Red Bull Motorsports
F1
RB14: Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing Unveil 2018 F1 Machine
With less than a month until the start of the 2018 Formula One season, Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing today launched their new car: the Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB14.
While proper testing begins next week at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, Red Bull Racing is giving the new car a runout rather close to home — about 19 miles from the Milton Keynes factory, in fact, with Daniel Ricciardo behind the RB14’s wheel at a cold and blustery Silverstone.
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Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing unveil the RB14 at Silverstone
Daniel Ricciardo drives the Aston Martin-Red Bull Racing RB14 as the 2018 car debuts at Silverstone, complete with new Halo device and a special blue-black livery for the special occasion.
With testing heavily restricted, the team is using one of their two seasonal "promotional event" exemptions to conduct a day of filming at the super-quick British GP circuit. These days are controlled by F1’s sporting regulations to ensure nothing that could be considered proper testing can be performed. The team are restricted to 62 miles of running (which, on the 3.66-mile Arena Circuit, limits the RB14 to 16 laps) and have to use Pirelli’s bespoke demo tires, which aren’t going to provide much in the way of grip on any day, but particularly a winter's day in the UK.
To make things a little more singular, the car's running with a special edition livery today; it doesn’t have a name, but the dappled blue/black theme has been nicknamed "Disruption" in the garage. Ricciardo showed up at the track this morning in an Aston Martin DB11 with the same scheme. Accessories are important.
The grand unveil of the racing livery will happen next week. What’s on show today, however, is the new bodywork that’s bound to hold the interest until the season begins and the sporting narrative takes over. The big-ticket item is the Halo. Adapting the cars to accept it has been difficult, not so much in terms of the mounting points and the extra weight, but rather the huge strengthening of the bodywork required to pass a vicious crash test that subjects the test chassis to crush forces much greater than anything experienced previously in F1 homologation tests.
The cars have been adapted successfully, whether the same will be said for the opinions of the fanbase is a matter of conjecture. The Halo is going to take some getting used to. It’s a divisive device, splitting opinion between those who believe the enhanced safety justifies the ugliness and those who insist nothing justifies the ugliness. It’s not quite as bad as all that: the prototypes tested last year were raw components, and the racing versions will be painted and fitted with an aerodynamic coaming.
The cars have been adapted successfully
© David Clerihew/Red Bull Content Pool
There’s changes too behind the driver, with a new series of bodywork exclusion zones effectively banning some of 2017’s more distinctive features. The Shark Fin engine covers and T-wings mounted in front of the rear wing will be consigned to history, as will the rather more venerable centreline monkey seat. The regs don’t require cars to go all the way back to a smooth engine cover, however, and there’s still room for a ridged design.
These look like fairly big shifts, but the reality is that not a great deal is really changing for 2018. This is why Red Bull and most other teams are able to launch ahead of the first test rather than following the recent fashion of whipping the sheet off for the cameras early in the morning on day one in Barcelona, after a frantic build operation that runs to the last minute.
Don't miss the success story of Red Bull Racing cars in our photo gallery below:
Red Bull Racing meets Star Wars
© Mark Thompson/Getty Images
The RB2 all the way back in 2006
© Mark Thompson/Getty Images
David Coulthard in the RB3 at Silverstone
© David Davies - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images
The Wings for Life livery
© Red Bull Content Pool
Lack of technical change doesn’t bode particularly well for a huge upheaval in the established pecking order, but the second season with a set of fixed regulations does tend to see greater convergence. There were signs of this happening toward the end of last season. Hopefully the trend continues.
