Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen in the Ford Raptor-inspired kit Red Bull will use at the 2026 United States Grand Prix. Photo: Will Cornelius / Red Bull Content Pool
In the autumn of 2004, Ford wanted out of Formula 1 badly enough to let its Jaguar team go for a single dollar. Twenty-two years later, the team that dollar bought is walking into Circuit of The Americas dressed head to boot in Ford truck branding, and Ford is the one asking for the photo op.
Oracle Red Bull Racing confirmed on October 19 that Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar and the wider team will wear a one-off Ford Raptor-themed kit at the United States Grand Prix. The package, built with kit partner Castore, covers custom race suits and boots, a team clothing collection, Raptor branding across the garage and a reworked Verstappen helmet on which his familiar lion picks up a cowboy-hat graphic.
Notice what is missing from that list: the car. The team’s announcement describes the clothing, the suits, the helmet and the garage. It says nothing about the RB22’s paint. So the Western makeover lives on people and pit walls, not bodywork. That puts Red Bull on the conservative end of Austin dress-up week, given that Haas has gone all the way with a Godzilla-themed livery on its cars.
The dollar deal explains the cowboy hat
Red Bull tells its own origin story plainly. In its official team history, it says Ford put Jaguar Racing up for sale in September 2004 because it wanted to focus on the World Rally Championship and was unhappy that the Ford brand wasn’t as prominent as it felt it should be. The sale closed in November 2004, the evening before the entry deadline for the 2005 season, for $1 and a promise of serious investment. Roughly 300 jobs in Milton Keynes survived with it.
Hold on to that second reason. Brand visibility was part of why Ford walked. When Ford announced its comeback in February 2023, the deal was structured very differently: Ford contributes to combustion-engine development, battery-cell and electric-motor technology, power-unit control software and analytics for the 2026 hybrid formula, with units supplied to both Red Bull-owned teams through at least 2030. Ford doesn’t own a team this time. It shares an engine program and rents the spotlight.
Austin is where that spotlight is cheapest to switch on. A garage wrapped in Raptor branding, two drivers in truck-themed suits and a launch party built around pickups is a marketing win that costs Ford no lap time and no headcount in Milton Keynes. It’s the visibility Ford complained it lacked in 2004, delivered without the bill for running a whole team.
Will any of it make the car faster?
No, and that’s by design. Every race suit in Formula 1, special edition or not, has to meet the FIA’s homologation standard for driver safety clothing, so a themed suit is a print change on fire-resistant material, not a performance item. Helmets work the same way: the shell is the certified part, and the lion in the cowboy hat is paint.
Leaving the RB22’s livery alone is also the low-risk choice for a team in a points fight. A full car-livery change means re-finishing bodywork across race cars and spares for a single weekend. For a team holding a seven-point deficit in the constructors’ race, keeping the car untouched and putting the theatre everywhere else is the sensible split.
The numbers Red Bull brings to COTA
The costume arrives with the team in its best form of the season. Verstappen has won the last two Grands Prix, the relocated Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on October 4 and Singapore on October 11, and he is the reigning winner at COTA after taking the 2025 United States Grand Prix. We broke down what that run says about the engine side of the project in our look at Red Bull Ford’s Singapore sweep.
According to the official 2026 standings, here’s where things sit heading into Austin:
- Constructors: McLaren is third on 339 points, Red Bull fourth on 332. Seven points is less than a sixth-place finish.
- Drivers: Verstappen is fourth on 221, eight behind Lewis Hamilton for third and 17 behind George Russell for second.
- Teammate gap: Hadjar has 97 points to Verstappen’s 221. That gap is why the constructors’ fight is closer than Verstappen’s form suggests.
- The engine family: Racing Bulls, also Red Bull Ford-powered, is fifth on 100 points, so there are four Ford-badged power units on the Austin grid.
Hadjar is the swing factor. Verstappen can’t outscore McLaren’s two cars on his own, so Red Bull’s shot at third depends on the second car finishing in the points, and high up. Hadjar’s fifth place at Sepang is the template. We covered why Red Bull committed to him regardless in our breakdown of his 2027 extension.
There’s also a party Red Bull would prefer not to attend. Kimi Antonelli arrives on 340 points with a mathematical chance of clinching the title in Texas. The combinations are laid out in our Antonelli Austin title scenarios. A Verstappen win is the simplest way to delay the Mercedes celebration.
Off-track: where the Raptor theme goes in Austin
The team’s announcement lays out a race-week program that leans hard on the American market. Commercial director Paul Gandolfi described the U.S. as an extremely important market for the team and Austin as the place where racing, culture, partners and fans come together. Ford Racing general manager Will Ford called the takeover a chance to connect with American fans at what he described as Ford’s home F1 race, pitching the Raptor as a Baja-capable truck buyers can keep in their own driveway.
- The Pull Up, Wednesday, Oct. 21: a one-day Red Bull and Ford Racing launch event in Austin with Raptors and modified Fords, a Red Bull show car, live music and a smokehouse-style barbecue. It’s the first public look at the kit before it reaches COTA. Some spots are being given away through the team’s Best Seats in the House promotion, whose grand prize is a U.S. Grand Prix experience with Ford Racing hospitality.
- Red Bull Austin Race Nights, Oct. 22–25: Big Texas, the sports bar in East Austin, becomes a fan hub with driver appearances, a pit-stop challenge, AT&T racing simulators, a replica F1 garage and Q&A sessions on the Indeed Stage.
- Merch: Castore-made replicas, including the ORBR x Ford Raptor Work Shirt and Motor Jacket, plus New Era caps, are sold through Red Bull Shop. A mini replica of Verstappen’s Austin helmet is also listed.
None of this is new for Red Bull in the States. The team has spent the year turning American events into its own showcases, a pattern we traced in our piece on the Atlanta showrun. Austin is the same idea at a bigger venue, with a manufacturer partner paying part of the bill.
What to watch this weekend
Practice opens Friday, October 23, at 12:30 p.m. local time. Qualifying is Saturday at 4 p.m., and the 56-lap race starts Sunday, October 25, at 3 p.m. local (4 p.m. ET), according to the official F1 schedule. With no sprint this year, Red Bull gets three practice sessions to sort the car, and one race to turn seven points into third place.
The suits will look good in the photos. The more useful thing to watch is where Hadjar finishes. If the second Red Bull scores big on Sunday, the cowboy kit becomes the outfit Red Bull wore when it took third from McLaren. If not, it’s a well-produced Ford commercial with a race attached.
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