Mateschitz had liked the idea of extending Sebastian’s helmet concept to the rest of the car.
The livery served two purposes in Horner’s eyes – the first to show that Red Bull “are not afraid to do things a bit differently”, with the second to be as “secretive” as they can in the pre-season phase.
Credit: Red Bull Content Pool / Getty Images.
