After Haas launched their livery last week, Red Bull became the first team to officially kick off their season with their launch in New York.
As a whole, the event was underwhelming, with it taking almost an hour of seemingly irrelevant conversation for the RB-19 to be unveiled.
When Red Bull’s car for 2023 was finally shown off to the crowd, fans were slightly disappointed to see that the RB-19 looks almost identical to last season’s car, making the wait almost for nothing.
The season launch was also full of blunders, with co-host Giselle Zarur calling new Red Bull third driver Daniel Ricciardo, ‘Daniel Retardo’, much to the frustration of fans.
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To make matters worse, the team were also stood up by Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who was called onto the stage by the event’s hosts, to no avail.
Co-host Marty Smith called for Domenicali to join him on stage after Ford’s return to F1 to partner Red Bull Powertrains was announced, having to stall as the Italian failed to emerge from the audience.
“I don’t see him coming but he is here. He is here somewhere, is Stefano coming? Knock knock. He’s coming he’s coming,” said Smith.
Max Verstappen even joked that Domenicali was hiding backstage, with the 57-year-old never appearing, forcing the team to quickly move on and skip his planned appearance.
It has been reported that the F1 CEO refused to appear on stage because he was concerned about how it could come across if he featured in a team’s season launch.
With Mercedes and Ferrari still yet to launch their season, Domenicali did not want to give these teams the wrong impression by appearing to be a part of Red Bull’s launch.
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Instead, the F1 CEO has issued a statement about Ford’s return to F1, deciding to address the news away from the launch.
“The news today that Ford is coming to Formula One from 2026 is great for the sport and we are excited to see them join the incredible automotive partners already in Formula One,” he said.
“Ford is a global brand with incredible heritage in racing and the automotive world and they see the huge value that our platform provides with over half a billion fans around the world.”