Red Bull launch: Christian Horner hints that car will change between now and Bahrain GP

Christian Horner has hinted that the Red Bull RB18 will look quite different to the car that was launched on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting that the one unveiled is nothing more than a show car with the team’s new livery on.

A theme is beginning to emerge with the 2022 car launches. Haas’ digital one revealed purely their livery over the 2022-spec car that F1 showed off last season at Silverstone and Red Bull, though revealing a physical car at their launch, appears to have decided against showing off all the bells and whistles.

That is perhaps to be expected as with the new rules every team will be looking at each other’s car to see if ideas can be replicated, and Horner has hinted come Bahrain things will have changed a lot:

“The biggest change, obviously from a regulatory point of view, is the car is a lot cleaner, there are not all the added bits that were on last year’s car,” said Horner.

“The whole concept of the car is to try and promote overtaking and closer racing, so it’s a new concept, a new philosophy and it’s a clean sheet of paper for every single team.

“Because it’s new regulations it will evolve very quickly. I think by the time we get to the first race the car won’t look very much like this and I think the evolution will be very quick as we progress through the season.

“With the new regulation changes this year, the whole philosophy has altered, which means every single component is different to last year’s car. It’s a clean sheet of paper for every single team.

“It’s a steep learning curve for everyone and a race of development between the first and last races.”