Red Bull have revealed their new car for the 2018 F1 season in a special testing livery.
The car, officially called the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB14, is powered by a Renault engine and hybrid system.
Daniel Ricciardo is shaking down the new chassis at Silverstone today.
The team will reveal its race livery when pre-season testing begins at the Circuit de Catalunya next week.
More 2018 F1 car launches
- Williams reveals “significantly different” F1 car for 2018
- Haas is first to reveal images of its new car for 2018
2018 F1 season
- F1 feared “death knell” for Drive to Survive after Ferrari and Mercedes snub
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
19th February 2018, 9:04
In this colour scheme the halo almost looks like a GoT style crown. Not too bad. I like the testing colour schemes, more teams should do this. Can’t really comment on the car yet – which is the point, I guess.
SoLiDG (@solidg)
19th February 2018, 9:08
That’s one great looking car!
PT (@pt)
19th February 2018, 17:36
The best looking of all the cars revealed thus far. I hope they don’t change this livery. Love the Aston Martin logo on the wing – wouldn’t like to see any yellow or red in the livery, especially when it has Aston Martin written on it. I only wish they had extended the colour scheme to the halo as well instead of leaving it just plain black.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
19th February 2018, 9:11
Oh, one thing I can comment: those sidepods are incredible. Taking Ferrari’s concept from last year to a different level.
Egonovi
19th February 2018, 9:55
It’s the whole complex thing around the sidepods; the barge board (barge-wind-fanes); the sidepod-wing (wing-wing).
TheLeggacy
19th February 2018, 20:40
Yeah, I was looking at the wings under the wing mirror, much larger than I’ve seen before. Flow conditioning or down force generating I wonder?
Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
19th February 2018, 9:15
Thats an extremely positive surprise by RBR,that livery is impressive!!!
Unfortunately thats a test livery & it wont be run for the whole season…
NoName (@noname)
19th February 2018, 10:38
@miltosgreekfan Say’s who besides you ?.
Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
19th February 2018, 10:41
@noname Well, just me & the official Red Bull Racing team.
And 4-5 guys above
Paat
19th February 2018, 11:11
And the article…
Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
19th February 2018, 11:29
@Paat Yeah, Keith as well ………
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
19th February 2018, 13:11
@miltosgreekfan @noname
I say it as well.
Who remembers the beautiful camo scheme which quickly turned into the same old red bull livery.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th February 2018, 9:20
It looks great with this livery, so I wouldn’t mind if it were kept, but probably it won’t.
The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
19th February 2018, 14:48
Has there ever been a team that used a pre season testing livery (specifically said by the team), who then decided to use it for the whole season? I don’t think so.
The Last Pope (@the-last-pope)
19th February 2018, 14:55
I do agree though, the livery looks great and they should keep it. Makes it look more like an Aston Martin, rather than a colourful Renault.
just.daz (@nemo87)
19th February 2018, 9:20
Looks incredible!
Those side pods are more like side slots! They’re tiny!
Miltiadis (@miltosgreekfan)
19th February 2018, 9:20
The new RBR is the first car to have(or us to see) the 360° camera that the new cars are obliged to have(based on the regulations for 2018).
Thankfully the camera doesnt take that much of the space & it doesnt affect the shape of the chassis
gunusugeh (@gunusugeh)
19th February 2018, 9:25
Hugh (@hugh11)
19th February 2018, 9:22
How are they gonna fit Verstappen’s 33 on the side where Ricciardo’s 3 barely fits? Still think they should’ve kept shark fins… Sigh…
Anyway, I know it’s just a testing livery, but that livery looks fantastic. The side pods are intriguing too
Egonovi
19th February 2018, 11:50
Spread it over both sides (with small TPO below) ;)
@hugh11
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th February 2018, 12:32
They’ve made him change to number 4 so it fits on the car.
deMercer (@)
19th February 2018, 13:18
@hugh11 Just like last year, I guess: two narrower, each other partly overlapping 3’s.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
19th February 2018, 9:22
Wow, this is the first new car (unlike Haas and Williams) that is aerodynamically radically different than last year’s car. Look at those sidepods! I hope this is a typical Newey-genius-moment.
GeeMac (@geemac)
19th February 2018, 9:22
Wow, that’s an incredible livery for testing. Those sidepods are miniscule, it’ll be fascinating to see how they have managed to achieve that.
Also, Aston Martin Red Bull Tag Heuer RRB14 just trips off the tongue doesn’t it…
Cdog
19th February 2018, 9:50
Don’t you mean Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14? 😂
You’re right though, beautifully packaged sidepods.
Egonovi
19th February 2018, 10:05
‘tripping’ over the final bit ;)
GeeMac (@geemac)
19th February 2018, 11:21
Indeed! So easy to “say” that I can’t even type it correctly.
