Red Bull unveils new livery for 2016 car

2016 F1 season

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Red Bull has revealed the livery for its 2016 F1 car at an event in London featuring its drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. The revised livery was displayed on the team’s 2015 car.

“Over the years we evolved a certain look but with the clean sheet of paper we had this time we decided to do something very different,” said team principal Christian Horner. “It’s innovative and aggressive.”

“I think it will stand out on the grid and hopefully it will stand out in the mirrors of a few other cars. It looks right and things that look good tend to go well, so hopefully we’ll see that on track.”

Red Bull will continue to use Renault engines this year but they are now being branded by watch manufacturer TAG-Heuer.

Other changes to the logos observed on the car include the loss of Infiniti’s branding, which has transferred to Renault. Meanwhile AT&T has been given a more prominent position on the new livery.

The RB12 will makes it debut when testing begins next week.

Video: Red Bull reveal 2016 F1 livery

Pictures: Red Bull reveal 2016 F1 livery

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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111 comments on “Red Bull unveils new livery for 2016 car”

    1. Is there something F1 fans will not complain about?

      The new look Redbull does not look that bad at all. I quite like the bright colours and the boldness. The name of the team and brand they are promoting after all is RedBull. Some are saying they want some white on the car making it look as if white is the must have colour.

      1. Agree with this so much! I think it looks fantastic! I love the Matte! Haven’t seen it before in F1. This is the livery to beat in my opinion. But what do I know right? I’m just a graphic designer.

      2. Less gaudy than last years’ contender. It looks rather sharp I think!

        1. I quite like the bright colours and the boldness.

          It looks rather sharp I think!

          Can you guys not actually see the pictures?? It looks dull, whitewashed and sombre.

          I have zero issues with the redbull colours and logos, but what is with the whitewashed, dull finish and tones?????

  1. Finally Red Bull is getting in on the cost saving! Their new livery consists mostly of some leftover sticker from 2005!

    1. Seems they lost the red tail but same as always which also save costs so well done RB!

      I had hoped they used bright colours but they always go for the darkened style.

  2. paint shop running low on white paint then

    1. Ferrari hogged it all for themselves.

      1. yeah, heard that we might be getting a white airbox and other such bits on the ferrari

  3. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    17th February 2016, 17:36

    What is the most noticeable thing, besides the horrible livery, is that they have a Mercedes-like nose, shorter than the one used last year.

    1. It’s the RB11 (last year’s car) repainted. We won’t see the RB12 until next week.

      1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
        17th February 2016, 17:38

        Do’h!!!

  4. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    17th February 2016, 17:36

    Kvyat doesn’t look impressed!!!

  5. Disgusting and unoriginal. Even worse than the awful 2013 livery.

    1. and 2015

    2. what was the best 2015 livery then?

      1. They were all not that great in my opinion, and I think that the worst was the cluttered Infiniti RBR livery. Out of all of them, I would say that the Williams was the least worst. Most of them were dull and grey, especially the McLaren.

  6. Hopefully Toro Rosso will have a significantly different livery to last year, otherwise side-by-side this will be a pain!

    1. @craig-o That’s a good point!

    2. Maybe that is why STR had to wait with their livery – to be able to make something that looks different enough!

    3. I’m hoping Toro Rosso use basically the same design as Red Bull but with the light-blue sugar-free colour. That would make it much easier to tell the difference (for fans) and better link the cars to the product (for sponsor).

    4. It was hard to see RN and TR but TR are a tad darker. I hope they go the the lighter version (Like RB light :) )

  7. I like what they’ve done with that – tidied it up a bit, got rid of the white highlights. A nice departure from what they had before. Think it’ll look good on the track.

    1. I like it too. Think its quite nice and straightword – its also different while looking like a Red Bull.

      Im concerned about all these white on the ferrari rumours, call me a purist but I like my Ferrari’s red.

    2. You might be right about it working on the track. For now at least I’ll say I preferred the old one, hard to draw an opinion from these images. I did always prefer Toro Rosso’s livery though.

    3. @keithcollantine I think they needed a change after losing Infiniti and Renault they have to re-make their brand a bit.

      In a way it’s nice, there is a level of simplicity to it, more block colours, and it isn’t too busy. Which I’ve always thought RB livery’s were.

      I wonder if Tag Heure had any input on it…?

