First pictures: Red Bull RB11 appears in camouflage

2015 F1 testing

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The Red Bull RB11 has appeared for the first time in testing at Jerez in Spain. The team’s new car is running in black-and-white camouflage, which Red Bull describe as a “special test livery”.

Red Bull’s grasp on the constructors’ championship slipped last year as Mercedes claimed the crown, while Sebastian Vettel lost the drivers’ championship to Lewis Hamilton. While Vettel has moved on to Ferrari, Red Bull intend to close the gap to their competitors by forging closer links with engine supplier Renault.

“The relationship with Renault is a lot closer now,” said team principal Christian Horner, who expects the partnership to make “big steps forward this year”.

“Red Bull is the only partner for Renault now, through ourselves and Toro Rosso,” he added, “and that focus from Renault together with a close involvement with our design team is yielding good results and a far closer integration between the power unit and the chassis side. Working in unison with Renault we can really make some big steps forward this year.”

Chief technical officer Adrian Newey said the team now has more direct input into Renault’s engine development, but warned it could take time for them to see the gains from it.

“What we have to remember is that the internal combustion engine and its very complicated associated items, the ERS and turbocharger, are long lead time items,” he said. “Those are things where if one team takes an advantage then it takes time to overthrow that or get back on a par with or hopefully ahead.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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53 comments on “First pictures: Red Bull RB11 appears in camouflage”

  1. That’s a very cool livery.

    1. yeah. but I certainly hope they change to a coloured version!
      Otherwide the grid will be monochrome apart from a red Ferrari in the midfield and a blue Sauber and colourfull STR at the back end!

      1. Its just a test livery like McLaren @bascb

    2. Cool yes, but largely pointless. These sorts of livery are great for large ships on a rolling sea being looked at through a periscope, or for long-range telephoto shots of a car on a test track…

      But when you give a hi-res image from several different close-up angles, it actually makes it easier (for me anyway) to see the lines of the car. The photo-mosaic livery from Silverstone a couple years ago was far more distracting to me.

      But let’s face it– the 2014 RB10 was pretty good as a race car, it just lacked power. Fix the nose to match 2015 regs, drop in a decent power-plant from Renault, and it should be competitive.

  2. Spoil sports. Looks like it’s a good looking car under that. If it wasn’t for the wing dimensions these would possibly be my favourite looking cars in ages.

    1. I take it back. On track it has a nubbin-nose.

    2. That nose is a “Best of”. A bit of RB10, Mercedes and Williams…

    3. @matt90 I think they’re trying to hide the fact that past the front axel, it is the RB10. Horner claimed they were late with the RB11, and this appears the case since they are essentially running the car that was tested in Abu Dhabi some months ago with a new nose: more of a RB10-Plus than a RB11.

  3. I wondered if with the new for 2015 nose regs would see a return to the droop noses of 2007/08 and RBR haven’t disappointed. Much prefer the short nose approach to the overly long noses seen on the McLaren and Ferrari. Now I wonder what their real race livery will be like… or not. This is RBR after all!

    1. @clay I think the direct opposite… rather a long nose like ferrari, or a short one like merc, than the micro fallos of williams and RB

  4. With the white stripe tyres in testing it looks epic. Obviously not the finished article though as it looks matt rather than glossy/polished.

  5. I guess they might be coming out with a new livery and hence they seem to run this.

    1. Although this livery also reminded me of the LMP1 Porsche :)

  6. I think that RBR is running this livery to hide their aero parts from other teams.

    1. @ultimateuzair It would appear so, and in fairness it really does work!

      1. @ultimateuzair @strontium

        That livery is clearly to hide the aero bits. And if I’m seeing this right, that is the TINIEST sidepods in the history of racing! God, that’s almost scary, for Merc and company. Look at the link below and zoom in….it’s almost like they don’t even have side pods until you get about a foot above the floor!!!

        https://www.racefans.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/RB11_Jerez2.jpg

        1. I should have copied @splittimes as well in the above post as he also noted the small sidepods and/or the small intakes.

    2. That’s exactly the reasoning behind the crazy livery. Reminds me of when car makers test their new vehicles in the black and white crazy paint, to hide important bits

    3. Watch the video at 1:35 I think @ultimateuzair @keithcollantine @willwood Notice the little winglet there on the side of the cockpit above the sidepod?

      http://youtu.be/wuAHWdj3bZ8?t=1m33s

  7. When williams were the only ones with a “thumb nose” extention I was a bit worried about their direction. Seeing that red bull also have the thumb up so to say cheers me up. Even though it is the least elegant sollution imo

    1. I think the Red Bull looks more elegant to me. The Williams nose looks like a jigsaw puzzle.

  8. Yay another black/grey livery, hehe, I think redbull are just teasing us all and they will have their normal livery for the rest of the year

  9. jsw11984 (@jarred-walmsley)
    1st February 2015, 9:21

    Honestly I would love to see Red Bull keep this, certainly makes the car stand out and as a bonus it looks absolutely awesome.

    1. I would love it if instead of white on black it was white or light coloured (hues of blue, yellow and maybe pink?) on a dark purple/blue background.

