Watch Red Bull's 2026 F1 livery reveal live at 3am on Friday: date and location plus details of this season's launch schedule for its all-new Formula 1 car
Formula 1’s 2026 launch season begins tonight, with Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls revealing their new F1 car liveries in the early hours of Friday morning if you’re in Europe.
Their 3am GMT unveiling is courtesy of a Detroit-based launch event to mark the competitive start of the team’s partnership with Ford, and you can watch it on the live stream above.
The automotive giant has assisted Red Bull in the development of its all-new, in-house power unit, and its influence is clear in the format of the launch event, hosted at Ford’s new Michigan Central building.
Instead of being focused solely on Formula 1, the invitation-only gathering will see the grand prix teams share the floor with Ford’s other racing programmes, including NASCAR, GT and Dakar, as well as a new production road car.
However, the chances of seeing a race-spec F1 car built to the all-new set of regulations being introduced this year are minimal. As with the rest of the January reveals, we’re not expecting to learn much about the design of the 2026 Red Bull, which is expected to be called the RB22. Those details will probably be kept under wraps until at least the first testing session at the end of the month, which will be held behind closed doors at Barcelona; Red Bull has not announced when.
Instead, we’ll likely hear a few words from Max Verstappen and his new team-mate Isack Hadjar, along with a glimpse of the paint schemes that will be used in 2026, which will likely be displayed on a generic show car. Will Red Bull follow its usual conservative route and unveil a livery similar to last year, or will it make a radical departure ? We’ll soon know.
Red Bull 2026 F1 car livery reveal: live stream
If you’re not prepared to wait a moment more than necessary, then Red Bull will be streaming the livery reveal live on You Tube, and you can watch at the top of this page.
However, most fans in Europe will choose to wake up a few hours later. There will be images of the car on this page and plastered across social media. You’ll also be able to rewatch video of the event here.
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
From left, Marko, Horner and Newey masterminded Red Bull’s championship victories, but none are at the team in 2025
Red Bull
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.
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.
