F1 A New Era Takes Flight Aerobatic Pilot Martin Šonka Unveils Oracle Red Bull Racing’s 2026 Livery
Czech pilot Martin Šonka has made a career out of daring acrobatic feats, his latest a thrilling Cobra maneuver in freezing conditions to thread the needle at a speed of 200 km/h and help unveil the new Oracle Red Bull Racing livery ahead of the 2026 F1 season at the star-studded Detroit launch event in Michigan Central Station. Here is all you need to know:
– With the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship season just under two months away, 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Champion Šonka helped unveil the new Oracle Red Bull Racing livery on January 15 in Detroit by performing a thrilling low flight pass and Cobra maneuver using his plane’s tail at Airport Jindřichův Hradec back in November 2025.
– The 2026 livery on the RB22 marks a return to the gloss finish first seen when the Team made its debut back in 2005 – sharpening reflections, boosting contrast under the lights and making heritage elements of the new livery feel richer and more premium at speed.
– It features a heritage white base, the gloss paint allowing the iconic sun and bull logo to pop. The shine adds motion, energy and reveals a new jacquard pattern through the body of the livery, which will run throughout Oracle Red Bull Racing’s 2026 look and feel.
– It also ushers in a defining moment for Oracle Red Bull Racing, because the opening round of the season in Melbourne will mark the official race debut of Red Bull Ford Powertrains – the Team now building both car and power unit under the same roof for the very first time.
– Team Principal Laurent Mekies declared: “2026 marks the start of a new and significant era for Formula One and for Red Bull. We wanted our livery to reflect this, while also giving a nod to Red Bull Racing’s beginnings. We are in F1 because of the dream of one man, Dietrich Mateschitz, and several years later, he had another dream, to create an engine. This livery is designed to celebrate that spirit that we entered the sport with. In the year that an Oracle Red Bull Racing car carries a Red Bull Ford Powertrains PU for the first time, it felt only right to reflect some of our history in our livery.”
– Former Czech fighter pilot Šonka was one of the stars in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, which included one title, two further overall podium finishes and six elite wins before he switched up to projects such as the 2021 one where he went head-to-head upside-down with an F1 car.
– This time around, the experienced 47-year-old pilot was tasked with a spectacular unveiling of the new Oracle Red Bull Racing livery, the project taking months of careful preparation especially as the filming day coincided with freezing conditions in the Czech Republic.
– Šonka not only needed to successfully pull off a low flight pass close to the tarmac, but also a technically challenging Cobra maneuver where his plane would come to almost a full stall very close to the ground before rising dramatically to whip the cover off the livery using a tail hook.
– Šonka revealed: “Flying that low at that speed feels like threading a needle blind. 200 km/h, barely 1.5 metres above the ground. The margin for propeller clearance was minimal.”
– The Dvůr Králové nad Labem native knew he would need precise coordination and timing of several elements such as control direction, speed, altitude and timing as – if he missed the Cobra maneuver by just two to three decimals of a second – he would hit end up hitting the F1 car with his tail.
– To prepare, he underwent a step-by-step training approach, first practicing the Cobra maneuver on the spot, and then adding elements of complexity; first with a small cloth and no car, then a big cloth and no car before a car was introduced leading into the final unveiling with the full set-up.
– To help pull it off, a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system was installed as an additional safety element to provide audio and visual feedback to Šonka regarding his clearance to the ground.
– A reliable release system was also needed to drop the cloth before landing back as there would be a radical acceleration of the sheet from static to over 150/200 km/h in less than one second.
– On the day itself, there were freezing conditions of around -2/-3 Degrees Celsius (°C) and, with the cockpit not having any heating, it provided another obstacle for Šonka to overcome at speed.
– Due to the shape of this plane’s canopy, Šonka lost sight with the F1 car 200m before the Cobra maneuver so he needed to do it ‘blind’, using some markings on the runway and anticipation of the object.
– Šonka’s mastery of his plane was exemplary on the day, something which four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen and new Oracle Red Bull Racing teammate Isack Hadjar will be hoping to replicate in their cars this season.