      1. I largely agree with that @captainpie, it is cleaned up and a bit retro – which is hot again. Still, I am not totally into it somehow, but looking forward to seeing how it looks in daylight. Also, I really do like those overalls in style and print, with the shaded-grey bulls all over it; muted but there.

      2. @captainpie, I also feel that RB knows is probably gonna have another winless year, so having a new livery is a way to keep the buzz around the team.

        anyway, I actually love it! I’m loving the matte, flat colors and how the overall look is less busy, which allowed them to get rid of the white outline around the letters. RB went from having one of the worst [though, I will agree, highly recognizable] liveries in the field to one of the best, IMO…

        god, I’m glad the purple is gone… ;)

    4. I agree, looks pretty cool actually

    5. I agree it looks really nice and fresh, they should update the overalls to match the new design though.

    6. I agree. A lot less busy. I’ll be curious to see how dark the blue is out from under studio lights.

    7. FlyingLobster27
      17th February 2016, 20:43

      I like what they’ve done with the arrangement, but… the base colour looks a lot like… a very dark shade of grey… Is it my eyes? Is it the lighting? Or is it really grey?

    8. They forgot the clear coat.

    9. @ keith…my sentiments exactly. not too busy but clear and distinctive. great for distance shots giving recognition.

    10. Designed for mostly television purposes, especially the twilight/night races.

    11. I agree. Looks kind of neat. I like the single red line replacing those tri colours. Like the car number next to the sidepod as well.. very classic f1 touch. Finally they have the Red Bull brand name without the outline, whic is at least different from previous years.

      I expected the colours and livery to be in the same family they’ve always had it in, so I’m not underwhelmed by the approach. Also think it’s a nice touch to have a Matte paint job on the car, it’s a little different from the other cars on the grid, and I think it should look pretty nice on track

  8. Looks a bit retro to me. I like it (much as I would love a variation of the camo-bull)

  9. I absolutely love it! It looks almost retro to me, no silly ‘design faffs’ or things to ruin it. Just blue, a big bull, and a nice clear name on the side.

    And red, blue and yellow look fab. Like a lego racecar

    1. I would rather eat a double portion of kidney pie than represent that team in any position.

  10. I don’t like matte paint on cars and I don’t like that they are still going with this livery. The shade changed, and there’s no white outlines (looks like Google’s development with Chrome and the Google logo), but the livery is the same. The big Red Bull, the letters on the sidepod…

    They could’ve done something different. It doesn’t match Red Bull as a company and what they try to promote. This looks restrained. It could’ve been something actually exciting and different… but it’s just a Red Bull banner on matte colours. Instead of shiny ones.

    1. @fer-no65 I’m not too bothered about the matte paint, but I always want Red Bull cars to look like the drink cans! Light Blue and Silver :)

    2. while I agree that it doesn’t exactly match Red Bull’s brand identity right now, I think this may actually point to they rebranding its products some time this year…

    3. Could it be they chose matte paint to improve how the car looks at night or when it rains?

    4. Nope, its a perfect livery for a contemporary company like Red Bull. Livery is always a balance of many constraints and if you understand them then you’d know this is essentially a perfect livery for the year 2016.

      1. agree fully with that comment

  11. This for me is a clear improvement… less white ‘bits’ everywhere, they’ve got rid of the highlights on the bull and the text. Has a retro vibe to it…it’s a nicer, smarter shade of blue as well.

  12. I like it. Think it will look good on track.
    But internet experts will hate, as expected.

  13. I really like it – I think because it different to last year. The move away from the metallic blue/purple combination I think has worked and I really like the contrast between the red and yellow the black/blue. The Red Bull car finally looks a bit more bold without the highlights, without losing the visual identity of the team by only altering the basis of their traditional livery.

  14. It looks simpler than last year’s and better as a result. They had been getting more and more clutter on it every year and simplifying it and adding red highlights improved the appearance of it by a good bit. It will probably look better on track.

    All in all, I think it is a good livery considering that they are almost locked into their livery format from a marketing point of view.

  15. All the words I want to use to describe it wont get through the mods. Underwhelming and undercooked livery.

  16. I’m not quite sure what everyone was expect from a team owned by Red Bull. Of course they’re going to slap a load of recognisable brand imagery on it. They’ve made it incredibly easy to read their branding (giving a more flat design to the words ‘Red Bull’). Having a fancy sparkly colour scheme just removes the focus from the brand . Whether we like to admit it on not, their car with the tell tale yellow Red Bull nose and intake is as recognisable as the Malboro backed McLaren. This is a livery with ‘marketing team’ written all over it. It serves a purpose and looks acceptable.

