Will Any of the 2025 Liveries Deliver?
One of my favorite times of the year is upon us. No, I’m not talking about the Month of May, or the day of the first IndyCar practice o the season. But it is still special nonetheless. It is when we get to see the new liveries that we will be seeing in the upcoming IndyCar season.
Before the days of the internet, we had to rely on various racing periodicals, hoping to catch a glimpse pf the car our favorite driver would be in for the coming year. Back then, rotating liveries were almost unheard of. When we saw a photo of Raul Boesel in a Duracell livery, we knew what his car would look like the entire season.
That’s not the case so much these days. We saw Josef Newgarden was in his PPG car at Sebring this week, but do we really expect to see him in that car exclusively all season long? Probably not. Will Power has been seen in a new red & white Verizon car. It’s a pretty safe bet he will be in that car most of the season, but sometimes even Verizon breaks out a special scheme for May.
It used to be that Team Penske ran identical Marlboro cars every race of the season. The only difference may have been the color of the roll-hoops and the car number, even in the case of a three car team like in 1994. The present economic environment these days makes that almost impossible. Few companies have it in their budget to fund three cars exclusively for the full season, without another company stepping in to take up the slack.
In one respect, it’s good to see different companies and different paint schemes throughout the season. Scott McLaughlin’s Dex Imaging, Pennzoil and Sonsio liveries are some of the best we saw in 2024. His Xpel livery, not so much. That’s why some variety is good. I would not care to see him drive that Xpel car for all seventeen races.
I came across this seven-minute video of this week’s testing at Sebring. You can get a good look at many of the new liveries we will be seeing in 2025.
While it’s thoroughly enjoyable viewing all of the new schemes for the upcoming season, I’m seeing a trend that I don’t care for. It’s a trend that invaded NFL uniforms a few years ago (thanks, Nike) and it has extended into IndyCar. What look am I talking about? The gradient look. You know, where one color morphs into a totally different color. It’s a fad that has caught on that needs to go away.
Gradient falls into the category of just because you can, doesn’t’ mean you should.
We’ve seen a few examples of it in years past. Newgarden’s PPG car has featured the gradient treatment, as has Scott Dixon’s PNC Bank car. But it has become more widespread this year. Just some of the drivers whose car will sport a gradient livery are, but not limited to, Graham Rahal (5/3 Bank), David Malukas, Santino Ferrucci, Alex Palou, Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong.
There are others out there – some worse than others. Kudos to Andretti Global, Ed Carpenter Racing, PREMA and Juncos Hollinger Racing among others, for resisting the temptation of going gradient.
I’ve made it clear over the years that I don’t follow trends. You can tell that by the way I dress. Over the years, I’ve seen some gorgeous liveries on cars (Al Unser, Jr’s Valvoline livery comes to mind), and I’ve seen some that were hideous (Google Raul Boesel’s 196 Brahma Beer livery). I put the gradient schemes somewhere in the middle. Most of them are not ugly, but they are unnecessary.
Racing is a copycat world. In 1994, Team Penske showed up at the second race of the season, sporting dorsal fins on all three of their cars. When the Month of May rolled around about a month later, most of the field was sporting dorsal fins on their cowlings. They were very ugly to look at, and I’m not sure if anyone proved that they were effective. By the end of the 90s, the dorsal fins were all but extinct. I can only hope that in five years, the gradient look will go the way of the dorsal fin.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 
February 20, 2025 at 7:44 am
For me the two ECR liveries stand out and look fantastic.
February 20, 2025 at 7:55 am
I always look forward to the first reveal of the liveries and see how they pop in the sunlight. Solid, gradient I like them both.
I’m also a big fan of a team running similar schemes, if not colors, think Andretti. I’d swap the base black and the sponsor color to give the car less black but I love the continuity between the team. Same goes for Arrow Mclaren and their play on the black/orange base colors.
The Journie car is the only one that makes me turn my nose, what is going on there?
Most of these look much better in person as the camera just can’t display what our eyes see up close. Newgarden’s PPG livery is an absolute banger. They nailed that one.
February 20, 2025 at 9:13 am
Gradients have not only come for Indycar but also for NASCAR and Formula 1. Still, I counted 1/3 of the grid using some type of gradient based on photos from Sebring, a definitively higher share than those other two series.
Gradients serve some sponsors well (PPG, for one), but in a lot of cases they just unnecessarily complicate the paint scheme and seem to have nothing to do with the sponsor. What on earth the gradients are supposed to convey on the Foyt cars, for example, is beyond me.
As someone who draws a pixel art spotter’s guide for every race I attend and for Indianapolis 500, I can say that gradients are very tedious to draw. They are an interesting challenge to get right, but drawing more than a couple gets old real fast.
February 20, 2025 at 10:01 am
George – Welcome back to Oil Pressure ! ! !
February 20, 2025 at 4:53 pm
DHL-Palou/Shank/Graham/Colton all look great. I am going to be hungry all year watching the Chili’s car every race. Good to see Mi-Jack too. But that Splenda car ugh.
February 21, 2025 at 8:12 am
I think I used to care more about liveries than I do now. I suppose the reason is that I’m just tired of looking at more or less the same car for the past 14 years. No matter how fancy or shiny someone dolls it up, it’s still the same old tired chassis I’ve been watching since the days when I still had hair. So I enjoy the competition and close racing, but there’s absolutely nothing about this car that excites me anymore.