Red Bull RB14 breaks cover and hits the track

This is what they had to say: "The RB14 is on track. Today Daniel Ricciardo is taking the all-new Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB14 for a spin at Silverstone Circuit as we conduct a pre-season filming day."

"We’ve disrupted our usual systems and processes in order to launch our new challenger earlier than ever before. That is reflected in the RB14 livery, a special edition."

The #3 car pictured in the handout is of Daniel Ricciardo whose teammate will be Max Verstappen. The livery is distinct in the absence of red and yellow flashes that epitomised the Red Bull Racing brand.

This is now replaced with darker colours mixed with silver which conveys a meaner look to the car. What was previously red has been replaced largely with silver while the yellow has made way for black.

Perhaps tipping their hat to their junior Toro Rosso team, who last year also moved away from the traditional Red Bull look and took on a flashier livery which was also good to the eye.

Interestingly, the black paint integrated into the scheme does a good job to disguise the halo which is a mandatory safety feature introduced this year.

The team explained, "The RB14 is currently wearing a special edition livery. We're keeping our race-ready paint job under wraps for the time being and will unveil it at the Circuit de Catalunya next week. The unfamiliar shapes under the paint, however, are here to stay."

Title sponsor Aston Martin can be seen prominently on the sides of the car and on the rear wing.

“Some years it’s difficult for the casual viewer to differentiate the new car from the old: that isn’t going to be a problem this time around,” said Red Bull.

The team, who use Renault engines re-branded Tag Heuer, said the stability of the rules after a big change for 2017 allowed them to get the new car out in good time rather than leaving it as late as possible.

“It’s been not uncommon to have the car finished, fired up for the first time and shipped to Spain for the start of testing all on the same day,” added Red Bull, whose rivals Ferrari and champions Mercedes present their cars on Thursday.

”It serves a purpose -- but you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t have to, and this year we didn’t have to.

“It’s preferable to finish the car early and deal with any snags now, when the car is on a track a short drive from the factory, rather than using up one of our eight ultra-precious test days doing the same at the Circuit de Catalunya.”