Formula One sponsorship liveries have been used since the 1968 season. Before the arrival of sponsorship liveries in 1968 the nationality of the team determined the colour of a car entered by the team, e.g. cars entered by Italian teams were rosso corsa red, cars entered by French teams were bleu de France blue, and cars entered by British teams (with several exceptions, such as cars entered by teams Rob Walker, Brabham and McLaren) were British racing green. Major sponsors such as BP, Shell, and Firestone had pulled out of the sport ahead of this season, prompting the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile to allow unrestricted sponsorship.

Team Gunston became the first Formula One team to implement sponsorship brands as a livery on their Brabham car, which privately entered for John Love in orange, brown and gold colours of Gunston cigarettes in the first race of the 1968 season, the 1968 South African Grand Prix, on 1 January 1968. In the next race, the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, Team Lotus became the first works team to follow this example, with Graham Hill's Lotus 49B entered in the red, gold and white colors of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand. With rising costs in Formula One, sponsors becoming more important and thus liveries reflected the teams' sponsors.

Tobacco advertising was common in motorsport; as bans spread throughout the world, teams began using an alternate livery which alluded to the tobacco sponsor. At historical events, cars are allowed to use the livery which was used when the car was actively competing.