Bull, Red Bull to carry 007-themed livery at Silverstone

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Red Bull will have a special look for this weekend's British Grand Prix, with the team joining Her Majesty's Secret Service to partner with its most famous secret agent James Bond.

In association with EON Productions, the company behind the James Bond films, the RB15 will be outfitted with the distinctive 007 movie logo and Bond number plates on the back of the rear wings.

Max Verstappen will have the number plate from the Aston Martin DB5 in 1964's Goldfinger while Pierre Gasly's car will carry the plate from the Aston Martin V8 seen in 1987's The Living Daylights.

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The pit garage will also be joining in with the fun, with graphics inspired by gadget master Q’s MI6 Lab on display.

As well as being a celebration of the long association of James Bond and Aston Martin in the film series, this weekend's special look is to help promote Formula 1's 1,007th race.

"Celebrating Bond at F1’s 1,007th race was too good an opportunity to miss given our title partnership with Aston Martin," commented team principal Christian Horner ahead of the race weekend.

"Showcasing the world of James Bond here at the British Grand Prix, our second home race of the season, is really exciting.

"Aston Martin is inextricably linked to Bond and his cars have become truly iconic, so we’re really looking forward to this weekend at Silverstone.”

Aston Martin Lagonda President and Group CEO Doctor Andy Palmer was also delighted by the one-off livery for this weekend's event.

“Aston Martin is proud of its association with James Bond," he said in a statement released by the team on Thursday.

"This weekend, we look forward to celebrating this long-standing partnership at Formula One’s 1,007th Grand Prix."

The team promised to leave F1 fans "shaken and stirred" at Silverstone, with Verstappen bidding to claim a second consecutive race victory after his brilliant drive to the front at Spielberg in Austria two weeks ago.

Hopefully the Red Bull won't have need of ejector seats, flame throwers or spikes to puncture the tyres of their rivals during Sunday's race!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.