The story with airbrushing

      The desire for the unification of everything and anything is one of the hallmarks of our time, taking on increasingly bizarre forms, and there are countless examples of badge engineering in global automotive manufacturing. In Formula 1, there has long been talk of the rationality of unifying many components and assemblies, which would save enormous resources, both human and material. They talk about it, but can never fully agree, as they are concerned about preserving the DNA of this sport, one of the fundamental principles of which is that teams must develop and build their own cars.

      Of course, there is a strictly defined list of car parts that teams with smaller budgets can purchase from their "senior colleagues," and a successful example of this is Haas F1, as the project, funded by American entrepreneur Gene Haas, initially envisioned maximum cooperation with Ferrari.

      But an even more interesting story is related to the two Red Bull teams, as Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls share not only owners and power units – each year their cars become more and more similar to each other, and if it weren't for the different liveries, even a specialist would find it difficult to distinguish, say, RB22 from VCARB 03.

      There are persistent rumors that this familial resemblance played a cruel joke on both teams in 2026. Allegedly, during the preparations for the Australian Grand Prix, there was so much hustle and bustle that the contractors, who were outsourced to paint the cars of both teams, confused them, and this happened at the last moment when it was too late to make any changes.

      The degree of unification of the chassis built in Milton Keynes and Faenza is so high that many elements are interchangeable, so when the mix-up was discovered, it was decided to simply swap steering wheels, rear wings, deflectors, and other aerodynamic elements from one car to another. Of course, a number of employees from both teams and their drivers were aware of this, but for obvious reasons, they kept quiet.

      There were concerns about whether they could avoid exposure, which required some sort of agreement with the FIA, but at that moment the federation had so many concerns due to the scandalous situation with Mercedes power units that they simply decided to let it go: essentially, what difference does it make if the cars are still largely the same?

      Thus, the story received a "top secret" classification, and very few are aware of it. However, it convincingly explains the performance of debutant Arvid Lindblad, who finished 8th in his debut race, which is extremely rare for newcomers.

      Someone might ask why Liam Lawson finished only 13th if he had exactly the same car? But remember, when he raced for Red Bull Racing, his results were also mediocre, for which he paid the price and was "demoted" after just two rounds of the previous season. For some reason, he cannot find the right approach to British engineering, while behind the wheel of the Italian team's cars, the New Zealand driver performs much better.

      As for Max Verstappen, it is known that he practically doesn't care what to drive and where – be it RB22 or VCARB 03 in Formula 1, or Porsche 911 or Mercedes AMG GT3 on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring. Because the four-time world champion knows how to extract the maximum from any machinery. Yet in Melbourne, although he earned more points than Lindblad, he only moved up a couple of positions. After all, even if the Racing Bulls car looked very similar to his familiar RB22, it still remained a Racing Bulls car.

      Of course, this is just a theory, but it explains something. For obvious reasons, many details of this "airbrushing story" remain shrouded in mystery, including when order was restored, and whether the teams managed to repaint and swap cars in time for the Chinese round.

      But by Japan, the status quo was restored – by the way, it is possible that Max Verstappen's irritation is partly explained by the fact that the Red Bull Racing car is no better than VCARB 03. Anyone can verify this by looking at the results of the recent race and comparing them with the protocol of the Australian Grand Prix.

      And you talk about unification...