History of motorsport colors

At the beginning of the 20th century, during the first glimmers of motor racing in Europe, nations defined their colors: blue for France, green for Great Britain, red for Italy, white for Germany. But the historical ramifications of these color choices take us as far away as Uruguay and Ireland.

These colors were designated for Formula 1, endurance racing, touring car racing, and other international competitions.

The origin of these colors is believed to come from the Gordon Bennett Cup, which took place between 1900 and 1905 and featured national teams competing, each assigned a color to distinguish them. They became definitive during the 1920s and 1930s, when Bugatti blue and Alfa Romeo red won in many races (originally, red was assigned to the United States).

On June 3, 1934, Mercedes stripped its W25 cars of their white paint to the bare metal in order to reach the maximum permitted weight, which was just over a kilogram. Thus, the "Silver Arrows" were born, with their bodywork made of bare, polished aluminum.

During the 1968 Formula 1 World Championship, aware of the increasingly high costs of competition, the FIA's International Sporting Commission authorized teams to resort to extra-sporting sponsorship. Colin Chapman signed a partnership with the cigarette manufacturer Imperial Tobacco: the Lotus cars became the first single-seaters to abandon their national livery for the colors of the cigarette manufacturer Gold Leaf. The old color code seems to have died out, even if some teams sought to sign contracts with companies whose colors were close to their national livery.

For the record, Algeria had no color since it was France at the time, but some African and Arab countries had the right, like Egypt = Pale Purple, South Africa = Gold hood Green, Jordan = Brown.