Red Bull has become the first of Formula One’s frontrunning teams to break cover with its new car for the coming season.

The team from Milton Keynes – which boasts one of the best driver pairings on the grid in Max Verstappen and Australian Daniel Ricciardo – will hope its new design will challenge Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes team this term.

The new car, which is being run for the first time by Ricciardo at Silverstone on Monday, has been launched with a special edition livery before the first winter test.

Red Bull revealed its race colours for the new campaign will be unveiled at the opening pre-season test that gets underway in Barcelona next week.

The former world champions follow British team Williams and the American outfit Haas, who unveiled their 2018 cars last week.

Hamilton is due to take the wraps off the Mercedes he hopes will fire him to a fifth championship at Silverstone on Thursday, while Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari team will unveil its challenger on the same day.

Red Bull, spearheaded by Vettel, won four consecutive driver and constructors’ championships between 2010 and 2013 but has failed to launch a serious assault on either title since, and finished a distant third in the team championship last year.

Ricciardo, who is out of contract at the end of the coming campaign, won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year, while Verstappen claimed victories at two of the final six rounds in Malaysia and Mexico.

The first test gets under way in Barcelona on February 26, and Hamilton will open his title defence at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne four weeks later.