    1. @f1george I wish they had the yellow extending onto the front wing so a top shot would show a yellow nose going all the way to the front.

      But I agree on the “classic” livery’s, if you change your brand identity you then have to work to rebuild it. For some teams, like Sauber, FI, Manor etc. who don’t have brand awareness outside of Racing it’s less important.

      I suppose relate it to when a Premier League football club changes the colour of their shirts, the fans get upset because the classic colour is gone, and they lose some identity.

  17. Should have used the rampaging bulls they used for the new wallpaper backgrounds and had a livery consisting of thousands of mini bulls as opposed to going all matte and moody

  18. The most significant change looks to be going from glossy to matte livery.

  19. It looks a lot better than all of the purple they had to have, by order of Infiniti. I think last year their car had large patches of yellow, blue, purple and red. This looks so much cleaner than that mess.

  20. In 12 seasons of racing Red Bull have done precisely one interesting livery and that was only used for testing.

    I mean come one yeah you expect a Ferrari to just be red, a Mercedes to be a silver arrow and McLaren to be whatever boring, anal, nerdy crap saves weight or something snooze inducing. But come on Red Bull you’re the marketing arm of a can of fizzy poison intrinsically linked with an extreme lifestyle and you just roll out the same boring rehash of the same damned design every year.

    1. Decisive and entertaining comment – totally agree.

  21. The livery is an improvement on last year as the Infinity branding diluted the Red Bull branding. Overall its ok but pretty boring. I liked that crazy black and white paint job they used in testing once- they should go for something more adventurous. The F1 twitter feed recently posted a picture of Honda’s earth car livery- whatever we thought about that it was fun and attracted a lot of attention.

    It’s an issue with all the liveries in F1- they’re too conservative and lack creativity. I image the designers pour over the fine detail and just accept that their remit is to deliver an incredibly dull corporate image. It’s a shame. If teams started coming up with something more original, and followed it through to their teamwear and merchandise (which at present is byenlarge also incredibly dull), they might attract a few more fans and make more money from merchandise. The teams are all stuck in a rut when it comes to this sort of thing.

  22. They seem to have gotten the matte bug that’s going around in design these days. I’ll wait until I see it on track to make a full assessment, but it looks much better than the whole mess that the Infiniti logos made.

    1. My sentiments exactly.

  23. This is great, looks like hotwheels.

  24. Bleeeeeech.

    1. As in, Red Bull tastes like?

  25. Maybe it’s a ‘grower’?

    I’ll reserve judgement until I see it moving around out on the track.

  26. Love it! Bold, refreshing and retro all at the same time

  27. I don’t like it at all. Why this “flat” design and why remove all the white from the logo… it’s part of the logo, not the livery. The rest of it is the same as always, while the “Russian-themed lines” have gone, finally. The horrible shade of blue and the opaqueness make for an awful effect.

  28. I actually really like it. It’s clean, simple, concise, back to basics. 2016 will be a ‘transitional’ year for RB, the livery reflects that

  29. Awesome livery! Why do people hate it so much? Whatever happens in F1, so many people hate it it seems like atm

  30. It looks quite cool actually.
    Simplier, less messy design, more yellow & less purple nosense.

  31. Awful. Saddening to see perhaps the nicest livery on the grid be replaced by this mess.

  32. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    17th February 2016, 18:46

    Legitimate question but does a matte finish not make the car even a fraction less slippery through the air? I could have sworn I read something on this a few years back?

    Perhaps just for the launch so it can be seen properly under studio lights?

  33. The bull should have had a watch on it’s front leg.

  34. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    17th February 2016, 18:58

    I think this is the best livery RB ever had, for the 2012 British GP.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/2012_British_GP_-_Vettel_%28rotate%29.jpg

    God those cars were u

  35. Fudge Ahmed (@)
    17th February 2016, 18:58

    I think this is the best livery RB ever had, for the 2012 British GP.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/2012_British_GP_-_Vettel_%28rotate%29.jpg

    God those cars were ugly though!

