F1 Logo history

Over 70 years, the pinnacle of motorsports Formula One has changed drastically. From the cars, the tracks and even the logo. The roots of Formula One traces back to the European Championship of the 20’s and 30’s. The Foundation of modern Formula One began in 1946 when the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) standardize the rules for the World Championship in 1950. The First Logo for F1 didn’t appear until 1985, which is something I didn’t find until researching, When I was searching for the logo font, I found out that it was to me a mixture of Milwaukee and Chamferwood with picture of the globe to the left. This logo was only used from 1985 to 1986.

In 1987, The F1 logo was changed drastically with word ‘FIA Formula One World Championship’ in Bolded Futura text with a silhouette of a race car, this logo is identical to the Sportscar and Rally World Championship Logo. 

Ahead of the “fateful” 1994 season, Formula 1 reveal its new negative space logo designed by Carter Wong (who also helped design the FIA logo)  This logo is what most formula one fans are more fimila with. Also, the previous logo used before was also still used for the first couple of races of 1994. Between the word F and the Red Swoosh, there’s the number 1. The red represents Passion and Energy and the black represents power and determination. 

This logo was used until the end of 2017 when at the End of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the sport unveiled it’s new logo along with typefaces for the 2018 season onwards. Designed by London-based advertisement agency Wieden + Kennedy, this comes after one year of its acquisition by Liberty Media, Liberty wanted the sport to reach new audiences and to engage with the fans in many different ways. The redesign research took about six months which the agency reached out to thousands of fans across the globe and found out that fans wanted to connect to the human side of F1, through the drivers, competition, and the adrenaline of racing. Richard Turley who led the redesign of the logo said , “The new mark aims to embody the core forces of Formula 1 racing: speed, attack, and control; while its sleek, sharp interlocking components celebrate the technical prowess of Formula 1 engineering teams. 

The Reaction to the new logo was mixed, some people thought the design work was to “amateur” Drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel said they’d prefer the old logo, Then people started to realize that the logo look like the 3M Futuro logo. 3M alleged that the F1 logo infringed their copyright, both logos use a slanted F with two rectangular curved panels. 

Formula One has changed not only cars or tracks, but the logos itself.  For years the sport has tried to rebrand itself for a global audience. Formula One is not just about the cars, the teams or drivers, it’s about speed, passion and identity. I’m sure the current logo will be around for a very long time for the next generations of F1 fans in the future. 

https://www.fastcompany.com/40499523/exclusive-inside-formula-ones-rebranding-strategy

https://us.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-vettel-old-f1-logo-better-new-983410/1380967/

https://thefutur.com/video/f1-formula-1-logo-review-critique

https://www.wk.com/work/formula-1-rebrand/

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