Racing Bulls: colors inspired by Red Bull’s special Japan livery

Formula 1 went all out to launch the new season, with the first official laps set to take place next week during pre-season testing in Bahrain. A large show venue, stars, musical performances… Everything was in place to satisfy the 15,000 spectators present and the millions of fans watching from their screens.

If most of the cars have kept their colors from the previous season like at Mercedes or Haas F1, or have evolved them like Ferrari or Alpine, others have moved to a completely different design. This is the case for Racing Bulls, whose white, yellow, and red livery has been very popular with fans.

The team based in Faenza has changed its identity several times throughout its history. Born as Minardi in 1985, it was acquired by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz to become a training ground for young drivers aspiring to join the sister team starting from the 2006 season. Minardi then became Toro Rosso. Between 2006 and 2019, the Italian team enabled Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Daniil Kvyat, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, and Alexander Albon to move to Red Bull.

In 2020, to promote the Austrian group’s ready-to-wear brand, Toro Rosso was renamed AlphaTauri. It was under these colors that Pierre Gasly won the Italian Grand Prix that year. Over four seasons, in addition to the French driver, Kvyat, Yuki Tsunoda, Nyck de Vries, Ricciardo, and finally Liam Lawson shared the wheel of the blue and white single-seaters.

Finally, since the 2024 season, the team has been named Racing Bulls and has taken the opportunity to change its visual identity. It proudly displays its new title sponsors on a predominantly blue livery with touches of white, red, and silver. For 2025, the team has once again made changes by unveiling a predominantly white car adorned with the Red Bull logo on the nose and the top of the engine cover, not to mention the small blue bulls at the rear.

This new livery is reminiscent of the one used by Red Bull during the Turkish Grand Prix in 2021. At the time, the Milton Keynes team decided to dress its two cars in white, highlighting the red of the energy drink brand’s name and logo. It was a nod to Honda and the Japanese manufacturer’s first victory in F1 at the 1965 Mexican Grand Prix. This special livery was initially planned to be used during the Japanese Grand Prix, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With this special livery, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez finished second and third at the Turkish Grand Prix behind the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Let’s hope that Racing Bulls’ livery this season will allow its drivers, especially the Frenchman Isack Hadjar, to achieve good results and maybe even podiums!