      We really have enough almost monochrome liveries on the grid already @jarred-walmsley

    2. Absolutely zero chance it happens but I agree. That livery is insane!

  10. A nose with the proper length… and that’s what I like. But I don’t like that is too wide. So, for me, Mercedes is the best looking car in the “nose department”, followed by Lotus.

  11. Wow! I love that livery!

  12. Those sidepod inlets look tiny to me. Still pushing the performance/reliability targets.

  13. So probably because Red Bull waited till the last minute to assemble their car, they had little time to color it :P .
    The livery looks cool but also appears like it has been covered in graffiti.

    1. it would have taken just as long to paint this livery. it is a camoufloge livery, like porche had in testing before the WEC season last year, or like how nearly every car manufacture uses in testing (think nurburgring testing for sports cars). they dont have to have a reason for it, it is probably just a little bit of fun.

      1. …they don’t have to have a reason for it, it is probably just a little bit of fun.

        It has a genuine reason. The random shapes and patterns make it hard for their rivals to take photographs and analyse them because cameras won’t pick up on subtle changes in direction and detail work.

        It’s less effective with the advent of stupidly high-res, high-quality cameras producing multi-megapixel images, but every little helps considering the other teams still consider Red Bull the class of the field for aero.

  14. Looks pretty awesome (especially in photos from testing), but it obviously isn’t the real livery as it’s not sponsor friendly. Hopefully this means that they are changing the colours of their livery substantially, because this is the first time they done a testing specific livery.

    Maybe a white background and colours more closely resembling the sugar free version of the Red Bull can (sky blue)?

  15. 2 things; they are hiding the anteater nose, Or, it is a nuclear-powered car :D

  16. A silver car with red wings and purple sidepods for the new livery, to keep in line with the rest of the grid perhaps?

  17. Slightly inspired by Ferrari 2014.

    1. Yes, looks like the Ferrari nose from last year, combined with the Williams nose of this year

  18. Great thinking by Red Bull! Really love the testing livery.

  19. OMG! Looks like those battleships from the arly XX century with Dazzle’s camouflage, like this:

    http://assets2.thecreatorsproject.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/a19b461d8ec0b6b633ed4e5e505f5da9.jpg

    1. Perhaps they’re afraid that Mercedes, in a fit of boredom, has fitted torpedos to the W06.

  20. Maybe Red Bull’s way of commemorating the Great War’s centenary is to dazzle-paint their car.
    I love it, I hope they keep it.

  21. hey look. it’s a zebra eating grass.

  22. I see the dyson nose!

  23. It would be so cool if the livery was like that. Sponsors wouldn’t be very visible though…

  24. WOW! Newey as pulled off a blinder with this one. That dazzle paint makes his Americas Cup boat look like an F1 car.

    Not all surprised that Charlie didn’t spot it though.

  25. I agree the livery looks pretty cool, but I can’t help but annoyed by it. It is supposed to give the idea of ‘super secret testing livery omg’ but if you truly believe the main purpose of this livery is to hide some aerodynamic parts, you are as shallow as Ferrari’s vision for upcoming seasons.

    Let’s first establish why this livery is not a pure camouflage livery, but one that is designed to look like a camouflage livery. The logos, including the Rauch logo on the bargeboards which are usually bright yellow, are all black and white, which means they had to change the order, which would have cost them time and money – if it was a true camouflage livery, the logos would still be coloured. The camouflage pattern is not consistent over the entire car, which means the livery wasn’t designed quickly, but it took time, effort and money. And if you are trying to hide the aero parts, why on earth would they paint the pitot tube on the nose in camo livery!?

    A camouflage livery would work very well if the only people who see the car are photographers, no engineers – hence this sort of livery works well on new production car designs, or last year’s Porsche 919 during a pre-season test. It doesn’t work with millions of photographers, journalists and engineers walking down the pitlane.

    So yeah, Red Bull are just showing off. Even though it is supposed to be a ‘o wow that’s so cool’ livery, the irony is that it confirms my feelings that Red Bull Racing are a bunch of sneaky people who have no idea what ‘spirit of the competition’ means. Yeah, well done, you maestros.

    1. Well made points there @andae23.

      Also Horner mentioned being inspired by Sebs helmet a while back, another hint that somebody put work in this to draw attention to them

    2. also agree with @andae23,
      but on the point of ” Spirit of Competition”

      lets not kids ourselves here, this isn’t a school sports day where we are encouraged to “give the others a go”

      the sheer volume of money spent here per year means if you slip up, even just for a nano second, then you will feel a shoe(s) in your face as you are trampled upon by the pack trying to leap up that ladder

      Also, i think its not true about red bull having no idea about the spirit of competition,
      I heard in Singapore last year when Mercedes mechanics drinks fridge broke down they asked red bull for some help, CH gave them a cold cold stare , !

  26. The nose look like a mixture of last year’s Ferrari and this year’s Williams!

  27. Zebrull looks Fantastic! They could actually stay this way all season, just maybe shade a lil bit Bulls & Suns accordingly. Great paintjob!

  28. The best looking car on the grid this year. Glad they dumped the horrendous WW2 battleship camo.

  29. Racing cars are always awesome. This model looks really very powerful. I am sure that this model will surely make the racers fly on race track. Good.

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