HP Decorates Race & Display Cars for the Austin Grand Prix

HP Graphics Solutions technologies created special livery for Scuderia Ferrari HP at the United States Grand Prix in Austin. 

The project combined HP print technologies across two distinct applications: HP Indigo for a dedicated show car featuring ultraviolet (UV) light-responsive graphics, and HP Latex for the race car competing in Austin. 

HP Indigo’s goal was to create a design that would appear as a black-and-white drawing in ambient light and glow blue under UV. To deliver that effect, the HP team built on existing common foundations in printing processes, chemistry, and ink technology to enable Invisible Blue ink on the HP Indigo 200K specifically for this project.

The brief also required the ink to be combined with unconventional vehicle-wrapping material. HP engineers evaluated print modes, primer chemistries, and wrapping materials to solve three problems: adhesion, durability, and flexibility.

The HP team refined software, templates and print files to translate Ferrari’s design from a flat surface onto the car’s complex three-dimensional geometry, using on-vehicle testing to understand how the printed material behaved once applied.

This iterative process helped HP optimize the position, overlay, and coverage of the black and UV inks, adjusting the artwork and print parameters to achieve the desired effect in both ambient and UV light.

Haim Levit, Senior Vice President and Division President, HP Graphics Solutions Business, said: “The most valuable innovation doesn’t end with a single application. The partnership with Scuderia Ferrari HP gives us an exacting creative challenge that brings together expertise from across HP Graphics and pushes us to think differently about what our technology can do. The knowledge we gain – from materials and inks to new production possibilities – can then be taken back to our customers, helping them differentiate their print, expand into new applications and create greater value.”

HP Latex created the look for a race car, building on its vehicle-wrapping expertise. HP Latex was able to reproduce Ferrari’s detailed blueprint-inspired graphics consistently across the car’s complex bodywork using materials and processes designed to meet the durability and thermal performance demands of a Formula 1 race weekend.

This work extends the companies’ ongoing collaboration on digitally printed race liveries using HP Latex technology.