Mercedes has committed to a black livery, even after Lewis Hamilton has departed.
Lewis Hamilton may be saying goodbye to Mercedes ahead of the 2025 season, but you can expect his influence to remain at the Brackley-based organization.
Per Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, the seven-time World Champion has had a very specific impact on the development of the Mercedes W16.
The Lewis Hamilton influence on Mercedes’ W16
For the first time in over a decade, Lewis Hamilton will not be joining Mercedes in launching a new Formula 1 car. Rather, the seven-time World Champion is heading off to begin the next stage of his career with the inimitable Scuderia Ferrari.
But Toto Wolff had stated that the driver will still play a role in influencing the team’s upcoming challenger, the W16.
Speaking to Channel 4 in Abu Dhabi, Wolff took a moment to praise his longtime driver.
“He’s a global phenomenon, and for sure, he played a role in positioning the Mercedes brand a little bit more edgy, a little bit more contemporary and extravagant,” Wolff said.
“But then the impact he had on the team in terms of diversity — you know, we have a large part of our population today from underrepresented groups, and it’s going to make us strong, because it’s different cultures, different perceptions and perspectives.
“He made us kneel when we needed to do it, and he helped us to do the car black, and it’s gonna stay black. We’re not bailing out of there.”
It’s that last statement — that Mercedes will retain black elements on its W16, that highlights Hamilton’s ongoing influence at the German team.
Mercedes is one of the few teams on the Formula 1 grid that has retained close ties to the silver color scheme that became synonymous with Germany’s motorsport might in the pre-World War II era.
Though white was traditionally Germany’s national racing color, Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union began running bare, unpainted aluminum chassis in the 1930s; the contemporary F1 team rejoined the grid with a nod to its silver-liveried heritage.
In 2020, though, Mercedes opted to swap to an all-black livery in order to show “support for diversity” and to make “a stand against racism and discrimination everywhere,” per a Formula1.com article in 2021.
Lewis Hamilton became deeply involved in advocating for social and racial justice in the early 2020s, using his platform to highlight injustices committed against Black Americans like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
The black Mercedes livery, then, was a show of solidarity for marginalized communities, and was only part of greater diversity initiatives within the Mercedes team.
The W13 of 2022 returned to a silver color scheme, though the W14 and W15 both adopted a black livery — though this time, it was in an attempt to save weight by leaving the raw carbon fiber unpainted.
