Max Verstappen Max Verstappen will hope to clinch his first victory of the season at the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. Photo: AFP
Image: AFP
If you’re a Formula One fan, your social media has probably been bombarded this week by all the new team liveries ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
But if you’re a Red Bull fan in particular, you are definitely drooling over the RB21's new look.
The “Sublime Samurai” could be its nickname, given the perfect balance in the white and red livery, alongside the black details.
Sublime because it looked like art floating on the tarmac in their new advert and Samurai, well, because we know how brutal the RB21 can be.
So brutal, a rookie like Liam Lawson was chucked out of his seat, which hometown hero Yuki Tsunoda landed in.
The new colours were displayed to pay tribute to the successful partnership between Red Bull and Honda.
The last time the colour combination was used was during the 2021 Turkish GP, but some details were changed around this time, most noticeably the nose and removal of yellow from around the bull.
Besides the cars, Tsunoda and Max Verstappen’s racing suits will also be white and red for the Japanese GP.
For the first time in his career, Tsunoda will sit behind the wheel of Red Bull’s ‘elite team’ after Lawson struggled during the season’s opening races in Australia and China.
He is Verstappen’s third teammate in a span of four races, going back to the days of Sergio Perez in 2024. Tsunoda told BBC Radio that Red Bull boss Christian Horner wants him to try and be as fast as Verstappen.
“In some races I can help with the strategy but he also promised me in some situations that if I’m able to be in front of Max that he wouldn’t necessarily ask me to swap positions and make Max win,” the 24-year-old said.
Verstappen is aggressively hunting down his fifth consecutive world drivers' championship title, in an effort to equal Michael Schumacher’s record at Ferrari.
The Dutch-Belgian driver is currently second on the driver standings, behind Lando Norris in the McLaren, who have proven to be the team standing in the way of Verstappen’s shot at changing the history books.