Red Bull Racing unleash RB14 in special edition livery

Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer have launched their new RB14 racer that hopes to propel the Milton Keynes squad back into the title race this season.

The RB14 unveiled their challenger in what the team have called a “special edition livery” with it’s race colours to be released at the first official Formula 1 test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next week beginning on Monday February 26.

The dark black and blue temporary livery with 2018 title sponsor Aston Martin who has decided to take it’s involvement in Formula One to the next level and it’s prominent branding on the car is proving to be very popular with the fans on social media.

The Tag Heuer badged Renault-powered RB14 will be driven by Dutchman Max Verstappen and Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who scored three wins in total with it’s predecessor the RB13 last season.

Red Bull Racing has traditionally left it’s launch right at the last moment before the start of testing, but took a twist and became the third team to reveal it’s contender after Haas and Williams who launched their cars last week.

Read the full Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing RB14 statement here, courtesy of Red Bull Racing:

“New bodywork regulations always dominate the news cycle in the launch season – but 2018 has a bigger acreage of change than most years with the introduction of the Halo and the new exclusion zones on the rear of the car that effectively remove shark fins, monkey seats and T-wings. Some years it’s difficult for the casual viewer to differentiate the new car from the old: that isn’t going to be a problem this time around.

That said, the technical regulations haven’t changed hugely for 2018. Installing the Halo has been a challenge –
mostly in terms of building a chassis strong enough to accommodate it and pass a brutal homologation test – but the rest of the regs have been comparatively stable. That’s the primary reason we’re able to launch earlier than usual.

The pattern of the last few years has been to launch ‘aggressively late’. This has allowed the design department the maximum amount of time to add goodness to the car before the cut-off point at which the design is frozen and a launch car produced. It’s been not uncommon to have the car finished, fired up for the first time and shipped to Spain for the start of testing all on the same day.

It serves a purpose – but you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t have to, and this year we didn’t have to. It’s preferable to finish the car early and deal with any snags now, when the car is on a track a short drive from the factory, rather than using up one of our eight ultra-precious test days doing the same at the Circuit de Catalunya.

We’ll be filming at Silverstone and the footage will give fans an early-season fix across our channels before testing proper begins next week. Alongside the formal group tests, teams are allowed to conduct two of these promotional events each year, within strict guidelines that limit running to 100km and mandate the use of a specific tyre compound developed by Pirelli for this type of running.

Basically, Daniel’s not going to be setting any records at Silverstone – but it’s an incredibly valuable exercise nonetheless.”

The new car will be given it’s first run in a permitted filming today mentioned above at Silverstone with the aforementioned Ricciardo getting behind the wheel of his new machine.

The Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing RB14 will be powered by a Renault 1.6L V6 turbocharged hybrid powertrain branded by iconic watchmaker Tag Heuer for the third consecutive time since 2016.

This could be the last season that Red Bull will be carrying a Renault engine as the Anglo-Austrian alliance’s status remains unclear.

For more on the technical specifications of the RB14, visit the official Red Bull Racing website: https://redbullracing.redbull.com/car/rb14