#i get that it's 'iconic' but.... absence makes the heart grow fonder hrc. bring it back as a special livery every half decade

[batsplat]

hai hai i just read ur aliens aesthetics ranking and while yeah i get the boredom with honda's liveries, r any other teams really doing anything interesting w/ their liveries/aesthetics? maybe im just new but i feel like there's too much red on the grid rn

(aesthetic post) there IS too much red on the grid, though the red situation I imagine is about to get somewhat better. my understanding is that tech3's rebrand to bring it more in line with the general ktm ethos (bankruptcy) is also probably going to make it look quite similar to the main ktm. so like. more brown. the perception of a lot of red is also inevitably related to who's WINNING most of the races (and who the tv cameras show). if, say, the top 5 in 2025 is in any order martin, acosta, diggia, marquez and bagnaia... then that'd be two red bikes, a brown bike, a black bike, and a wonderfully yellow bike. red bikes winning THIS much is a disease of the early 2020s and it will eventually pass

I don't think anyone is doing something particularly interesting with their liveries right now... it's specifically repsol honda I'm bullying just for doing the SAME thing for about twenty years. I Would Like to make it very Clear that I don't have anything against the concept per se!! it's literally just... look. if I put on a race in 2005, I might see a yamaha, a ducati and a honda (admittedly in that year probably not a repsol honda but let's ignore that) fighting for position

and if I put on a race in 2010, I might see a yamaha, a ducati and a honda fighting for position

and if I put on a race in 2015, I might see a yamaha, a ducati and a honda fighting for position

and if I put on a race in 2020, I might see a yamaha, a ducati and a honda fighting for position

look, I'm not saying ducati in particular are reinventing the wheel here but... I mean, come on. you've got to admit I've got a point here. also historically yamaha and ducati had the decency to occasionally suck, which meant they're less ever-present on my screen. during the early 2010s for ducati and late 2010s for yamaha, I will be seeing considerably less of them than I do honda. whereas repsol honda only kinda sucked for very select periods in the noughties

so I've just seen too much of that livery!! it's ALWAYS the exact same two shades of orange with the white in between, very minimal variation. at least ducati switches up the shade of red!! obviously honda suck NOW, which has at least caused repsol to pack it in - giving us a quite different livery in 2024 and presumably a completely different livery this year now that repsol's properly gone. except the problem is they suck SO bad that when I try to picture the 2024 honda in my head, what my brain does is 'take a 2002 honda and stretch it out' because I barely SAW the repsol honda on my screen. so the thing that has made the aesthetics more tolerable to me results in me no longer seeing the bike at all. I would actually say last year's honda was one of my favourite liveries!! like. look at it (this post may be the first and last time seeing this bike for some people)

it's nice!! arguably a bit busy with the colours but, again, honestly at this point that's a plus as far as I'm concerned. it's distinctive, clearly recognisable... I mean the repsol thing at the bottom is probably the worst part of that livery and it does feel a bit two concepts at once, but honda's lost repsol now so. fine!

the problem pre-2024 is just how LITTLE variation there was. like I'd even have supported if they just changed the colouring of the front and back bit, as in the aforementioned 2002 livery (ignore how badly the yellow clashes with the orange, admittedly watching two years' worth of races with this guy winning also didn't help my feelings towards that livery)

but even the front thingy is orange from 2006 onwards!! at a certain point I'm just sick of seeing it!! and I get that neither of these liveries would be workable all-year round, but valencia 2003/aragon 2011 did show that there are theoretically different ways you can make a motorcycle orange

also the lack of individual variation between most repsol honda riders over the years... I'm not even getting a bit of a switch-up in colours depending on WHICH honda rider I am currently watching win. compare and contrast the honda and yamaha situation

but to bring it back to like. the actual subject of the ask. I think part of the issue with the current lot is that it's tougher these days anyway to come up with particularly nice designs for these bikes. partly it's because they're rather bulky now. though.... I mean, looking at some of the special liveries from last year silverstone.... the honda in particular made me go 'okay so you guys CAN come up with nice designs'. also people understandably ragged on vr46 for not just copying one of the countless nice liveries valentino had over the years, but I actually reckon I'd quite like it as a normal livery. nothing special in a still photo but it looked really nice in action tbh, partly because.... again. it does have to be said that the yellow in moderation does wonders for visibility

the vr46 livery does, however, kinda point to the big problem.... sponsorships. too many bloody sponsorships. it's really escalated over the past decade and it just makes it harder to do nice stuff with your liveries. in a way you HAVE to keep it simple so there's enough space for all the clutter. this is why pecco had his extremely justified whinge about HIS special livery last year

yes, ducati did half-ass it, but a big problem is the massive lenovo logo. also, the energy drinks. I don't massively mind either logo per se but I'm also sick of seeing those by now and it's not really making me more inclined to buy either brand if I'm being honest. though the worst sin there is still not what they put on the helmets or leathers or bikes or whatever else they can get their hands on - it's how they make the riders awkwardly carry the cans every time they pose on the podium. the only things riders should be holding on podiums is helmets and each other

anyway in terms of current teams' liveries (just going off 2024 since we've only seen a couple new ones)... I mean, look, you might dislike it on grounds of 'taste' or 'basic aesthetic sensibility' or 'health of your ocular nerve' but the vr46 livery unquestionably clears the 'doing something interesting' hurdle. I don't massively mind the yamaha livery per se but I DO mind that they stopped updating it several years ago, and I've already made my feelings on THAT kind of behaviour very clear. ducati I think could do with a slightly brighter livery again. ktm looks Fine but it's also mostly just a massive red bull logo, which... I've seen enough of. as previously discussed wrt gresini... I do think they were doing something interesting with the red stripes, it's just that I'm not a massive fan of the actual bike colour

I liked pramac last year and the year before!! I'm not saying I think the purple/red combo is the height of good taste - but it's clearly visible, memorable, and at least they're doing SOMETHING

it's more interesting than the blue and red they used to have - I think the one with the white base colour probably works better, especially given how dark a lot of the bikes it's fighting were, though I genuinely did like both

and the other one that's generally a winner year on year is aprilia

which, yes, it's mostly just a black bike. but it uses its highlights well - including on the livery - and the black base colour means that it doesn't look super cluttered with the sponsors. also aprilia doesn't have a title sponsor to take up a lot of space anyway, and their poverty is our gain

in conclusion. I really do just think teams should properly switch up their liveries every few years. I'm not even super picky WHAT the switch up is, it's just about giving my eyes something new to look at every now and again. this post is two years too late since honda has by now at last listened to my advice and lost their biggest sponsor because they suck so badly. but unfortunately they have left me with an obscenely large back catalogue of races featuring hondas that look too similar to each other, which. disappointing