Manfred Winkelhock, pushes on in his 1983 #9 ATS-BMW D6
Ugh, another case of a bad shade of yellow, terrible but unlike many of the other schemes I have discussed, this one is mixed in with a needlessly bad design that does more to highlight the bad color scheme than it should. The generic car numbers don’t work here either, and what in the world is going on with that design behind the side numbers? It’s ugly, and serves no purpose. This scheme deserves an F.
Mario Andretti’s 1980 #11 Essex Lotus-Ford 81cat the San Marino Grand Prix
I like the addition of metallic silver to the red and blue scheme. The logo placement is really good. Essex had a 1980’s futuristic logo, and it works well with the rest of the scheme. Also, did Lotus eliminate the front wing? I thought this might just be a car after repairs but the Lotus behind it is also similarly designed. I’ve seen photos where it does and photos where it does not have a front wing, so I’m guessing it ran part of the season without a front wing. I give it a B+
Patrick Depailler, sports an early in-car camera in his 1978 #4 ELF Tyrrell-Ford 008
The blue and white color scheme works very well here. I do think that the ELF OIL logos are a bit too big. The FIRST NATIONAL CITY TRAVELERS CHECKS logo looks good, if a little large. Also, it’s 2017, do people still use travelers checks? I also love seeing a car that is designed to be as aerodynamically perfect, but has a large camera that wrecks that aerodynamically. I give it a B+
Carlos Reutemann races at Monaco in his 1976 #7 Martini Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45
Red works well for a race car, and this shade of red works well. The Martini stripes are very good as a design. The stripes look good on the sides, tail, and front. I also like the diagonally positioned number on the sides. The plain white stripes do look a bit out of business here, but it’s not as bad as some stripes that could be mentioned. It’s a good A- scheme.
Patrick Depailler’s 1976 six wheel #4 ELF Tyrrell-Ford P34 races in the rain in Japan
A good shade of dark blue works well with the white and yellow lettering of the car. I also like that there are two vertical stripes up the sides. What I don’t get is why the car has six wheels. Supposedly, the requirements for the front wing design meant that if teams wanted to keep the wheels within the boundary of the wing, small tires would be needed. Since these small tires didn’t contact the racetrack enough, two extra tires were added to the front. The car did find some success, but the six wheel idea eventually spread to the rear wheels, and then was eliminated altogether. I’m not grading aerodynamic deicing, I’m grading paint schemes, and I’ll give it an A.
Ronnie Peterson races at Zandvort in his 1973 #2 John Player Special Lotus-Ford 72E
Black and metallic gold is a great color combination. Add to that a simple design, black with gold lettering, as well as a simple gold stripe around the driver compartment, and you have a tried and tested recipe for a sold A+ paint scheme.
Peter Revson races in his 1972 #16 McLaren M19C
White, red, and green…what? First off, the green they picked is even worse than piss yellow. Second, the red stripe is too thick. Third, changing the white to either red or green would work a lot better. Also, why in the world isn’t the windshield covering the driver’s face? It’s not even close to being level. What purpose does it serve? All in all, I give it an F
