Flower power: Haas adopts cherry blossom livery for Japanese GP

Well then, that’s the First Special Livery of the 2025 F1 Season Un-official Sweepstake settled nice ‘n’ early. If you guessed ‘race #3’ and ‘Haas’, please proceed to the comments section to collect your prize of adulation and a digital pat on the back.

Haas will become the first team in the field to mix up its paintjob (read ‘vinyl sticker assortment’) at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend, with the flowery number you see above.

It’s a celebration of sakura (cherry blossom to you and we – the region around Suzuka is teeming with it at this time of year), apparently for no other reason than the art team at Haas just felt like it. We salute this logic.

And so there’s cherry blossom everywhere: on the front wing, the nose cone, the sidepods… heck, we wouldn’t be surprised if Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman’s race overalls are covered in the stuff.

It might not be to everyone’s tastes, but we like that Haas has let the designers go nuts with the whole car, and not just bits of it for stingy, marketing/weight-saving reasons.

Now go further with it: Edelweiss at the Austrian GP, Tulips for the Dutch Grand Prix, and Dandelions for Silverstone…