Red Bull have unveiled RB19 car for 2023 F1 season.
For the third consecutive season, Red Bull have retained two-time champion, Max Verstappen, alongside Sergio Perez as their race drivers as they seek to defend their driver and constructor titles of last season.
The UK-based Austrian constructor though are currently enduring a 10% reduction in aerodynamic testing allowance this year, due to a breach of the FIA Budget Cap for 2021 season in which Verstappen claimed a controversial maiden title in Abu Dhabi.
Addressing at the RB19 car launch how that penalty will impact the team this season, Perez commented: “The competition is getting better and so we have to keep racing and be better than we were last year, and that is going to be really difficult but as a team, we are giving everything.”
Eight-time Grand Prix winner, Daniel Ricciardo meanwhile returns to the team after a four-season absence, albeit in a Test and Reserve driver role, in which he will share testing duties with Red Bull juniors; Dennis Hauger, Liam Lawson and Zane Maloney.
Hauger and Maloney though will mainly focus on their F2 campaigns where both drivers are anticipated to fight for the title, whilst Lawson will spend the season racing in Japan’s Super Formula after he spent the last two seasons in F2.
Speaking at Red Bull’s launch prior to the unveiling of RB19, Team Principal – Christian Horner predicted that the 23-race season will be “incredible” despite feeling like a step into the “big unknown” whilst needing to be “focusing on ourselves, doing the best we can.”
Horner also anticipates “Ferrari to be competitive, Mercedes are going to be there and there are some other teams that could make big progress so this time of year,” he isn’t willing to make predictions until pre-season testing commences in Bahrain on 23 February.
Once the RB19 was unveiled, Verstappen described the car as “cool-looking” as he humourously bemused the fact that the livery “has been pretty similar for a couple of years now” with how it showcases “Red Bull colours all over the place” as he acknowledged his success with the stable livery design.
Ford Returning to F1
Red Bull’s unveiling of RB19 car came less than a hour after Ford announced their plans to return to F1 in 2026, when new power unit regulations are introduced.
Ford will end a 22-year absence come the start of 2026 season after having last competed in 2004 season with Jordan, 37 years after they first entered the sport and went on to be involved in 176 F1 Grand Prix victories, plus 10 constructor titles and 13 driver titles.
Ford Executive Chairman, Bill Ford described this announcement as “the start of a thrilling new chapter in Ford’s motorsports story” as they return “to the pinnacle of the sport, bringing Ford’s long tradition of innovation, sustainability and electrification to one of the world’s most visible stages.”
At Red Bull’s RB19 car launch, Ford further confirmed a “strategic partnership and technical partnership” with the reigning champions for their return in 2026 season, as Ford President and CEO, Jim Farley, expressed that the team want to help Red Bull “deliver the goods on the track.”
FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem added that it is “excellent” to have Ford back in F1 which “underlines the success” of planned 2026 Power Unit regulations, with “a commitment to both sustainability and spectacle,” at the heart of the regulation changes.
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