'So it's delayed?' F1 fans SLAM Red Bull over car launch confusion

Max Verstappen, Laurent Mekies, generic, Red Bull, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

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'So it's delayed?' F1 fans SLAM Red Bull over car launch confusion

Red Bull are the first team to kick off the 2026 car launches

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Wednesday 14 January 2026 21:14

Red Bull have already managed to upset F1 fans in 2026, and we are still only two weeks into the new year.

The season is yet to begin, the new cars are yet to be unveiled, yet Red Bull have already caused quite the commotion on social media regarding their upcoming F1 car launch.

January is normally a relatively quiet month for the pinnacle of motorsport but this year it will see six car launches for six different teams as well as the first round of private pre-season testing.

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For the first time in their 10-year history, Red Bull and Racing Bulls will unveil their respective new looks for 2026 with a joint launch in Detroit, where Max Verstappen and Ford ambassador Daniel Ricciardo could be reunited.

But as the event looms, British fans have stormed the team's social media pages to protest over what they thought was a 16-month calendar in a recent Red Bull post, prompting plenty of confusion over whether the launch has been delayed or not.

When is Red Bull's 2026 car launch?

On January 14, Red Bull posted a teaser on their official 'X' account with a picture of the numbers '01.16.26' and a caption that simply read: "Oh... interesting..."

Social media users seemed less interested and more confused at the announcement, flocking to the comments to criticise Red Bull's move to the standard US date format.

For those unfamiliar with the difference, the date across the pond follows the style of Month/Day/Year instead of the British norm which is Day/Month/Year.

One fan complained of Red Bull's approach, commenting beneath the post: "bros why are we writing the date the wrong way around, aren’t you a british/austrian team?"

Another demanded: "There are 12 months in the year, not 16. Fix it please."

The post also confused fans over whether this was a change to the official launch date, with one questioning: "So its delayed?"

But the caption didn't actually confirm whether the date was in relation to the car launch at all, with fans jumping to the conclusion that the change from the previously advertised launch date of January 15 could have been explained by the UK and US time zone difference.

The Red Bull/Racing Bulls 2026 launch will kick off at 3am GMT, therefore taking place on January 16, but local time will mean the event starts at 10pm (ET) on January 15 in Detroit.

But the team have also begun posting teasers to their upcoming F1 kit launch, following up the '01.16.26' teaser with a video that showed a new Red Bull F1 t-shirt in the making.

Take a closer look at the original date post and you may find the background of the text also closely resembles t-shirt material.

The conclusion? This may have just been a big misunderstanding and fans should perhaps learn to be a bit more patient during the off-season.

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