Paradiso

So we’ve gone through all of the car and livery reveals. The winter testing is complete. The Bahrain Grand Prix has already come and gone, and what a season opener it has been in such a sensational fashion. There was close racing, tough battles and heart ache. It did not disappoint. Charles Leclerc became our first Grand Prix winner of 2022. And under the lights of the Bahrain International Circuit, those cars looks fantastic – like shiny brand-new toys. All glossy and radiant, like jewels in the desert sand. Sure, we got to watch these cars do their thing for about 2 hours last Sunday. But let’s take some time here to really appreciate all the artistic merit gone into the grid this year.

I am joined in this review with special guest and my partner, Chris Cook (seejayseemusic on TikTok and See Jay See on YouTube). These reviews are based on the first reveals and testing, so we won’t be commenting on any new colours added by new sponsors recently added, or any new decals that got added after testing. I will also be doing race suit reviews, which Chris has decided not to do. Let’s get into it!

Haas (Version 1)

Hayley’s thoughts:

I’m not going to lie, this livery just stunk in every way possible. It perpetuates with Russian propaganda – which is not good, given the current political climate that is currently unfolding in Eastern Europe. It’s a horrible reminder of Daddy Mazepin’s money (more like smelly oligrinch, get it?) This livery has now aged like excruciatingly bad, curdled milk. Thank god this got ditched. -7/10

Chris’ thoughts:

It’s a morally reprehensible livery. It doesn’t really matter what I think about it. On it’s own, it’s nothing to write home about. But the fact it represents someone who has had a track-record of cardinal sins on-and-off the track, makes it a non-scorer. When it revolves around someone this sport doesn’t need, it doesn’t deserve to be recognised. 0/10

Haas (Version 2)

Hayley’s thoughts:

Thank god the Uralkali branding is gone. Thank god the Mazepin’s are gone. Thank god there is nothing left of the horrendous display we had earlier. It’s just a bog-standard car now. It’s white. It has the red Haas logo. It’s grand. It reminds me of a can of Coca-Cola, but in reverse. It’s bland, and it reminds me of cream. 3/10

Chris’ thoughts:

Although the original livery was an Uralkali mess that just felt… wrong. For reasons beyond the sponsor itself. Thanks to recent events, this livery is a very simple and non offensive Haas logo which, shockingly, looks nicer than the previous livery. Who knew that having a livery that doesn’t feel morally questionable makes it a million times better! 5/10

Haas (Version 2)

Hayley’s thoughts:

This is very nice. It’s really just the plain-white livery, but now with added red accents as they finalised their driver line-up and sponsors since the Mazepin exodus. It’s not incredible, but it feels very classic and sleek. More reverse pattern Coca-Cola please. 6/10

Chris’ thoughts:

For the first race of the season, we have yet another livery. And it’s the addition of a red stripe, and it’s nice! It’s not absolutely floor sweeping, but it’s decent. It doesn’t make the car look garish and it pops out nicely. 6/10

Haas Race Suit (Version 1)

Hayley’s thoughts:

See my above review of the Haas version 1 livery. -8/10

Haas Race Suit (Version 2)

Hayley’s thoughts:

MUCH BETTER. No Uralkali branding at all, and the blue is kept as an accent for the logo colour of 1&1, so a very clever way of saving time with remaking the suits. It still gives me Uralkali vibes though so it will need some time to wash that taste out of my mouth. 6/10

Alfa Romeo

Hayley’s thoughts:

It’s simple, it’s classic. There’s good colour harmony with the red and white colour blocks. The black of the tyres and front wing adds to its sleek appearance. Those sweeping side pods flow so elegantly to reach the front nose of the car. I love the font of the Alfa Romeo text on the back – it reminds me a lot of 50’s advertising. They’re probably going back to roots with that. 7/10

Chris’ thoughts:

A massive improvement over the previous year’s livery. The colours pop out much nicer than last year’s, and it’s one I hope I don’t forget any time soon. More red than white really makes so much of a difference. Plus the logo is swish and reminds me of Chupa-Chups. 7/10

