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Red Bull to have special livery for Honda; AT will carry thank you note

  • Darshan Chokhani
    • Red Bull, Honda, F1, AlphaTauri

    SAKURA, JAPAN - OCTOBER 08: Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing and Takuma Sato pose for a photo with Honda employees during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Japan at Honda Proving Ground on October 08, 2019 in Sakura, Japan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI201910100105 // Usage for editorial use only //

    Red Bull will carry a special F1 livery for Honda in Turkish GP, while AlphaTauri will have a ‘thank you’ note on their rear wing.

    What was kept in store for the F1 Japanese GP, will be put to use in this weekend’s Turkish GP as Red Bull will run a special livery for Honda to celebrate their race-winning alliance in the final year of them being partners in the sport.

    The two Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will have a predominantly white livery, with the inspiration coming from the Honda RA 272 car. American racer Richie Ginther took the car to Honda’s maiden win in F1 in the 1965 Mexican GP.

    AlphaTauri won’t run the special livery but the rear wings of the cars driven by Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda will feature ‘ありがとう(arigato)’ meaning thank you. “We had all been looking forward to giving Honda’s Japanese fans a chance to celebrate our extremely successful relationship in Formula One, on home soil at Suzuka,” said Christian Horner.

    “With the race falling victim to the pandemic, we just couldn’t let the weekend pass without paying tribute to Honda and its amazing home fans by bringing a little bit of its heritage to Istanbul. The livery chosen for our cars pays homage to Honda’s remarkable F1 journey and hopefully we can give fans another victory in those legendary colours this weekend.”

    At the same time, Koji Watanabe, Chief Officer for Brand and Communication Operations at Honda added: “Everyone at Honda is extremely disappointed that the Japanese Grand Prix has had to be cancelled, while fully understanding and agreeing with the reasons behind this decision. We were especially keen to race at Suzuka Circuit, as it is our last year in the sport, at a time when both our teams are performing very well.

    “We also appreciate that the Japanese fans were particularly looking forward to seeing Honda’s last appearance here and Yuki Tsunoda driving in his home race. We know that a special livery cannot replace what would have been a very exciting weekend, but we hope that Honda fans around the world, especially those in Japan, will accept this special livery as a small token of our appreciation of their continued support over so many years.”

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