Red Bull pays tribute to Honda with special Japanese GP livery

Crimson Bull has unveiled a particular livery for Formulation 1’s upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, paying tribute to its engine accomplice Honda.

The Suzuka race will probably be Honda’s final house occasion with the Milton Keynes-based outfit earlier than the latter collaborates with Ford from 2026 onwards.

A white livery will adorn the RB21, impressed by the Honda RA272 which Richie Ginther drove to Honda’s maiden F1 win on the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix.

The livery evokes Japan’s nationwide flag; the shade of white on the Crimson Bull differs barely – for weight causes – from the unique design. The bulls on the engine cowl will seem in metallic crimson, whereas the nostril options the identical crimson solar because the RA272, symbolising the Land of the Rising Solar.

The Honda logos on the automobile have been tweaked to variations from the Nineteen Sixties, whereas the nosecone additionally encompasses a memorial brand celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Ginther’s historic victory.

The livery is harking back to the white Crimson Bull from the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix – additionally a tribute to Honda after that yr’s Japanese GP was cancelled as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, in a season that marked the engine provider’s official farewell to F1 – although it stored offering engines to Crimson Bull’s squads in subsequent campaigns.

The brand new design can be similar to the Racing Bulls VCARB 02’s full-season livery, which is about to stay unchanged this weekend.

A logo of fine fortune in Japan, the red-and-white color scheme will mark the beginning of Yuki Tsunoda’s Crimson Bull profession, because the 24-year-old replaces Liam Lawson with excessive expectations within the Milton Keynes camp.

“To be trustworthy, I by no means anticipated to be racing for Crimson Bull on the Japanese Grand Prix,” Tsunoda stated final week at a Honda occasion within the model’s Aoyama headquarters.

“That is the ultimate yr of Crimson Bull and Honda’s partnership, so attending to race in Suzuka as a Red Bull Racing driver appears like destiny. All the things has fallen into place in simply the correct approach for me to be standing right here in the present day.

“After all, I used to be completely happy about becoming a member of Crimson Bull, however once I considered it rigorously, the concept of immediately racing for Crimson Bull on the Japanese Grand Prix felt so unreal.

“I don’t need to elevate expectations an excessive amount of, however for this Japanese Grand Prix, I need to end on the rostrum. That stated, I do know it gained’t be straightforward proper from the beginning.

“My precedence is to first perceive the automobile, the way it behaves in comparison with the VCARB. If I can naturally take pleasure in driving it as I get conversant in it in FP1, then the outcomes will observe. And if that results in a podium end, that might be unimaginable.”