25/07/2025 12:10
F1 is to trial a new system of car branding during the Belgian GP
to help make it easier for drivers to identify drivers. Currently,
each team must clearly display the driver's chosen race number, and
their name on the car, and allocate a yellow T-camera to one of
their drivers so fans can distinguish between the two. However,
the numbers and names can sometimes be hard to make out given the
livery colours, and so for the Spa weekend, F1 is trialling a
system where the driver's three-letter name abbreviations will be
placed around the onboard T-camera. The three-letter codes, which
will be the same as used on the timing screens, will be present on
either side of the camera, and placed on top of the roll-over hoop,
meaning any onboard will clearly show the letters. For every driver
on the grid, their three-letter code is simply the first three
letters of their surname, meaning Max Verstappen will be 'VER',
Lewis Hamilton 'HAM', Lando Norris (NOR) and so on. Below, you can
check out Aston Martin's vision of the new system, featuring
Fernando Alonso (ALO) and Lance Stroll (STR). The last previous
change to F1's identification came in 2017, when the FIA decided to
make the driver numbers bigger, with the driver abbreviation
identifier required on each car from the Spanish GP, although the
lettering requirement was later dropped.