Looking forward to the equally well named Mercedes AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+…
he is the one
19th February 2018, 9:44
I agree with you all, wow what a car!!! incredible stuff from what you can see. This car put the Formule E cars in a whole different perspective , i would say plastic perspective. This RB 14 looks like a monster, if the design and look of it can be match with speed then we got here a winner.
Trayambak Chakravarty (@major-dev)
19th February 2018, 9:52
The testing camo-bull livery, the neat halo…everything is quite striking about this car but NOTICE THE DAM AEROPLANE WINGS ON THE SIDE PODS.
eljueta (@eljueta)
19th February 2018, 9:55
What an amazing livery, it would be great if they kept it for the whole year!
Warner (@warner16)
19th February 2018, 9:57
Love this livery from head to toe, but the only thing i would change is the colour of the numbers from white to yellow so it’ll be easier to notify the auidence/crowd. Otherwise, Red Bull have out done themselves this year that’s for sure.
72defender (@72defender)
19th February 2018, 10:03
Calculated move. You know if Daniel had already signed they would have for sure given shake down duties to Max.
kpcart
19th February 2018, 13:04
that’s paranoia
GeeMac (@geemac)
19th February 2018, 13:49
Tinfoil hats at the ready…
Joao (@johnmilk)
19th February 2018, 10:03
Livery is cool, but you can see why it will only be used in testing, it looks like something that STR would use.
They will definitely try to add some yellows and red once the season starts.
It also makes a really good job at hiding the car, I for once can see bleep. It might come from my astigmatism, and how my brain reacts to things, I feel my eyes trying to focus the graphics every-time I look at it, but of course they are not out of focus. Is this the mental games that teams always talk about? Wicked
AMG44 (@amg44)
19th February 2018, 10:13
That livery is stunning. Please just make slight modifications Redbull.
The halo is also kinda hidden and not too obvious which is great. Hide that halo as much as possible.
Ben Needham (@ben-n)
19th February 2018, 10:24
It looks great. A serious question, is the Halo a standardised piece of kit? ie: is it provided to the teams, or does it have to be built to a certain specification?
It’s probably just because it’s new and I’m not adjusted to it yet, but it sticks out like a sore thumb on all these launches so far. They look like the steps used to get in and out of swimming pools! I wonder if it would look better and more in keeping with the designs if it carried on down the chassis a little more and smoothed in towards the nose (though perhaps that would affect driver vision a little more?).
erikje
19th February 2018, 10:42
It’s standard and build for fish by a selected firm.
San
19th February 2018, 10:26
Those upper front wishbones…I wonder what’s the advantage of that? They look all bent and twisted.
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
19th February 2018, 10:36
Merc and STR had those last year. Mainly aero advantage, better airflow, supposedly. New development, narrower wheels pre-2017 made this configuration impossible.
faulty (@faulty)
19th February 2018, 14:07
Did you see that they connect almost a centimeter above the hull?
https://www.racefans.net/2018/02/19/red-bull-presents-new-f1-car-2018/rb14-suspension/
There are a lot of details telling how they plan to manage airflow from the front backwards.
Also, that kinda looks like Inter Milan’s shirt.
NoName (@noname)
19th February 2018, 10:37
Absolutely beautiful.
erikje
19th February 2018, 10:44
Fia… sigh autocorrect even finds fia fishy
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
19th February 2018, 10:47
Can anyone explain this official Red Bull statement?
Are the shapes refer to the body/aero module or it refers to digital effect paint?
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
19th February 2018, 11:02
Ok. I’m gonna answers my own question. Looks like the digital camo will stay. Just like Aston Martin car that Ricciardo driving.
Moi
19th February 2018, 13:38
I’m assuming it means that while we will get another paint job, the actual aerodynamic surfaces are not obfuscated in any way (so no fake side pods etc)
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th February 2018, 14:13
Ok, I was right – that looked like a camo paint job to disguise the car’s shape. You can barely see the car’s actual design.
Thanks for the info – god, that was such a scary sight:-)
Phylyp (@phylyp)
19th February 2018, 11:48
That looks like 2016 sidepods on a 2017 floor!
Travis Daye (@travis-daye)
19th February 2018, 11:58
The wings on the sidepods combined with those vertical upstand elements coming off the floor in the bargeboard area… so cool!
Gary
19th February 2018, 12:01
That car looks as though it has had countless hours of CFD CPU time
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
19th February 2018, 12:16
It’s pretty unusual for any team (especially RBR) to provide that much detail in their launch photos.
Is it possible there’s some smoke & mirrors going on and half those intricate looking bits will be replaced, or are they that confident that they can’t be copied?
JC
19th February 2018, 12:20
If the side “wings” incorporate the impact structure, it’ll be very difficult for another team to replicate them and crash test them in-season.
