Why is DHL yellow and red? Because in the 2003 relaunch of the brand DHL’s historic red was combined with the yellow of Deutsche Post, which had taken over all the shares in December 2002. According to Eddie Jordan, whose team raced in yellow, he was the one who convinced DHL during his 2002 sponsorship deal: that version is not confirmed by DHL. The verified link with Formula 1 is a different one: DHL was Jordan’s title sponsor in 2002 and has been Formula 1’s Official Logistics Partner since 2004.

Updated in October 2026.

In February 2002, in a DHL hangar at Brussels airport, Jordan unveiled the EJ12: yellow as always, with the red DHL logo on its sidepods (Grand Prix.com, Heritage F1). Today that yellow is the colour of one of the most recognisable logistics companies in the world. How much Formula 1 weighed in that choice is a matter of documents, of stories and of a yellow suit: here we keep the three apart.

The DHL logo at a glance

• The yellow in the DHL logo is Deutsche Post’s yellow, combined with DHL red in the brand relaunch announced in March 2003 (Horizont, Transform Magazine).
• In 2002 the Jordan F1 team, which raced in yellow, had DHL as title sponsor and became “DHL Jordan Honda” (Sportcal, Grand Prix.com).
• Eddie Jordan says he convinced DHL to turn yellow, with a fee for the use of “Jordan yellow” for twenty years: a version not confirmed by DHL (News24, Balls.ie).
• DHL has been Formula 1’s Official Logistics Partner since 2004 and renewed the deal in February 2024 for several years (Formula1.com, DHL).
• In F1 DHL moves more than a thousand tonnes of freight at every race and sponsors two awards: the Fastest Lap Award and the Fastest Pit Stop Award (DHL, Formula1.com).

Why is DHL yellow? The 2003 relaunch: what is documented

DHL was born in 1969 in San Francisco and its name is formed from the initials of its three founders: Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn (Wikipedia). Deutsche Post began buying shares in 1998, gained control in 2001 and took over all the shares in December 2002 (Wikipedia).

On 6 March 2003 the group announced the relaunch of DHL as the single brand for express and logistics, with an investment of 125 million euros over three years: Euro Express and Danzas disappeared as stand-alone brands and DHL’s red was combined with Deutsche Post’s yellow (Horizont). Transform Magazine describes the same move: “Post yellow” is added to the DHL brand to signal the integration (Transform Magazine). Neither source gives Formula 1 as a reason for the choice of yellow.

The yellow Jordan and 2002

Eddie Jordan founded his F1 team in 1991 and made his debut with Michael Schumacher at Spa that same year, in place of Bertrand Gachot (Wikipedia). From 1996 the main sponsor was Benson & Hedges and the livery turned yellow (Wikipedia). Deutsche Post, through DHL, had already been alongside the team for two years when, in 2002, DHL became title sponsor: the car was called “DHL Jordan Honda”, stayed yellow and carried the red DHL logo on its sidepods (Sportcal, Grand Prix.com). Benson & Hedges stayed on the car (Wikipedia, Grand Prix.com).

Eddie Jordan’s version

The story, reported by News24 in 2023 and by Balls.ie in December 2025, goes like this. Deutsche Post, newly the owner of DHL, wanted a white Jordan to match a brand that was then white and red. Jordan refused, because his contract with Benson & Hedges required a yellow car. He turned up at the DHL board meeting dressed entirely in yellow and showed images of competitors’ vans and planes: the white ones blended in, the yellow ones stood out at once. To be noticed worldwide, he said in essence, DHL had to be yellow. According to Keith O’Loughlin, his friend and business partner, he also won a fee for the use of “Jordan yellow” for twenty years (News24, Balls.ie).

We found no confirmation from DHL, and Deutsche Post’s yellow already appears in the documents of the 2003 relaunch: the two accounts do not exclude each other, but the second remains a story, not a documented fact. Jordan died in 2025 (Balls.ie).

DHL and Formula 1 today

Since 2004 DHL has been Formula 1’s Official Logistics Partner (Formula1.com, Ministry of Sport) and, according to DHL, the longest-standing partner in the history of the sport (DHL). In 2021 the agreement was renewed for the long term and in February 2024 for several years (F1technical, Formula1.com).

Its job is to carry the championship from one race to the next: every weekend DHL moves more than a thousand tonnes of high-value freight, including cars, engines, fuel, tyres, and television and hospitality equipment (DHL). In 2023 the biofuel trucks used at the European races cut logistics emissions by 83% on average, and in 2024 their number rose to 37 (Formula1.com, Ministry of Sport).

DHL also sponsors two awards: the Fastest Lap Award, given since 2007 to the driver with the most fastest laps in the season, and the Fastest Pit Stop Award, which rewards the work of the teams in the pit lane (DHL, Wikipedia, Formula1.com).

What it teaches sponsors

The DHL case shows two things, and they are our reading, not published figures. The first is that colour is part of the sponsorship contract and has to be negotiated like the space on the car. The second is that the relationship with F1 has lasted since 2004 because DHL has a functional role, it carries the championship, on top of its logo: it is the difference between a sticker and a platform, discussed in the guide to sports sponsorship activation.

To understand what it takes to get in, there is the guide to the cost of sponsoring a Formula 1 team and the page on Formula 1 sponsorship.

Whether yellow was chosen by Jordan, by Deutsche Post or by a marketing table, it leaves a useful question for anyone about to sign a sponsorship: what are you willing to change, besides the logo, to be recognised?

Images: Takuma Sato in the Jordan EJ12 at Indianapolis in 2002 (RickDikeman, Wikimedia Commons, CC0); F1 paddock with the DHL banner (Steve Melnyk, Flickr, CC BY 2.0).

Sources: Horizont, Deutsche Post relaunches DHL as a single brand (March 2003); Transform Magazine, the story of the DHL brand; Wikipedia, DHL; Wikipedia, Jordan Grand Prix; Sportcal, DHL title sponsor of Jordan; Grand Prix.com, the launch of the DHL Jordan Honda EJ12; Balls.ie, Eddie Jordan as told by Keith O’Loughlin (December 2025); News24, how an F1 team gave DHL its colours (2023); Formula1.com, the renewal of the partnership with DHL (2024); Ministry of Sport, the F1-DHL renewal (2024); DHL, Formula 1; F1technical, the F1-DHL renewal (2021); DHL, the Fastest Lap Award; RTR Sports Marketing, motorsport sponsorship.