Alfa Romeo Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

It compliments the car very nicely, with more of a use of black compared to the car itself. Very sleek and classy. 7/10

Alfa Romeo (Test Livery)

Hayley’s thoughts:

When Red Bull did the camo-style test livery, even those had more creativity to them than this. I guess this camo livery then does its job very well. Like the TV static from a channel shutting down transmission for the night, we’ll never really recognise or remember this. 4/10

Williams

Hayley’s thoughts:

The colours of this car remember remind me of early 90s computer tech branding, like Microsoft in its infancy. The angles and shapes of the light blue and red colour blocks make it feel quite dynamic and sharp. It actually reminds me of the bad guy from that early 90s 3D-animated show Reboot: Megabyte. Bonus points too for the jester-like, NiGHTS into Dreams-like chevron shapes at the back of the engine cover. 7/10

Chris’ thoughts:

I like it, but not as much as the early ‘2000s Sauber’ one from last year. Definitely feels like a start up business introduction video, talking about their business model. The shape of the car feels very malleable, like I’m looking at Play-Doh instead of carbon fibre. The front wing accentuates that to a T. Not awful, but not amazing either. 6/10

Williams Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

It’s very simple, but both hues of blue work super well with each other – the dark navy with lined with cyan. A lack of sponsors on the front too really show off the Williams logo and help put all the attention on the team. 8/10

Aston Martin

Hayley’s thoughts:

This is one of the sleekest designs on the grid. It has very lovely symmetry, and the grills on the side pods give it like a ferocious texture. Points are taken for not having pink anymore (bye-bye watermelon car, my beloved), but the liquid metallic green gives beautiful shadows on the body that show off the beautiful angles of this car. 8/10

Chris’ thoughts:

Two for two. Another beautiful livery that makes this car one of the most pleasing to watch. Even without the pink, it still manages to look really nice by adding a lime green stripe in its place. A fine replacement. Yet another reason why more F1 cars should adopt green in their liveries. The worlds fastest fish. 8/10

Aston Martin Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

Similar to the Alfa Romeo race suit in that it compliments the car very nicely. The primary green is very calming and easy on the eyes. They look awesome in it. 8/10

Alpha Tauri

Hayley’s thoughts:

This car has good monochromatic colour balance. The blocks of colour shapes itself well with the body of the car. The Alpha Tauri text swopping up the side pods on each side is a nice touch, as well as the front wing. It makes full use of advertising its fashion line. Overall, this is a good evolution of the first few Alpha Tauri liveries. And I swear I haven’t been brainwashed into buying some Alpha Tauri apparel just now. 7/10

Chris’ thoughts:

Don’t fix what ain’t broke. I was originally on the fence when I first saw it because all that was available at the time were 3D renderings and the car looked a bit weird, but seeing it IRL quelled my fears a little bit. The dark blue colour still works as well as it has done previously. The shape of the colours is a nice change which keeps the car from looking stale while still staying with the same colour palette. Very easy on the eyes, and the flex box sponsoring is a nice subtle touch too. 7/10

Alpha Tauri Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

The dark navy lines and shape accent the main white colour really well. The lines on the front of the suit show movement. I like that each leg of the suit isn’t matching here – one side has Alpha Tauri going down the leg, with the colour plain, but marked with the team’s logo. It is a bit clinical overall, but it’s still really classy and elegant, and I love this a lot. 8/10

Alpine

Hayley’s thoughts:

This car is as sharp as it is delightfully curvy. Such wonderful shape composition this has as a whole. It also has my own personal ultimate holy trinity of colours: blue, white and pink. This is a mahou-shoujo car. This is if Sonic The Hedgehog and Amy Rose ran their own team in Team Sonic Racing. It’s a divine and amazing bold palette choice to have, and I am all here for it. The blue paint reflects the light miraculously – with a nice cyan-blue, dazzling your eyes. Not all the time red works well with pink, but this is certainly a time where it does. 9/10

Chris’ thoughts:

