Stake Sauber F1 arrived this week in Las Vegas with a livery that signals equal parts celebration and farewell. With only three races remaining in the team’s most recent green-and-black attire before Audi formally begins its takeover, the squad from Hinwil has wrapped its C45 in a checkered flag motif that drapes across the familiar palette like an oversized victory banner. It’s derivative by design—an intentional visual metaphor for this iteration of the team crossing a finish line of its own.
“Checking in for Las Vegas, we think we might have dropped something… 👀🔥🏁,” Sauber teased on social media as the first images went live. Another post captured the sentiment even more pointedly: “With only three rounds left in green, @stakef1team have unveiled this special Las Vegas livery as they race towards the season finale 🏁.”
If last week’s reveal of Audi’s conceptual F1 livery signaled the future direction of the program—a clean, geometric, high-contrast vision that previews the look of the 2026 works entry—then Sauber’s Vegas look is an intentional bookend on the Stake era. The checkered flag pattern isn’t subtle, wrapping over the car’s surfaces like a souvenir waved at the strip-side finish line.
“Ready to make moves on our final laps 🏁🔥💚,” the team posted, leaning into the symbolism.
FOND FAREWELL IN AN ERA OF PEAK SPECIAL LIVERIES
Sauber’s Vegas send-off arrives at a moment when Formula 1 has been enriched—critics might say saturated—by a wave of event-specific liveries. In 2025, Ferrari ran its special blue accents for Miami, Red Bull shocked everyone with a wildly pink RB21, McLaren brought back silver for the British Grand Prix in partnership with Google Chrome, and Williams delivered a full-tilt Gulf Racing tribute for São Paulo. That’s only a sampling; nearly every team has experimented with destination-inspired looks.
These one-off designs have quietly become part of Formula 1’s culture. They generate engagement, offer creative storytelling, allow sponsors to experiment, and often create one-race collectibles in an age when visual variety is increasingly rare. Fans plan wallpapers around them. Brands anchor campaigns around them. Teams use them to differentiate and energize key markets.
NEW 2026 F1 RULEBOOK SETS THROTTLE LIMIT ON SPECIAL LIVERIES
In the last few weeks, there’s been more and more livery talk around the paddock. F1-focused media (including from AutoWeek) have begun to pick up the story focusing on 2025 livery regulations that could limit just how far teams can go with race-specific designs like the one Sauber just revealed. While the full ruleset isn’t yet public, the direction appears to emphasize consistency—ensuring cars remain visually recognizable at all times for both fans and F1’s expanding global broadcast ecosystem.
Via that AutoWeek story, the statement following a meeting of the F1 commission spoke to the thinking here.
“Following discussions with the Technical Advisory Committee, the topic of a minimum surface requirement limit for car liveries in 2026 was discussed
“It was agreed by Commission representatives that a minimum of 55% of surface area (when viewed from the side and above) must be covered by painted or stickered liveries as opposed to bare carbon fibre surfaces.
“The objective of this measure is to increase visual differentiation between cars.”
At the same time, the meeting appeared to suggest rules around driver-selected car numbers may be relaxed. An account by The-Race.com quotes that part of the statement.
“It was agreed that a proposal for drivers to change their numbers during their career would be permitted,”
From a commercial and storytelling standpoint, some worry this could dampen the increasingly playful livery experimentation seen in recent seasons. The sport’s visual identity has become part of the show, and limiting these one-off creations feels, to some, like cutting one of the few places where teams can still inject personality.
Which makes Sauber’s Las Vegas checkered-flag send-off all the more poignant. It’s not just marking the end of the Stake era—it may also represent the closing chapter of Formula 1’s wild, colorful, marketing-driven livery renaissance.
It’s important to note that final rules have yet to be clearly defined. Let’s hope those rules continue to support this era of livery creativity that contributes to one element that helps make Formula 1 so engaging. And, should Lando Norris lock down the championship, perhaps he’d be willing to share the #4 with the brand of the four rings as he takes on the champion’s #1.
Back to Suaber and their Las Vegas livery, let’s all wish them luck as they close off the Sauber era. While I’m looking forward to Audi, there’s a lot of rich history associated with teh Sauber name that’s worth our not forgetting.
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