The team is notorious for keeping their car under wraps for as long as possible – “aggressively late,” as Red Bull said on their website – but this year they’ve decided to move their launch to a week before pre-season training begins in a bid to hit the ground running, after suffering from slow starts in recent season.
“The pattern of the last few years has been to launch ‘aggressively late’,” Red Bull said in a statement on the launch.”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.”
Red Bull will have Aston Martin as their title sponsor for the first time, although they are continuing with the Tag Heuer-branded Renault engine.
The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB14, in special edition livery.
The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB14 is expected to be Red Bull’s first serious title contender since the team’s championship victory in 2013, as they’ve had to be content with running Mercedes and Ferrari close, and topping their rivals on specific race weekends, in the seasons that have followed.
Daniel Ricciardo will be the first to test the RB14, with the Australian set to take the car out later on Monday for a drive on the Silverstone circuit.
Monday’s launch is for a special edition of the car, with a black and blue livery. The traditional red and blue livery will return next week when teams begin pre-season testing in Barcelona.