You really can’t go wrong with pink. Although I wish it was the same kind of pink that Force India used back in 2017, it’s still a very nice livery and the fact they have two liveries for this season is also a nice touch. Definitely prefer the pink majority from the blue majority. I don’t know if I like it more than the previous livery, but I don’t see it either as an improvement or a downgrade. Can’t say the same about the race suit though lol. 7/10

Alpine Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

While this too uses my favourite colours, I just cannot help but think of Sportacus and Stephanie from LazyTown. Hence it’s a bit goofy, but it’s still really great. 8/10

Alpine (BWT Livery)

Hayley’s thoughts:

This is it. This is the best livery. Why? All pink. 10/10

McLaren

Hayley’s thoughts:

It really is a natural evolution of the Gulf livery that went down a treat last year. And it’s now even better than that, I feel. I love the pale pastel blue with the papaya. It gives a nice harmony between a vibrant hue and a subtle pastel. And the black colour blocks help these existing colours pop out even more at you. This is a modern classic in the making. 9/10

Chris’ thoughts:

The orange just looks nicer and nicer each year. There’s the addition of a light blue stripe, similar to the Gulf livery they used in Monaco last year. The orange is slightly lighter than the previous years (at least I think it is) and it’s amazing. It’s another one of those that looks not as good in 3D form, but on track, it looks amazing. It’s a gamer car, in the best way possible. 9/10

McLaren Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

I don’t think this race suit compliments the car at all. It feels way too out of balance with a primary use of black, only accented with little bits of the blue and the papaya. It just really makes them look like mechanics at Halfords (no disrespect if you are one reading this). 5/10

Ferrari

Hayley’s thoughts:

I am so glad that disgusting bright green logo on the engine cover is finally gone. And this year we have a more richer, deeper shade of red, which works beautifully with the black rear and front wings and wheels. This Ferrari feels a lot more sophisticated, like it’s grown another level of maturity here. The Shell logo on the side pods really pop out and just add a nice break to the deep red blanket. There is something oddly retro about this car, and that is said in the best sense possible. 8/10

Chris’ thoughts:

This was a big surprise. I’m not the biggest admirer of Ferrari, and I don’t understand the hype around their liveries every year. Last year’s car with the lime green Mission Winnow logo was probably worst livery for a while. How does that happen? Your car is red – the assignment is simple. Well, they did it. The best Ferrari livery for a long long time. It’s new, yet it’s nostalgic. The Shell logo’s yellow colour makes a great contrast. And the colour and the shape combined looks like a Ferrari from the early 1990s. It’s a work of art, and shockingly, might be my favourite of the lot. 9/10

Ferrari Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

I definitely am a sucker for red and black, and this is a really solid race suit livery. Now that said, I do get some McDonald’s vibes from this. I don’t know why, but I like that. Again, like what we saw with other race suits so far, this compliments their car perfectly. 8/10

Red Bull

Hayley’s thoughts:

I’ll honestly admit that the Red Bull livery has been one of my most favourite liveries ever.There’s just something about the dark navy with vibrant yellow and red that works super well, especially with the signature Red Bull logo. That says it gets harder to rate this livery every year because, while it works and it’s great, it’s just not exciting anymore. Even if they brought back the deep purple in replacement of the dark navy, it would be a neat little tweak that would pique my interest again. but for now, like always, it’s just same old-same old. 6/10

Chris’ thoughts:

It’s Red Bull. It’s good, but that’s it. 6/10

Red Bull Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

Not much more to say here that I haven’t mentioned earlier for the car’s livery. I do like the Oracle logo above the Red Bull logo though. 6/10

Mercedes

Hayley’s thoughts:

Gotta say, I really do mourn the loss of the all-black livery. I really thought that was prime Mercedes. That said, I never thought the deep red colour of the INEOS logo would look so nice against the silver and teal accents. Love we still have the little Mercedes stars on the engine cover. It is a very solid livery overall. 8/10

Chris’ thoughts:

I like it! The black was really nice, but this isn’t a complete downgrade. You can’t expect much from a works team using the same livery, so I can’t be too upset about this. It works. 7/10

