Red Bull Racing is the latest team to unveil its new
challenger for the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship. But while the aero
package and essential shape of the car has been all but finalized, this isn’t
the livery it’ll be running in the season ahead.
Instead the new RB14 is wearing a special test
livery in blue and white that Daniel Ricciardo will run during the first
pre-season filming day at Silverstone.
What we can see beneath that special livery is the inclusion
of the new halo cockpit safety device and the absence of certain aero
components that have been ruled out for this season. The T-wings atop the
engine cover, the “monkey seats” along the sidepods, and the shark-fin stemming
from the engine cover to the rear wing are all gone.
Officially entered as the Aston Martin-Red Bull
Racing-TAG Heuer RB14, the new car will once again run with a Renault power
unit, rebranded by the Swiss watchmaker that Red Bull poached a couple of years
ago from McLaren.
Naming schemes and liveries aside, both Ricciardo
and his Red-Bull-gives-you-wingman Max Verstappen will be driving the new RB14
in the upcoming championship in an effort to rediscover the team’s former
winning form. RBR finished third last season and second the year before, but
hasn’t won a title since Sebastian Vettel’s four seasons of dominance from 2010
to 2013.
Will this year be the one in which Red Bull makes
its way past Mercedes to clinch the championship again? Chances are slim given
the proven superiority of the AMG powertrain package. But we’ll have to wait
and see.
With Haas, Williams, and now Red Bull having
revealed their new cars, Renault and Sauber will be next to present theirs
tomorrow. Mercedes and Ferrari are set to follow on the 22nd, McLaren on the
23rd, Toro Rosso on the 26th, and Force India‘s reveal still to be confirmed.