Strontium (@strontium)
19th February 2018, 12:18
It seems perhaps I’m in the minority but I really dislike the livery. It’s very dull, colour-wise. It lacks the bright colours that their normal livery has. Obviously this is deliberate for testing, so I’m quite pleased it’s not their race livery
JC
19th February 2018, 12:21
I’m interested in that rear wheel/suspension “strut” that seems to connect to nowhere. A rather curious setup?
Tristan
19th February 2018, 13:02
Certainly no disappointment compared to last year. They’ve developed their concepts quite extensively over the year! Looks like a real challenger. Can’t wait to see the technical analysis :D
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
19th February 2018, 13:16
Ugly, very ugly …
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th February 2018, 13:56
Yeah, I agree – not sure how Red Bull managed to go from one of the best designs to one of the worst car (not race car) designs of all time. Color is so important and this is a camo design to accentuate their sponsors. As a designer you know you have failed when the halo has no effect on the car’s aesthetics whatsoever. Not to mention that the clean visible lines of the tires are actually the highlight of the car’s design:-)
LifeF1
19th February 2018, 16:06
It’s a testing livery…
Greg
19th February 2018, 13:28
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB14
Say that three times fast
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th February 2018, 13:50
That’s a disaster of a livery – it reminds of the camouflage they use on new models to disguise the shape of the car.
Hardly worthy of an Aston Martin. Maybe it’ll grow on me but looking at the side view, all I see are Red Bull, Esso, Tag Heuer, Aston Martin, and Mobil due to the Black and White super contrast. The car’s invisible.
It’s a billboard, not a race car…
faulty (@faulty)
19th February 2018, 14:17
That was kind of the point.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th February 2018, 14:22
I didn’t know that they were trying to camouflage the car’s components from the opposition until I read one of the comments above mine. Even the most beautiful car simply looks awful with digital camo so that explains my reaction.
MazdaChris (@mazdachris)
19th February 2018, 14:21
@freelittlebirds Not sure if you realise but that is precisely the point – it’s meant to reflect the kind of camo paintjob they put onto test versions of pre-poduction prototype cars. Ironically in Milton Keynes (where RBR are based) you used to frequently see prototype Aston Martins being driven around in camo paint.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th February 2018, 14:34
Thanks! Actually one thing that looks super cool on the car is the Aston Martin Logo on the rear wing , especially the back of the wing which is the view we’ll see from behind the car.
That looks absolutely awesome! There’s a picture of it in another article. Aston Martin’s logo looks like a pair of wings and is a match made in heaven on the rear wing of the Red Bull, not to mention how fitting it is for Red Bull and their slogan.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
19th February 2018, 21:09
It’s a beautiful car.
faulty (@faulty)
19th February 2018, 14:19
Given their late adoption of the Renault PU I’m not expecting McLaren to be anywhere near the RB in terms of sidepods/flow.
Sun Siyuan (@peking901)
19th February 2018, 14:54
Great livery and incredible sidepod area! Look at the space! Huge! Hope they set the cooling system well.
Katakoco
19th February 2018, 15:48
Adrian strikes back …
Deng .. deng .. deng .. deng
From Galaxy far far away … bla bla bla
Wowww what a detail everything just curve and awesome ..
RBR Junior Engineer: “Oowwwh now I’m understand Adrian say’s about his concept we should do last year right?”
Vettel fan 17 (@)
19th February 2018, 16:29
If they had brains they would use that for the season. So cool.
ForzaAlonsoF1
19th February 2018, 17:10
I bet that front wing flexes like Rolf Harris’s wobble board!
Philip (@philipgb)
19th February 2018, 17:29
Red Bull again teasing a testing livery that’s probably better than their actual livery will be. The car looks awesome and aggressive. Probably the best looking modern car since the Mercedes W05. The halo is barely a factor and I think we’ll all be used to it come seasons end.
After all the fawning the latest Formula E design got which I thought looked contrived, this is how truly beautiful engineering looks when it’s an honest, truthful pursuit of performance and not all show.
Quant
19th February 2018, 17:33
Love the livery, shame it’s not staying, look forward to the technical analysis of the car.
TEDBELL
19th February 2018, 17:55
Awful livery painted on what appears to be last seasons car with fake bargeboard bits. I dont get it. Such a mess
Ben
19th February 2018, 19:11
You’ve missed literally every point of this car launch.
Wyvern
19th February 2018, 19:36
I think it looks cool .
I really liked the Black and White one they did before
califormula1fan
19th February 2018, 19:59
Despite RBR’s laudable efforts, I’m so very disappointed in the halo. It is big, ugly, distracting, and effectively ends the fundamental era/idea of open cockpit racing. I had harbored high hopes that it could be implemented in some way to preserve the essence of the open wheel/open cockpit design that has defined Formula 1 for over seventy years: alas, it is not to be.
Jon (@johns23)
19th February 2018, 23:38
Car looks great, very much need to look closer for changes to last years car. I like teams doing testing livery’s. I remember Mclaren did it back in 2005 (i think) to all orange. It was a beauty.