Launch event car 'not the real RB19', Horner confirms

Red Bull principal Christian Horner has admitted that the car unveiled at the team's launch event in New York City on Friday afternoon is not the new RB19 that will take to the track this season.

Horner said that the car that will be rolled out at Bahrain for pre-season testing on February 23-25 will look substantially different from the one that took centre stage yesterday.

It came after fans pointed out that the car at the launch event did not feature some of the technical modifications that will be required of this year's chassis, such as the size of the wing mirrors.

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“The car that was shown today obviously will be somewhat different when you see it in Bahrain,” Horner acknowledged. "What you’ve seen today obviously isn’t a total reflection of what will hit the track in Bahrain in a couple of weeks.

“Today was really 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 obviously ever for Red Bull Racing," he added.

It's not the first time that Red Bull have held back their new car until the very last minute.

The team has previously exhibited a basic specification in the run-up to testing, and then introduced major upgrade packages during the track sessions.

Mercedes did something similar last year ahead of the first race in Bahrain, not revealing its dramatic new 'zero sidepod' look until the final days.

It turned out that not even Max Verstappen has had eyes on the real RB19 at this point, which will now probably not break cover until the first test in Bahrain.

“To be honest I haven’t seen it,” he told media at the launch event. “I haven’t seen any pictures or renderings, because I’m not interested in these kind of things.

"I only want the fast car and it doesn’t matter how it looks like to me," he added. “I’ve only spoken about the performance upgrades in terms of lap time of the car.

The only team to have held a launch event so far was Haas on Tuesday, but they were quite clear that this was to show off their new 2023 livery incorporating new title sponsors Moneygram.

Next on the launch schedule is Williams who will be showing off their new car on Monday, followed by Alfa Romeo on Tuesday.

Alfa Romeo did release photos of a special one-off art livery for an older model of their car, which will tour the globe this season before being auctioned for the Save the Children charity.

In a similar fashion, Red Bull also revealed a 'doodle' livery on an old RB14 chassis from 2018, which is to be auctioned by Christie's for Red Bull's Wings for Life charity.

Red Bull will also hold a competition to allow fans to design different liveries for the car at this year's three American Grands Prix in Miami, Austin and Las Vegas.

But the teams' main livery for other races, revealed on Friday, looks startlingly unchanged from previous campaigns.

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