The Formula 1 liveries are back with season 1996. Season 1996 – Jacques Villeneuve arrived in F1 and Williams dominated the field with the champion Damon Hill starting from the front row in every single race.
The look of the grid was so much different than a year later in 1997 … This was the last season of the iconic Marlboro dominated red and white McLaren livery, Jordan was on the way to turn yellow but in their first Benson & Hedges season painted their cars gold to match the colour of the ciggy boxes. Benetton changed several logos on their sidepods and also took Kingfisher on board – the first time Vijay Mallya got himself involved in F1. Arrows was called Footwork that year and Forti although folding after 10 races still managed to run 2 very different liveries. The green one was to signal the life saving sponsorship deal with Shannon Racing that however later went sour. This was also the last season for Ligier before Alain Prost turned it into Prost.
Well, and Ferrari car looked rather funny and quite different from the others back then in 1996. But for the first time they had Michael Schumacher in the cockpit…
Williams - Renault
Ferrari
Ferrari (no tobacco)
Benetton - Renault
Benetton - Renault (Prince)
Benetton - Renault (Nordica)
McLaren - Mercedes
Jordan - Peugeot
Jordan - Peugeot
Ligier - Mugen - Honda
Sauber - Ford
Tyrrell - Yamaha
Tyrrell - Yamaha
Footwork - Hart
Footwork - Hart
Minardi - Ford
Forti - Ford
Forti - Ford (Shannon)
on 
Ferrari breaks look slightly overheated
Wow I didn’t remember the ‘Special F1′ logos on the Jordan. I guess that was a non-tobacco version?
The new cockpit sides rules made for some ugly cars in ‘96. But there was a poor crop of liveries too. The Benettons minged.
Also, was this the last year Ferrari had their classic red before making it lighter?
1997 Ferrari did look lighter but I can’t tell if it was the livery or the quality of the pictures
http://www.f1wolf.com/2008/12/formula-1-1997-liveries.html
I’m sure Jordan ran in a slightly different yellow colour scheme (quite a nasty shade of yellow too) from Australia to Monaco before they changed to the gold livery which I quite liked.
The Williams ,Ligier and Jordan gold liveries are really great – there’s just too much going on with the Benetton livery (I think the car looked particularly unsightly as well) – and I really don’t like the TWR-Arrows red/blue colour scheme , the previous one was much nicer on the eye,
I think you are right about Jordan, but further to the past this series goes it is getting increasingly difficult to get the photos
Another champion car comming from Oxfordshire
Will they repeat someday? 
Kotenoks last blog post..F1Wolf added a video:
they may but not while it takes 300-400 million dollars a year just to keep withing a second a lap from the top teams …
Yup, that’s right
I’m aware the cost cuttings is a big need, but not the investment in development should be cutted… After all we all want to see some evolution in these cars. I’m divided by the thoughts of free budget but paying a comission to those who keep the costs down and just hte simple cuts and standard parts that makes the cars more simple. Anyway, Williams has it since long not easy for winning the 10th constructor’s champ.
[...] 1996 Liveries – End of era [...]