Formula One debuts new series logo at Abu Dhabi

Perhaps flying under the radar a bit in the season finale for Formula One at Abu Dhabi was the new series logo that debuted during the victory celebration.

The 2017 Formula One season finale was the end of many things in the world championship. It was the end of a year that saw a great battle for the title between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel. It was also the end of Formula One coverage in America on NBC Sports. And finally, it was the end of the old F1 logo.

At the podium celebration following Valtteri Bottas’ win on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, Formula One debuted a new, simpler logo for the 2018 season and beyond. It is all part of a rebranding effort by new owners Liberty Media to put their stamp on the sport. The new “racing” logo replaces the old F1 logo with the number subtly hidden.

Formula One marketing chief Ellie Norman had this to say about the inspiration for the new design:

"“It takes inspiration from the low profile shape of the car, two cars crossing a finish line. It is incredibly bold and simple – so as we apply this in today’s market and being mobile and digital led, we have much more flexibility and versatility with this logo.”"

After an amazing season – a new #F1 era awaits

Our greatest races are ahead of us
#Unleash2018 pic.twitter.com/1g0KSjeVhj
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 26, 2017

Formula One commercial director Sean Bratches explained the timing of the move and how the change can help the sport build for the future:

"“From a broader perspective we would like to include this in a much larger brand relaunch which will take place in March, where we are going to relaunch the brand and introduce a new graphic package for our television production. We are going to unveil a new production conceit, unveil a brand new responsive web platform, social capabilities, a live- and non-live OTT platform.“Because this is Formula 1 and we have to prepare for the future, the last grand prix concludes today, so we needed to provision this mark to our promoters, our sponsors, our broadcast partners. We have a new merchandise partner next year, we’re going to have a massive store – you’re not going to be leaning over tables to buy stuff, there’s going to be fixtures and changing rooms, so we had to provision the mark early. So we thought this was an opportune time to outline what we feel is a mark that will take us into the future.”"