2024 Formula One liveries and predictions: Haas, Williams and Kick Sauber

Komatsu has been pretty up front about how difficult it will be to find that competitiveness. 

"Out of the gates in Bahrain, I still think we're going to be towards the back of the grid, if not last," he said at Haas's livery launch event. "We're all realistic that out launch car in Bahrain will not necessarily turn heads, but our concentration and focus is to work with the VF-24, understand the car and then define the correct pathway to upgrade the car."

With other struggling F1 teams making big gains during this offseason, we think Haas is set for another last-place season. So much for competitiveness.

Team: Williams Racing

Drivers: Alexander Albon (Thailand) and Logan Sargeant (U. S. A.)

Last Season's Placement: Seventh of 10

Williams, one of the most venerated names in F1 racing, has spent the past decade fighting for survival. It suffered through multiple seasons in which it couldn't score so much as a single point, and many worried that it wouldn't survive. But the past two seasons have seen big changes at Williams, and things finally seem to be looking up. New team principal James Vowles, a former Mercedes engineer, has imbued the team with positivity and helped turn Williams into a midfield contender.

Vowles has been clear with the media that Williams isn't aiming for competitiveness in 2024. It's aiming for excellence. 

"Here's what excellence looks like and here's the gap that we've got to fill between those two," he said. "You're not going to do it in one year, that's simply just not possible. But we will get there and we will get there because the perseverance, the belief, the passion is at the highest level I've ever seen."

Finishing seventh was already something of a coup for Williams. We don't see them pressing too much higher in 2024 but could easily see them steadying the ship (or snatching sixth if some other teams underperform.) For a team that wasn't sure if it would survive just a few short years ago, that's an incredible achievement.

Team: Stake F1 Kick Sauber 

Drivers: Valtteri Bottas (Finland) and Zhou Guanyu (China)

Last season's placement: Ninth of 10

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber. It's a mouthful, isn't it? The team formally known as Alfa Romeo unveiled this new sponsor-driven branding a few months ago, and fans and pundits rejected it almost immediately. Don't be surprised if everyone shortens it to Sauber --- the only automotive brand left in the new name -- as the season rolls on.

Kick Sauber spent last season languishing at the back of the pack, looking quite a bit less terrible than Haas but nowhere near the midfield. It received little media coverage in turn, and though the team's wild new branding -- including a color change from black and red to a vibrant neon green -- will turn heads in 2024, it doesn't look like the team's performance will.

With Williams and Visa Cash App RB (formerly known as AlphaTauri) on clear upward trajectories, Kick Sauber is likely to be left in the dust in 2024, alone in the same place it started: ahead of Haas but well behind everyone else. We see it holding steady in ninth for the foreseeable future.