OK, so Red Bull has kicked off the pre-season F1 livery launch campaign, carefully timed to make sponsors feel important. For the public, it’s a chance to see the new-generation cars for the first time.

Sweeping new regulations arrive for 2026: ground-effect floors are gone, engines feature more energy recovery systems—essentially bigger batteries—and the drag reduction system previously on the rear wing has been transferred to the front wing.

Red Bull is now building its own engines in-house after Honda ended their partnership and chose to supply engines to Aston Martin instead. Ford is now the title sponsor and Red Bull’s V6 is effectively based on Honda’s F1 engine blueprints.

To simplify things, the engine will be referred to as the Red Bull Ford. It’s a massive undertaking—building an F1 engine is no easy task, and making it both competitive and reliable is time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to master, even with the best budget and the brightest minds.

Expect Red Bull to struggle in the midfield, and perhaps this will be the catalyst for Max Verstappen to leave Red Bull for Mercedes. Reports suggest Mercedes has the most powerful engine on the grid, having exploited a legal loophole that other teams missed.

It’s all about compression ratios—a complex subject for most—but the bottom line is that Mercedes has developed the most powerful and fuel-efficient engine on the grid. It comes as no surprise rival teams are trying to get it banned.

In the meantime, Red Bull chose to launch the RB22 at Ford’s home in the United States. Expect a modified version for testing, followed by a completely revised specification for the Australian Grand Prix, the first race weekend, beginning March 5, 2026.