Formula 1’s 2026 launch season has begun, with Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls revealing their new F1 car liveries in the early hours of Friday morning.
The 3am GMT unveiling of the 2026 RB22 was courtesy of a Detroit-based launch event to mark the competitive start of the team’s partnership with Ford, and you can re-watch it below.
With Max Verstappen and new team-mate Isack Hadjar in attendance, Red Bull showed a physical car and also released a series of digital images with a slightly different chassis. Both versions are show cars, with Red Bull opting to keep the design of this year’s race car secret for now — in common with other teams.
Max Verstappen described the 2026 livery as “fresh”, but despite the gloss, patterned blue finish, it follows the same formula that Red Bull has followed since its arrival in F1.
The same cannot be said about the power unit: for the first time, Red Bull has developed this in-house, with support from Ford, and the launch event reflected that, with a virtual reality demonstration of the engine and battery assembly.
“It’s a bold and audacious project, said Ben Hodgkinson, Red Bull Powertrains technical director via a videolink call to the event. “This is about being masters of our own destiny. From the very beginning, we wanted it to be a Red Bull chassis and power unit, developed together in harmony.”
Red Bull
Red Bull
Red Bull
But while the 2026 season marks a new start for the team with its own engine and without the the architects of its success so far — Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Adrian Newey — some elements of the launch were reassuringly familiar, including the audacious reveal when Red Bull’s air race pilot Martin Sonka swooped over the car, hooked the cover and swept it away.
Images of the actual RB22 that Red Bull will race this year could be kept under wraps until the first testing session at the end of this month — or even later. The initial Barcelona test is set to be held behind closed doors, ahead of two further public testing sessions in Bahrain, beginning in mid-February.
Red Bull 2026 F1 car livery reveal: live stream
If you missed the 3am GMT show, then scroll back up on this page to watch the livery reveal from Detroit.
Red Bull 2026 shakedown and testing schedule
Red Bull is likely to take advantage of a filming day (known officially as a promotional event) to shakedown its new car ahead of testing. Teams are allowed two of these days per year and can run a current car for up to 200km (124 miles) on each day. Typically this allows them to film the car on track for use in promotional activities that season.
However, it also offers an opportunity to ensure that all of the car’s systems are operating as expected, in the hope of avoiding any unnecessary delays during testing.
Red Bull has not announced shakedown details, but will be running its car at the first Barcelona test, to be held behind closed doors on January 26-30.
Red Bull’s 2026 car: everything to prove
Red Bull began the 2025 season with key elements from its championship-winning seasons in place: it was led by Christian Horner, with superstar designer Adrian Newey still an employee (although about to depart), and the influential Helmut Marko in his role as team advisor. The car was powered by a competitive customer engine.
None of these are true any longer after Newey’s move to Aston Martin, followed by by the sacking of Horner and Marko’s retirement. To compound the upheaval, Red Bull starts the new season as an engine manufacturer for the first time; its power unit may carry the Ford badge, but it was conceived and built in-house.
From left, Marko, Horner and Newey masterminded Red Bull’s championship victories, but none are at the team in 2025
Red Bull
It’s not the most reassuring picture for fans of the team, but new boss Laurent Mekies has calmed nerves, having overseen the transformation of Red Bull’s 2025 car from also-ran to title contender.
Red Bull’s 2026 F1 launch will be more than a reveal: it’s a test of the team’s first in-house engine project and a statement designed to convince Max Verstappen that his future still lies in Milton Keynes
By
Pablo Elizalde
Developing the all-new 2026 car along with a competitive power unit are demands on a different scale though. While both projects will have started before Mekies’ arrival (long before in the case of the engine), he has been frank about his expectation that the team will have “a mountain to climb” this year to become competitive.
It’s a high-risk moment: as well as the fear of being left behind at the start of a new era of regulations — in common with all other teams — the success or otherwise of this year’s car is likely to determine the future of Verstappen.
He has been unique on the grid in having the entire team built around him, which has seen him coax championship-winning pace out of its unstable, twitchy cars, but has left his team-mates adrift, unable to access anything like the same level of performance.
While Isack Hadjar will hope that this year’s car is more driver-friendly, there’s still a big question mark over how the team would fare if this year’s car is uncompetitive and Verstappen triggers his performance-related exit clause.
Red Bull 2026 F1 driver line-up
Max Verstappen Contract to 2028
Red Bull’s lynchpin in previous seasons, Max Verstappen is probably the fastest driver on the F1 grid at the moment, and is contracted to Red Bull until 2028. However, if the 2026 car doesn’t deliver competitive pace, a performance release clause could see him move elsewhere next year.
Isack Hadjar Contract to 2026
Promoted from Racing Bulls to replace Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar is the latest young driver to chance his fortune alongside Max Verstappen. It rarely ends well, but HAdjar has more hope than most, thanks to his innate adaptability and the all-new car design, which may well be less of a handful than its predecessors.
