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Red Bull Racing pulled the covers off the special tribute livery it will be running this weekend in Turkey to honor engine partner Honda who will be leaving F1 at the end of the season.
The predominantly white scheme is a nod to Honda's historic RA 272 car driven by Richie Ginther that delivered its first Grand Prix win to the Japanese manufacturer in Mexico in 1965.
The word 'arigato' which means 'thank you' in Japanese is featured on the rear bodywork of Red Bull's RB16B, while the message will also appear this weekend on the rear wings of the cars of Red Bull sister team AlphaTauri.
Honda's home race at Suzuka, where celebration festivities were planned, was initially scheduled to take place on this weekend before the event was cancelled due to the pandemic and replaced by the Turkish Grand Prix.
Honda F1 boss Masashi Yamamoto offered some insight on how Red Bull's special livery had come about.
"Red Bull said to Honda ‘let’s do something special together for Suzuka’ – that’s where it all began," explained Yamamoto.
"Then one of the ideas was to make a special race suit, inspired by the RA272.
"I’ve actually made the race suits before for Honda drivers – all white with a red line – that Jenson Button wore during one of our Honda Thanks Days. So the first idea was the race suits for Suzuka.
"Then the conversation went on a bit more and we said ‘Why don’t we do it for the car as well?’ So a livery inspired by RA272.
"The design was developed together, Red Bull came up with the basic design and we suggested small details like the red circle at the front that’s like the Japanese flag, and the retro numbers."
Will the one-off livery spur on Max Verstappen at Istanbul Park where the Dutchman will be aiming to reclaim the lead in the Drivers' championship?
Wait and see…
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