EXCLUSIVE: Qatar Airways Unveils New Special Livery

Qatar Airways recently signed a new deal with Formula One earlier this year, replacing Gulf competitor Emirates as the official airline partner.

To commemorate this new partnership, Qatar Airways unveiled a brand new Formula One special livery on one of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

What is Formula One?

Formula One, commonly known as F1, is motorsport and the highest class of international racing. It involves different teams competing in various Grand Prix races offered all over the world.

What distinguishes F1 from other racing brands such as NASCAR is the type of vehicles seen in its races. Formula One teams each engineer their own open-wheel, single-seater cars which are much lighter and thus more aerodynamic than NASCAR cars for example.

This fact makes watching Formula One races quite thrilling, and thus why this motorsport has become a worldwide sensation.

Qatar Airways Sponsorship

Formula One has been a hit in the Gulf region for quite some time. Abu Dhabi, UAE has hosted its namesake Grand Prix since 2009 with hometown carrier Etihad Airways sponsoring the event since then.

Fellow UAE-based carrier Emirates has been Formula One's official airline partner for the last decade. However, Emirates reportedly canceled its contract with F1 because the latter was asking for too much money in return for a sponsorship.

According to Sports Business, F1 was looking for over double the original $25 million per year amount that Emirates had been paying most recently from 2018 to 2022.

With Emirates backing out, Qatar Airways snapped up the new F1 offer. Reports suggest that the new offer was worth around $46 million per year for ten years.

Qatar Airways has now become the Global Partner and Official Airline of Formula One and will remain such through the 2027 season.

New Special Livery

To celebrate its new F1 partnership, Qatar Airways quietly rolled out a new special livery in early August. The aircraft wearing this new scheme is A7-BEL, one of the carrier's Boeing 777-300ER jets.

This 777 first flew in July 2017, making it just over six years old. It's fitted with 42 QSuite Business Class seats and 312 Economy Class seats.

A7-BEL's first revenue service with its new scheme was on August 3rd from Doha to Bengaluru, India. Upon arrival back in Doha, it operated its first intercontinental flight in the new paint, a service out to Chicago O'Hare, IL.

Qatar Airways operate its 777-300ER fleet to virtually all corners of the world. These aircraft are seen operating routes to North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia. As such, avgeeks will be glad to hear that if their local airport is served by Qatar 777-300ERs, this special livery is sure to make an appearance sooner or later.

With the new Qatar Airways-F1 partnership lasting through 2027, it's safe to say that this special livery will be around for quite some time.

Qatar Airways excitedly awaits the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix which will be held in Doha from October 6th through 8th. Formula One will be hosting more Grand Prix races later in October and November, as well.

Austin, Texas and Mexico City will both host races in late October, while Sao Paulo and Las Vegas will host races in November.