Max Verstappen Stuns Room With Comment to Presenter at Red Bull Car Launch – SPORTbible
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Jack Kenmare
Four-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen left members of the audience in stitches after he made an unexpected comment while modelling the new Red Bull kit.
Red Bull has partnered with American automaker Ford for the new engine era, with the partnership being officially launched at an event in Ford's home city of Detroit on Thursday evening.
At the event, their new-look racing blue livery for 2026 was revealed as Red Bull returned to its roots.
"This livery is designed to celebrate that spirit that we entered the sport with," said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, who added: "It felt only right to reflect some of our history in our livery."
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Speaking at the launch event in Detroit, a delighted Max Verstappen was full of praise for the design. "I think it is much better," he said.
"I've been asking for this for a while, so this is great. I like the shine, I like the blue, which is my favourite colour. I like the outlines on the Red Bull logo as well, it is back, it is much fresher, so I like it."
As well as speaking about the car's new design, Verstappen was in a great mood as he modelled the 2026 team kit alongside fellow driver Isack Hadjar, who has been promoted from second team Racing Bulls.
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In fact, the 28-year-old was stood on stage alongside Hadjar and Mekies when he made a comment that has since gone viral.
Asked to give the audience a spin so they could see the new kit, Verstappen quickly hit back by asking: "Wanna see my ass?" – a response that brought a chorus of laughs from those in attendance.
Away from Verstappen's antics and the RB22 will feature a brand new engine, something the former champion understands will take time to adjust to.
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"It's all still a bit unknown," he said. "It's a very big change with the engine, the dimension of the car has changed. For the drivers, it will take a bit of time to adjust and that's why it's very important during the test days that we are getting our laps in."
Team principal Laurent Mekies described building their own engine with input from Ford as a "crazy challenge".
"Starting from scratch, going into the first year, going to the first race soon, and thinking to be straight away at the level of the competition, who have been doing it for 90 years some of them, would be naive," Mekies said.
"We know it's going to be with a fair amount of struggles, headaches, and sleepless nights. We will go through the struggle. We will eventually come out on top. Bear with us in the first few months."
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Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) technical director Ben Hodgkinson also spoke about the challenges that came with starting from scratch.
"I'm confident that the team I've built is incredible," he said. "I'm confident the facilities we put together are going to be benchmark. But we're a newcomer.
"We had to build factories while people started developing engines. So I think we started behind. But I think the people and the facilities we've got are better than everybody else. Will I have overtaken them by race one? I don't know."
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Thoughts on the new car? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Jack Kenmare is the Senior Journalist for SPORTbible, one of the world’s biggest social publishers. He specialises in long-form feature writing and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Football Manager wonderkids from 2005 to the present day. He has a BA (Hons) in Journalism and News Practice.
@jackkenmare_
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