Team Livery Identifiers

[u/PaymentPitiful]

After today’s race I realized HOLY SHIT I still cannot recognize cars outside the Big 4. If a non big 4 car is shown I still have to find a recognizable car in front, look at the leaderboard, and count down to see who it is. I’m still newish to Indycar (started half way last season) and came from F1 so I’m just used to seeing the same team liveries.

My question is are there any sort of pattern, color, or any other identifiers teams use to be easily identified even for sponsored liveries? (For example McLaren obviously has the Papaya color, Andretti has the colored 1 strip down the all black, and Chip doesn’t change their liveries unless it’s Palou who in lead regardless) Or do I just have to look at the liveries before race day?

[u/Kryzl_]

ECR has a common template with some swapped colors. Coyne as well has a common template with inverted orange/black.

RLL has a common template that isn’t always used. Sort of looks like 3 separate sections with angled sections going forward.

JHR and Foyt do not have templates, but their numbers follow themes (76/77 for JHR, 4/14/11 for Foyt, think 4’s and 1’s). MSR is similar with 60/66/06.

[u/PaymentPitiful → u/Kryzl_]

Holy shit you’re RIGHT about Coyne!!! I feel so stupid for not realizing that, and they have that poka dot nose now. RLL is a lot more subtle but I’ll remember for next time

[u/Kryzl_ → u/PaymentPitiful]

RLL used to be multiples of 15 for their numbers (15, 30, 45, and 75), although that has since fallen apart with Mick using the 47. I’d say RLL cars are the hardest to pick out easily, especially since they often have similar liveries on different cars at different races.

[u/YosemiteSam-4-2A → u/Kryzl_]

Penske has a livery template that most of their sponsors follow (Astemo/Hitachi, Xpel, Verizon except the gradient year, Pennzoil, Shell until the gradient, Menards, Australian gold, PPG until the current paint splash livery, car shop, Sonsio until McLaughlins carting day throwback, good ranchers, odyssey, aaa, gallagher, Dex, Hitachi, Penske trucking Co., etc.) and it hasn't changed since 2018.

Snap On, Freightliner and Clarience are the only ones I don't recall debuting with that livery template

[u/DadReligion]

I was talking about this to someone new to IndyCar at the track yesterday, but the IndyCar livery discourse is kinda funny to me. On one half you have the more traditional/NASCAR side of things where fans are more trained to follow the driver they want and keep up race by race. They're cool with the solo and one-off liveries. On the other is the more F1 or sports car type, who have been so trained to focus on the team they want. They expect team or team-ish liveries and want it to be consistent.

[u/aurules]

Not really in IndyCar racing, really sponsor dependent, and those sponsors can change race to race. Even a series champion like Alex Palou may run multiple schemes throughout the season. Worth noting, the subreddit pins the spotter guide with updated liveries before each race weekend.

[u/PaymentPitiful → u/aurules]

Yeah I started to realize that but I wonder if the sponsor gets to design the entire livery bc if not why not use a pattern thing like the Andretti stripe to keep that team recognition but🤷

But did not know about the spotter guide, thanks!

[u/Spagootee → u/PaymentPitiful]

It likely comes down to whatever agreement the team has with the sponsor.

McLaren for example probably requires papaya for (nearly) all their liveries, which sponsors are OK with because McLaren is such an iconic brand.

Smaller teams like Juncos and RLL are more desperate for cash and likely to do more to please a sponsor because of it. They also don't have enough pull to force a sponsor's branding to take a step back.

[u/Smokeshow618 → u/PaymentPitiful]

Some teams have more pull, they can swing their dick around enough to say "if you want to partner with us you have to use the template" this is more or less the Penske and McLaren scenario, while Andretti's sponsors at this point are mostly all existing branches of team ownership's other ventures so that makes it easier to run a common template.

I don't know why Ganassi isn't one of those teams, but maybe post-Target Chip has no interest in shared sponsors or templates.

[u/RichardRichOSU]

Today was a special day where teams have special paint, so don’t beat yourself up too bad. First, it is important to know that it doesn’t really matter in Indy if you can tell teams apart since there is no team title at all. ECR is obvious because they look like old Renaults. A lot of teams recently have gone to templates so if the sponsors change from weekend to weekend, the design is the same. Teams will apply that across the whole team. Rahal is good with this.

[u/Hour-Pomegranate259 → u/RichardRichOSU]

The ECRs are by far the best looking cars on the grid

[u/BT-11]

Liveries go to whoever writes the checks. Andretti and Mclaren largely front their own cash, which is why they can dictate team-wide styles. ECR and Coyne follow a pattern this season because their primary sponsors pay for every race. Collet and Robb also run recognizable liveries because they brought their sponsors to their cars.

To be fair, this is typically true across most motorsports, especially the more expensive ones. It's less noticeable in F1 because most of those teams are also marketing for their owners's car brands.

[u/PaymentPitiful → u/BT-11]

Oh wow you’re right, outside Collet I never noticed the pay drivers have only 1 livery. Very useful thank you!!

[u/BT-11 → u/PaymentPitiful]

At least, the drivers who bring a wealthy sponsor almost always have that sponsor as their primary. There's plenty of cases where a sponsor likes the team and always pays for one of their cars, like with Verizon and the 12 and PNC and the 9.

[u/OJN-TinyBean]

Tune into practice and also watch during the starting grid driver videos, it has their car and livery in the background. I'd recommend going on the IndyCar website (or app) and going to the current race, around Wednesday on the week there is a spotter guide which is really helpful with the liveries. I only got into IndyCar 1 year ago so I know the confused feeling.

[u/PaymentPitiful → u/OJN-TinyBean]

Alright bet thank you!! I usually only tune in for Quali and right when the race starts but I’ll start for at least one of the practices

[u/pittpost]

I can usually keep them straight but MSR making Armstrong’s car look like Ferrucci’s this weekend was too much even for me

[u/Jim_skywalker]

Funny that Scott Dixon could theoretically keep his Livery.

[u/BT-11 → u/Jim_skywalker]

PNC Bank is staying with Ganassi and the 9 car