Mercedes Race Suit

Hayley’s thoughts:

While we lost the all-black car livery, we still retained the all-black race suit. This I am extremely happy with, as it still looks as fresh and classy as always. Honestly, this is the race suit that can make anyone look like a badass. It just oozes coolness. 10/10

Welcome to the first of these little blogs - where keeping with the theme of my webcomic, I'll divulge some of my thoughts about motorsport. It could be about the last Grand Prix I watched, or maybe a racing video game I like, or something a bit abstract but still about motorsport. It'll also help me keep this website alive with some bits of content in between periods where I am unfit to draw more pages of this comic. Just like this period where I have been told by my physiotherapist recently to lay off drawing for now. So, on we go!

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It’s been two weeks since the Italian Grand Prix, and the win I was dreaming of for ages actually happened.

If you know me well, it’s no surprise that I am a huge fan of Daniel Ricciardo. His charm, humour and late-break overtakes are what instantly won me over, and helped me become a full-time Formula 1 viewer. Not only that, but his personality has inspired that of our heroine, Tiffany Paradiso.

I remember his win well in Monaco 2018. I had come back home from work, and was watching a re-run of it, having tried not to get the race results spoilt for me. Often I worked the Sunday afternoons in retail, so those were difficult times. While I didn’t watch Formula 1 during the time Ricciardo suffered from that horrendous pitstop that cost him the win at Monaco in 2016, I was aware of that hurt that was echoing through him. This really was his chance for redemption.

The long and short: he won, he kept the lead with a few broken gears (Monaco is the best place for that, but it still didn’t take away from the effort he had to put into making that work), and I was thrilled because next day I was hopping on a flight to go to Lanzarote for a week’s holidays.

And that was his last win for a while. He managed a few podiums with Renault which was fantastic to see. From my memory, Ricciardo seemed to have got to grips with his Renault fairly quickly – perhaps around the 5th or 6th race of his first season with the team? Something like that. He soon was a frequent of the top 6 classifications at the very least. But it’s been a bit different since venturing into McLaren. Not as quick to get used to the car, knocked out of Q2 a few times. Lando Norris obviously being the most experienced McLaren driver right now has him beat in qualifying.

And I won’t lie: me and a few of my friends were actually worried. Ricciardo is undeniably one of the most impressive drivers out there at the moment. So it was very difficult for us to understand what exactly was going on. However I think that comparing the quick progress I saw with him in that Renault isn’t fair, really. It’s still only his first season with the Woking team. Still so much to learn about the car, the power unit, how it drives, his team – everything. And while he’s still a bit off the pace of Norris, you can definitely see he’s been getting up ever so slowly and gradually. Better than nothing at all.

Whatever Danny Ric did during the summer break has finally paid off. Monza being one of the few weekends of the year where the Sprint Race qualifying format was in place, he managed to gain a few places (also thanks to Valtteri Bottas’ grid penalty) earning him the inside line on the front row. And then, come Sunday, he overtook Max Verstappen, and made that stick. And I bet you that he would have been able to hold P1 even if Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton didn’t have that nasty crash. I always felt Monza was Danny Ric’s track; some of the best overtakes I’ve seen from from him have been in that Temple of Speed.

I can just imagine the months of frustration melting away from his psyche as he downed that infamous shoey on the podium. Oh, how I missed those. He was so elated days after on social media, as you bloody well would be. But it wasn’t just Ricciardo that was elated: McLaren won their first Grand Prix in what, 9 years? Now that’s a mega effort for the team to celebrate. The past few years of improvements are finally paying dividends.

And honestly, I do expect it to pay even more dividends again for today’s Grand Prix in Sochi. Norris has always been so tantalizingly close to getting P1 a few times this year. And yesterday he finally secured it. I think Norris could absolutely win this – making it two on the trot. The scenes if McLaren win two races in a row with two different drivers. With Norris being such a fan favourite, if he wins today – especially in this social media and memelord age – the internet will be absolutely set ablaze.

Well done, Ricciardo. Well done, Monza. And come on, Norris, you absolutely got this.

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