Red Bull Officially Launches Its 2026 Formula 1 Car

Excitement is in the air for Formula 1 fans, as it’s finally launch season. The new season for 2026 brings along a whole new generation of cars under the new rule sets and, over the next month or so, we will be drip-fed liveries and cars by the 11 teams.

We’ve already seen spy footage of Audi’s shakedown at Barcelona, giving us the first glimpse of what the 2026 cars will look like and what design philosophies teams are likely to take. Cadillac also released their “testing livery” on Instagram, which is how the car will look specifically during the private testing days and any filming days pre-season. I can’t say I was too excited by this, as special liveries seem to get less and less special each year, with more appearances on cars for an increasingly stretched definition of “special” occasions.

However, today is different. Red Bull and its atrociously-named sister team, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls (who, for the sake of my sanity, will be referred to as ‘RB’ from here on), are the first two teams to officially launch their 2026 F1 cars.

Red Bull hosted its launch event today in Detroit, the home of its engine partner Ford, following weeks of teasing fans on social media with pictures of retro liveries, a slightly updated logo with a white stroke around the “Red Bull” text, and its 2026 contender obscured under various covers and lighting conditions.

The event itself was nothing much to shout about. Aside from seeing Red Bull Ambassador Calum Nicholas on stage looking ridiculous wearing an Apple Vision Pro headset, there was not much excitement before the cars were actually revealed. A few videos were shown and a few interviews conducted on stage but, of course, it was all just to build up to what we really wanted to see: the cars.

What Was Revealed?

Unfortunately, neither team revealed their true 2026-spec challenger, which is to be expected. With a new generation of cars, it’s a clean slate for every team to get ahead and level the playing field, and no team wants to give away their secrets before they absolutely have to get out on track.

The liveries were revealed on show cars, though, and there were some welcome features.

Red Bull’s Livery

The Red Bull 2026 F1 livery is a smart, royal blue modern interpretation of their dominant period with Sebastian Vettel in the early 2010s.

The nose still features yellow all the way along until the tip, which turns to carbon fibre where it meets the front wing supports. The primary colour is a rich, dark, royal blue, which, for the first time since 2015, isn’t matte - it’s gloss. That change is welcomed, giving the car a much more vibrant colour than its predecessor, which had become so dark and matte it had turned from blue to grey.

The blue is enriched with a sort-of “digital” style block pattern, which also features in the font that displays the car’s number. The blue colour fades all the way down the middle of the length of the nose of the car to reveal a darker blue, which lets the car number feature more prominently with a higher colour contrast.

As with every Red Bull challenger, the airbox features a bright yellow, with the bright red bull straddling each side moving back towards the coke bottle section of the car on the top of the engine cover. All the Red Bull logos on the car, both bull and text, now have a white outline, which is a small detail but really complements the rest of the car’s colour scheme and makes them stand out.

Thankfully, there is minimal exposed carbon fibre on the car. Partly, this is thanks to the FIA’s new rule that a minimum of 55% of the car’s surface must be painted, trying to combat the increasing amount of black we saw on the grid through the ground effect era as teams tried to shed weight.

Whilst I don’t think this is going to be the nicest livery on the grid (I’m expecting some bangers), I do think that Red Bull have done a great job making a livery that stands out from its previous generation of cars and drives forward into the new generation. In parts, you could even call it beautiful, and I like it more every time I see it. 9/10.

Racing Bulls’ Livery

RB has become notorious over its short time as a brand in Formula 1 for its stunning liveries and special liveries. Unfortunately, I don’t think this 2026 edition lives up to the hype.

They are the Red Bull team that’s reached for the matte paint bucket this year, coating the entire car in it. The main colour, as with last year, is white, with some blue and black accents flowing over the sidepods and engine cover. Alongside the Ford logo, it does bring to mind some of the fantastic classic Fords such as the Mustang, GT40, and Sierra Cosworth.

The nose, airbox, and top of the engine cover look nearly identical to the main Red Bull team, with the same yellow and red Red Bull branding. There’s also a black tip to the nose, reminiscent of previous Red Bull liveries.

Unlike Red Bull, RB chose to display their car with wheel covers. It’s not known whether this will be the direction the two teams take this year, since there is much more freedom with wheel cover design in 2026 that could see a variation like this between two teams, but it was a notable choice.

It’s not a bad livery but, unlike previous years, there’s just nothing special about it. I think it’s a solid 6 out of 10, but nothing that we will still be talking about in a few weeks’ time.

Who’s Next?

Haas, known from 2026 as TGR Haas F1 Team thanks to their technical partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing, is the next team scheduled to launch their 2026 contender. Their launch event is scheduled for the 19th of January, with Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Alpine all following within the four days after that.

It’s not known which teams will be simply revealing a livery and which teams will decide to drop something closely resembling their final spec of car but, regardless, the next few days and weeks are exciting times for F1 fans as we draw closer to the season opener in Melbourne.