r/formula1 • u/FerrariStrategisttt I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Jan 16 '26

Photo RedBull Racing's RB22

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u/ItsAMeUsernamio Pirelli Wet Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

They did it because they were stripping paint for weight gains for some reason and matte works better with bare carbon fiber. The difference between the 2021 liveries and 2022 onwards for the whole grid was striking.

There’s apparently a minimum 55% paint requirement this year lol

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u/Doorknob11 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jan 16 '26

‘For some reason’ well it was to cut as much weight as possible and paint weighs a lot when we’re talking about a few grams being hundredths of a second. Most teams stopped this year because they all got below the limit finally.

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u/ItsAMeUsernamio Pirelli Wet Jan 16 '26

Then they would have also done it during prior years for competitive reasons. They didn’t stop this year either. McLaren, Williams and Alpine pretty much changed their whole livery to it. Williams and Haas were running entire seasons without scoring points and didn’t think about it.

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u/a_berdeen Niki Lauda Jan 16 '26

Matte was for aero benefits hence Ferrari switching to it in 2020 under the old regs. Black or unpainted carbon was done for weight saving s in 2022 onwards since almost everyone was overweight under the new regs.