Horner admits Red Bull’s real F1 RB19 will be ‘somewhat different’

During a season launch in New York on Friday, where Red Bull Racing announced a new major partnership with Ford from 2026, the team revealed what it claimed was its 2023 challenger – the RB19.

However, the car on display appeared to have no visible differences from last year’s championship-winning RB18 – and even featured the 2022 mirrors that would be illegal for this season as they are too small.

With Red Bull being a team that pushes the limit before signing-off new cars in order to allow maximum development time, it was always unlikely that going so early with its launch would mean it showing off its real car.

Asked by Motorsport.com about how much of the RB19 on display in New York would be running in Bahrain, Horner admitted that the event on Friday was not about its new challenger.

“I think that the car that we have shown today, obviously, will be somewhat different to when you see it in Bahrain,” he said. “Today was about launching the team’s aspirations for the year ahead, the partners that we have and, of course, the exciting announcement with the Ford partnership.

“To do it here in the US, in this market is the first time ever, obviously, for Red Bull Racing. What you’ve seen today obviously isn’t a total reflection of what will hit the track in Bahrain in a couple of weeks’ time.”

World champion Max Verstappen revealed at the car launch that he had not seen the real RB19 yet – and didn’t particularly care how different it looked.

“To be honest I haven’t seen it,” he said. “I’ve only spoken about the performance upgrades in terms of laptime, and behaviour of the car.

“I haven’t seen any pictures or renders because I’m not interested in these kinds of things. I only want a fast car. And it doesn’t matter how it looks like to me.”