When the young formula 1 team HRT entered its second season in the most competitive motorsport on Earth in 2011, they reached out to Simon to create strong and iconic livery for their car. There was little time, many ideas, hundreds of restrictions and rules; and the car shapes constantly changed throughout Simon’s ideation, which he claims to be “everything that makes F1 what it is.”
“Sport car liveries are an interesting matter,” says Simon. “It is the last thing on the list with no time – but it is 90 percent of what spectators and fans relate to.”
The first thing Simon tackled was to divide the car graphically into attractive red sponsors areas, and zones of freedom — the latter being distorted shapes where no sponsor sticker works. For the sponsor areas, there are many rules – F1 is one of the most expansive marketing fields in sports. Then, Simon filled the free zone with checkered flags and large racing numbers – “a playful, almost retro-romantic racing approach that I missed in this very serious sport,” claims Simon. The last touch was adding little humorous warning messages to resemble the look of modern aircraft. The car became instantly a darling of sport photographers.
The reaction from the team and fans was overwhelming. Colin Kolles, Team Principal of Hispania Racing: “Daniel has created a wonderfully confident look for our new car which really captures the effort the whole team has put into developing the F111. The car design and the graphic design perfectly complement one another and mark the real beginnings of our ambitions.
Despite the extremely successful installment of the red and white look in the media and fan world, the entirely new 2012 management of HRT F1 decided to not carry Simon’s look into the 2012 season and hit a reset button for the team again.”

Press release on F1.com

.
Share

.