Qatar Airways Reveals New Formula 1 Boeing 777 Livery

Earlier this year in February and after a few rounds of rumors, the multi-year partnership between Formula 1 and Qatar Airways was officially announced. This new partnership would see the airline taking the title sponsorship of three races this season, including trackside and digital branding inventory that will be showcased to Formula 1’s worldwide audience.

Official airline of Formula 1

And for only the second time in history, the race will head back to Qatar for the Qatar Airways Grand Prix from October 6th to the 8th as one of the sponsored races this season. Given such a rare race occurrence, one can bet plenty of motorsport fanatics will be rushing into the country to catch the live driving action – and the oneworld alliance member will undoubtedly take advantage of this demand to ramp up marketing.

Besides the trackside and digital branding inventory, Qatar Airways being the official global partner and airline of Formula 1 signifies how an aircraft sporting a very special livery was undoubtedly in the works in support of this new partnership and to raise awareness about all the motorsport events taking place in Qatar this year. But what aircraft will it be, and what will the livery look like?

Revealing the Formula 1 livery

The long-awaited reveal finally happened a few days ago when the airline posted a short video across all its social media platforms, although the aircraft has been flying in the new colors since two weeks ago. And contrary to the initial popular belief that the airline’s flagship Airbus A350 or the Boeing 787 Dreamliner will bear the special livery, it’s one of its Boeing 777-300ERs that was chosen.

Registered A7-BEL, the Boeing widebody last flew with the standard Qatar Airways livery on July 18th before being temporarily grounded for two weeks in Doha as the new sporting livery was applied. Interestingly, this aircraft was also one of a handful within the airline’s fleet that had the FIFA World Cup logo painted on its rear end from October last year till February this year, when Qatar hosted the global sporting event. So perhaps it’s not surprising why A7-BEL was picked this time.

And in better detail, the special livery – dubbed the ‘Official Global Airline Partner of Formula 1’ special livery, shows the Formula 1 logo on the rear end of the fuselage, with a driver shown on the forward section just before the Qatar Airways title. The airline’s signature color palette of purple, maroon, and black was used to ensure the Formula 1 aspect of the new livery blended seamlessly with the rest of the standard Qatar Airways livery.

Bottom line

While it is relatively simple, the special livery is pretty well designed to become a visual treat for passengers and planespotters alike. Given how special liveries work, A7-BEL will likely wear its new colors at least until the end of this year or early next year. And despite the partnership lasting till the end of the 2027 season, the livery will likely be scrubbed way before that.

What do you think of the special livery? Let us know in the comments below.