F1 2021 Car Launch: Mercedes starts this week’s reveal

F1 2021 car launch: Mercedes starts this week’s reveal

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 marked the halfway point of the car launch season as they revealed the first launch of the week, followed by four other teams on the grid leaving Ferrari to be the last team.

Just over a week remains before pre-season testing remains with only one team yet to reveal livery for this season: Ferrari.

However, this week five cars have been revealed starting with Mercedes revealing their championship-defending contender, the W12 followed by Alpine’s A521, Aston Martin’s AMR21, Haas’ VF-21 and Williams’ FW43B.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas (March 2)

This week’s car launches started with the defending champions, Mercedes, showcasing their new W12.

The car with a huge amount of pressure being piled onto its four tyres, it has a lot to live up to in 2021, as it follows in the footsteps of those who came before it. Which could be more challenging with the new floor regulations.

However, the silver colour is making a return as it fades out of the black towards the rear with AMG plastered onto engine cover and the shark fin.

Ineos’ red colour on the livery also stands out more than last year as it makes a prominent appearance on the air intake above the driver, it was also made clearer on the interior sides of the front and rear wing end-plates.

Currently, Mercedes have seemingly created the most aesthetically pleasing livery on the 2021 grid.

Alpine (March 2)

After Mercedes released the W12 to the world, Alpine released their first-ever F1 car – the A521.

In relation to Alpine’s livery, the colour scheme is good. The blue, white and red works well, especially around the rear of the car with the team’s logo going over the top of it. Blue takes up the majority of the cars body work with only a handful of areas covered by a different colour.

Understandably, due to it being a French team, their national flag heavily influences the cars design with clear indications to the flag on the wing end-plates.

While Alpine replaces the former French outfit on the grid last year, Renault, they are retaining the french manufacturers engine.

Aston Martin (March 3)

Formerly known as Racing Point, Aston Martin will return to the grid for the first time since the British Grand Prix in 1960, following Lawrence Stroll’s acquisition of the British car brand last year.

While they were the third reveal of the week, they became the seventh car, out of 10, to be revealed this year.

Opting to go with a primarily green colour, the Aston Martin livery wasn’t a bad design. However, since the sports car brand managed to retain their title sponsor from last year, BWT, they have ran with a pink line along the chassis – similar to that of the W12.

Despite this choice, Aston Martin’s visual return to Formula One isn’t bad to look at.

Haas (March 4)

Haas’ new livery for 2021 is definitely a head-scratcher, and it’s a visual representation of a loophole, as the car is strikingly similar to the Russian flag, which is seemingly plastered onto the engine cover.

However, this isn’t the only instance as the same colour scheme is used on the front-wing, under the cockpit and on the tip of the cars nose.

While the car maybe title-sponsored by Uralkali, a Russian company owned by Nikita Mazepin’s father, Dmitry. It sucks away the spotlight away from Mick Schumacher, son of F1 legend, Michael Schumacher with it’s Russian livery.

The problem with this (which will also affect Haas driver Mazepin) is the Russian flag has been banned from world competitions. A decision made by the World Anti-Doping Agency and Court of Arbitration of Sport has determined that world competitions will not be able to use the Russian flag, anthem, symbols or emblems.

While Haas are adamant that the livery is okay to use, WADA are now looking into the livery.

A slick new livery for the new season was revealed by @HaasF1Team on Thursday ? ?

Watch 2020 morph into 2021 ? ?#F1 pic.twitter.com/80r4obMojn

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 4, 2021

Williams (March 5)

The iconic F1 team, Williams ended the week as the ninth team to reveal their 2021 livery.

While Dorilton Capital took over Williams Racing last year, replacing founder Frank Williams and his daughter/Team Principal, Claire Williams. The US investment firm has seemingly hinted towards the F1 teams heritage in their new 2021 design.

The nose to the beginning of the Halo seem to take inspiration from last years 2020 contender, the FW43, and the dominantly white-coloured cars of the early 80s. But, towards the rear, the white almost disappears into shades of blue and a spot of orange.

Reminding fans of what Williams achieved, they have put a modern blend of their iconic cars into their 2021 contender with the likes of the FW13, FW17B and the FW11 while keeping a primarily white and blue colour scheme.

We hope you enjoyed F1 2021 Car Launch: Mercedes starts this week’s reveal! What did you think of the team’s new livery? Let us know in the comments!

Read more on F1 here:

• Red Bull 2021 F1 Car Launch: RB16B
• Alfa Romeo 2021 F1 Car Launch: The C41
• F1’s Niki Lauda: A Phoenix Rising From The Ashes
• Alpha Tauri 2021 F1 Car Launch: AT02