    1. Fudge Ahmed (@)
      17th February 2016, 18:58

      Double posting monkey right over here, hi. Doh

  36. Simple, it will look good on TV.

  37. It’s actually good

  38. I think they have a problem with the engine already with all that smoke !

  39. I think this is an improvement over the previous livery! I like the red Red Bull lettering on the side pods. The yellow in place of the white over last years’ car is sharp and different. At the end of the day its a RB so you would have to expect that it would be a bit gaudy. The matte is interesting but I wonder if matte is the new grey for 2016 and will show up on every car??

  40. petebaldwin (@)
    17th February 2016, 19:54

    I don’t know whether it’s simply because no team has created a decent livery for years or because this one is actually quite good but I really like it. It looks like it means business.

  41. petebaldwin (@)
    17th February 2016, 19:59

    What is the effect of a matte finish on aero?

  42. I think that livery is really good looking. I really like the colors and the flat textures :D

  43. I can’t believe no one has commented on Horner’s pessimism. If he thinks it’ll look good in other cars’ mirrors he’s obviously not expecting to be leading the race!

  44. it will stand out in the mirrors of a few other cars.

    Clearly Horner does not expect to win any races this year!

    1. Exactly my first thought, also.
      I couldn’t image Merc or Ferrari to comment that their livery would look good in the mirrors of the competition:-)

  45. I like it.. It’s clean and less busy than previous!
    Looks like a Matt finish too. Should keep the body work polishers busy at least!

  46. I really like it. Did not at 1st but my girlfriend and children say it’s cool and looks like hotwheels and I have been won round. It is retro looking, something I would imagine in the 70’s or 80’s before the paint tech was good enough to do what their previous liveries were like.

  47. I don’t mind it at all, but is there a reason why Daniel is the only one smiling in the photograph?

    1. He would smile at a funeral. I think his face is engineered to smile. Maybe he wears a mask and no one has seen his real face?

  48. Best Livery of the decade – ONLY – because Mclaren ran away from the Bright Chrome. Idiots for ever listening to fans and changing that, twas truly special.

    1. The only thing I ever liked about McLaren was the chrome livery. I thought 2005 was very good with the Johnnie Walker black bits.

  49. i think it looks quite nice.
    tidy and simplified. i like it.

  50. Personally i love it. Matt paint, Its uniform, the Red Red Bull writing. It actually think this is one of their best

  51. Less sponsor and an ugly livery….. but the drivers overalls look good.
    All championship winning cars (at least in the last 10 years) had a beautiful livery… this is the look of a defeated team (and this is coming from a RBR fan)….

  52. Matte cans please !!!!

  53. Steve Wheelhouse
    17th February 2016, 23:37

    “It’s innovative and aggressive.”
    – It isn’t

    “Things that look good tend to go well”
    – They don’t

  54. I like it… nicer than the purple one, anyway.

  55. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    18th February 2016, 0:23

    I really like that paint scheme.

  56. I really like the move to a matte paint job with bold colours. So many other teams have gone 50 shades, or white, or black, and all with super reflective clear coat (or mirrors) – which do look cool under lights of the night races. But since they wanted something which stands out from the rest, the Red Bull will be the only non-sparkly car on the grid. It’s different. I like it.

    I’m not quite sold on the colour arrangement, but I think I’ll warm to it. My favourite would be the 2011, but I never liked all the extra details (coloured stripes on the side pods etc). Definitely prefer the simpler design.

  57. Wow that is outstandingly ugly.

  58. Its a shame no infinity signage on the car anymore. Guess Renault did a bit of a number on them on that one.

  59. I like it, looks kind of agressive and a lot cleaner than the cluster—- they had last year.

    The matte blue (wonder how it’ll look in daylight) and the simplicized red bull elements are nice.

  60. A lot of comments, so here are my 2 cents too.

    I like the livery. It’s not WOW but getting rid of the white surrouding the letters and the logo is nice. Matte paint is sick too. The only issue is that Toro Rosso needs to change from their usual colours or else it would be harder to distinguish the cars. They used to be the one with darker blue and more red.

  61. I like the livery. But boy are these generation of F1 cars ugly to my eyes. I like the way the V10s used to look and also the extreme aero version ins 2007 and 2008. They just seem to make my eyes linger longer on the overall car trying to figure out the details. These modern F1 cars have no details worth lingering over. I miss that.

    1. Couldn’t figure out how to edit but I also like the 2009 cars!

  62. Tough to make out in the images, but who is Red Bull’s primary sponsor?
    /sarcasm

    Not my fav RB livery. The double red stripes say: “Not enough dev time – had to buy some off the shelf go-faster stripes.”

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