Xbox, Bethesda, and Alpine F1 Team up For Special Livery

Well, it is certainly a good thing McLaren has decided to do a livery change as well, otherwise I’d be fighting an American over the color of a papaya’s insides. Zak Brown being colorblind aside, F1 tractor manufacturer and French resistance to recent German and Austrian-British dominance in the world of F1, Alpine, have unveiled a special livery ahead of the 2024 Austin GP at Circuit of the Americas. Why am I covering this? Gaming is in the site’s name, what’s motorsport got to do with that?

Well aside from Microsoft (budget Apple at this stage) and Xbox sponsoring Alpine (previously Renault) alongside many others, special liveries in F1 are strange. Unlike the high-speed billboards of NASCAR with the many thousands of stickers for things you’ve never used, F1 tends to be a touch more “elegant” with the designs. The 1999 BAR, 2007’s Honda, and the 1986 Mexican GP winner, the Benetton B186 are the exceptions rather than the rule. Special liveries are a bit more hit-and-miss, looking at you, blue highlights on the 2024 Ferrari.

Alpine is no stranger to the special livery at all this year either, running a Deadpool & Wolverine livery in Belgium. Ditching the blue and pink (or pink and blue) this time, there is a whole lot of orange on that car. Supposedly it is an effort to promote the upcoming Indiana Jones game by Bethesda Softworks (Xbox), though the only notable Indiana Jones thing on it is the game’s logo. Might as well have kept the livery and slapped a sticker on, it would have made the logo pop a bit more.

Alpine joins HAAS as the team puts an Eagle on the red, white, and blue car to remind you that the team is American and not bought out by a politician’s comrade. While that’s the back and middle of the grid sorted, chances are the “papaya” and chrome car sponsored by a very slow, CPU-hungry browser will be near the front. McLaren seemingly taking a page out of its own book from the 2000s. All three cars are one-off specials for this weekend’s Austin GP, a sprint GP weekend starting on the 18th.

Alpine’s newest livery for COTA looks fine but is a little (colorwise) too McLaren. I don’t care what the American says, the McLaren is a shade of orange and anyone who wants to gaslight me into thinking this Indiana Jones and the Great Circle livery isn’t orange is going to be punched in the head. Maybe like the Sauber, in the light and up close it will look better than the renders we’re shown for press and social media. The best thing I can say about it is that I’m glad there is color, I just wish it was something unique at a glance on the grid.