Formula 1 revealed the new logo that will see in a new era for the sport from 2018, making it more relevant to the digital and mobile age we live in today.
The design, which was unveiled shortly after the conclusion of the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday, is a much more simplified and flexible image that should work across all digital platforms and give management more scope to get the F1 brand out there and engage with fan across the world.
The rebrand is to be the next stage in Liberty Media’s plans to shake-up Formula 1, making it more exciting, entertaining and accessible to fans, and came about following an in-depth research campaign that asked F1 fans to give their opinion on how the sport needs to improve.
F1 Marketing head Ellie Norman believes it is this research that defined the path they took in changing the identity of the sport.
“Fans want to heighten their association with Formula 1 through the drivers, competition, the human side of the sport and the feeling of being on the edge when watching wheel-to-wheel racing.
“This moves us away from the perception of F1 being inaccessible and just about the cars and business.”
The concept behind the new image is of two cars battling for the finish line, made up of three simple shapes that form an ‘F’ and a ‘1’, mean to convey the speed of the cars and the bends of a racetrack, and Norman believes it is the perfect design for today’s market.
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- Credit: Wieden + Kennedy
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- Credit: Wieden + Kennedy
“It takes inspiration from the low profile shape of the car, two cars crossing a finish line.
“It is incredibly bold and simple – so as we apply this in today’s market and being mobile and digital led, we have much more flexibility and versatility with this logo.”
F1 Commercial Chief Sean Bratches, explained how the current logo, used for 23 years, though certainly iconic, was no longer relevant or useful today, The American believes the sport needed to move with the times like other big brand names, such as Coca-Cola, who had made a similar change to great success.
“You cannot stitch the old logo chevron to the right. A number of brands, particularly in this day and age, are trying to simplify their marks to enter the digital space.
“Look at Starbucks, or Coca Cola which has taken the condensation off their logo to enter digital. We felt we had to go a little bit further and really retool to position us on a going forward basis.”
Bratches says that although the old logo served its purpose well for so long, the principal behind it, i.e. the hidden ‘1’ in the middle of the two characters, does not come through so well on the digital platform, and a more basic and clear design was needed.
“We hold in high regard the incumbent mark. It served F1 extremely well over the past 23 years, but in terms of where we are taking the business and our vision for the business, it is the negative space in the ‘1’ doesn’t come through candidly in digital.
“If I were to have a poll of the number of people I’ve met and discussed the mark since I have gotten here, many of them have gone years and years without understanding the invisible space between the left and the right is actually a ‘1’.
“So we wanted to keep it simple and clear. That is important for the digital space.”
A brand re-launch event will take place ahead of the 2018 Formula 1 season, to introduce the logo, as well as other changes that Bratches is extremely excited about.
“We are going to re-launch the brand, and we are going to introduce a new graphic package for our television production.
“We are going to outline a new production concept – unveil a brand new responsive web platform, new social capabilities, a live and a non-live OTT platform.”
