Why do IndyCar teams frequently change car liveries in a season unlike F1?

F1 and IndyCar teams often compete with each other for racing space, but the two championships have different rules on the livery designs that teams can incorporate on their cars. While the American racing league allows complete freedom for the change of racing liveries every race weekend, F1 follows a more stringent rule on the paint schemes.

The premier open-wheel racing championship in the United States was incepted before F1. Though both series got running midway by the 20th century, liveries on the racecars remained plain and focused on representing national colors.

However, by the end of the 1960s, sponsors started gaining presence on cars and started a trend for teams to sideline their financial expenses by selling spaces on cars. This has now resulted in some iconic liveries in every racing championship worldwide.

With both IndyCar and F1 being the most viewed forms of open-wheel racing, the two racing championships follow entirely different sets of rules for policing the liveries that racecars can run. The former racing league allows the teams freedom to run different paint jobs for their various charters, as not every team has a season-long deal with sponsors.

This is due to the high cost of a 17-race-long package for sponsors, who intend to buy their name on the car for a particular period. So, various squads can opt to pitch single-race livery proposals (like Alex Palou's Alabama Grand Prix Honda livery). Whereas, F1 has stringent rules for teams having to run more or less the same paint jobs on both of the team's cars.

Though F1 teams have also begun making special race liveries for certain race weekends (McLaren's Monaco GP liveries, Ferrari's Italian GP liveries, etc.), teams still run a consistent paint scheme over the year due to sponsorship commitments.

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What does liveries mean for drivers in the IndyCar series

Alex Palou at the NTT IndyCar Series XPEL Grand Prix at Road America - Source: Getty

With IndyCar allowing teams to have greater freedom, drivers are often witnessed in starkly different liveries and race overalls throughout the year. One such driver has been Alex Palou in the 2025 season.

DHL is a primary sponsor of the Spaniard, but he has run three different paint schemes this year and won in all three of them. Talking about the importance of a race livery, he said last year, via IndyStar:

"The ones I win in are my favorites. Whenever you win and you're successful with a car or livery, you appreciate it more. It just goes to another level; it's not only physical, I think it's more emotional.

Meanwhile, others focus on remaining consistent in the portrayal of their cars, as Scott Dixon has rarely ever run a special livery, and is synonymous with the orange and blue PNC Bank livery. Opening up on the same, he said:

"It’s nice when people immediately see it and they know exactly what it is. That’s huge for our brands."

The next IndyCar race will take place at Mid-Ohio on July 6.