RB15: Red Bull's 2019 Challenger
- Shahmir Khan
- Feb 13, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 14, 2019
This was a live event. The article was updated as the event progressed.
Red Bull on Wednesday displayed it's RB15 to it's fans online. As expected, the Austrian team keeps it's traditional blue, yellow and red colour scheme that the team used since 2005.
The 2019 car will be driven by Max Verstappen and recently promoted to Red Bull, Pierre Gasly.
Red Bull announced its launch date for 2019 car on 4th February. Mercedes and Racing Point are also presenting their 2019 cars today in Canada and at Silverstone.
Red Bull shifts from Renault to Honda this year, after frictions created between both due to disappointing performances by Renault engines, despite winning 4 championships with the French manufacturer between 2010-2013. New Honda engine is said to have increased performance gains, with the Japanese marque joining sister team Toro Rosso in 2018 and making the team target 4th position in Bahrain.
The head of Red Bull development program, Helmut Marko said: "We have a real euphoria in Milton Keynes. The Honda engine is currently a bit above the Renault engine.
"The numbers we got make us really optimistic"
"Also in terms of performance. For the first time we can celebrate with a party mode too"
Toro Rosso, Red Bull's sister team had already fired up the Honda engine on February 8th. Honda is supplying power to both Toro Rosso and Red Bull this season, that technically means that Red Bull will compete as a proper factory team.
Max Verstappen, who joined Red Bull mid-season in 2016, commented: "I guess up until Australia you can't really set goals,"
"It's a bit blind"
"In F1 it's related to the package you get.
"So, I'm always quite easy going. That doesn't mean I'm not always going to try to do as good as I can try to get the best out of myself.
"But you're so dependent on what you get as a package you just have to wait."
The team, operating from Milton Keynes had a difficult season last year, as Daniel Ricciardo suffered 8 DNFs, with more than half being reliability issues. The team finished 3rd in final standings, as many predicted earlier in the year.
The 2019 line-up consists of 21-year old Max Verstappen, who was promoted from Toro Rosso in 2016, winning his first race with Red Bull at Spanish Grand Prix. He finished 4th in 2018, despite some disappointing performances in first half of the season.
Pierre Gasly made his Formula 1 debut at 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, finishing a career-best 4th at 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix with sister-team Toro Rosso. He is also 2016 GP2 Series and 2017 Super Formula Champion.
Haas, Toro Rosso, Williams, Renault and Mercedes have all launched their liveries or cars so far. The next livery reveal is by Racing Point, also known as Force India previously, on February 13th. It is also likely that the Racing Point will announce a new title sponsor, but for any certainties, that is yet to be seen.
Upcoming 2019 car launch dates:
February 13th | Racing Point
February 13th | Red Bull
February 14th | McLaren
February 15th | Ferrari
February 18th | Alfa Romeo
The official car launch can be followed on Red Bull's website. Click here.
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