Why do all F1 cars look the same? The reason teams have gone big on all-black as they shave off milliseconds in 2024

THE 2024 F1 season is fast approaching and the teams have begun to unveil their cars - but some fans have been left wondering: 'why do they all look the same?'

As the days of brightly coloured liveries and eye-catching corporate sponsorship seemingly fall to the wayside, we look into how the sport's big dogs are taking extreme measures to trim down their track times.

All 10 teams for the new season have now unveiled their cars, with many cutting back heavily on the paintwork.

Mercedes, Williams, Haas and Alpine's offerings are all dominated by black, with a few flashes of colour and some exceptions made for sponsor badges.

The latter in particular is a far cry from the bright pink machine they brought to races last year, while Williams has toned down its traditional blue quite noticeably.

Even Ferrari, famed for its electric red liveries, has seemingly cut back, with darker patches visible on the bodywork.

And dominant title holders Red Bull didn't buck the trend as they revealed their "bold" and "aggressive" new design.

So, in a sport full of clashing personalities and fierce rivalry, why are all the teams taking such remarkably similar approaches?

Well, like most things in F1, it comes down to cutting lap times by stripping out weight to an extreme extent.

As much as fans pine for the days of eye-catching liveries full of colourful sponsorship logos, the simple fact is that paint is heavy.

Beat Zehnder, currently the Sporting Director at the Stake team (rebranded this year from Alfa Romeo), has stated that a full-colour design can add as much as 6kg to a car.

In the world of F1 where every milligram matters, that sort of extra weight is simply unaffordable.

Instead, designers are now throwing down their paintbrushes and opting to leave much of the car's carbon fibre body exposed.

Not only does it allow teams to save weight, but they can also add some of it back strategically in other areas of the car to lower its centre of gravity and improve distribution.

This can make the cars more aerodynamic and easier to handle at high and low speeds.

However, there are reports that the sport's bosses could begin to impose some limits on the stripping down of paint over concerns that the cars are losing out on identifiability, especially for casual fans.