Red Bull has announced during this weekend's Turkish Grand Prix that the team will race in a special white livery to pay tribute to Formula 1's outgoing partner Honda.

A 🆕 unique livery 🎨 The Bulls will race in 🤍 at the #TurkishGP 😍

— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) October 6, 2021

Honda will leave Formula 1 at the end of this 2021 season, the promotional operation would have taken place in Honda’s home GP in Japan this weekend, but given the cancellation, due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation in the country, Red Bull will replace it with the race at Istanbul Park in Turkey.

“We had all been looking forward to giving Honda’s Japanese fans a chance to celebrate our extremely successful relationship in Formula One, on home soil at Suzuka,” Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal, said.

“With the race falling victim to the pandemic, we just couldn’t let the weekend pass without paying tribute to Honda and its amazing home fans by bringing a little bit of its heritage to Istanbul.

“The livery chosen for our cars pays homage to Honda’s remarkable F1 journey and hopefully we can give fans another victory in those legendary colours this weekend.

To pay tribute to and thank Honda, Red Bull has announced that both Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will race in special liveries.

Red Bull will race in a predominantly white livery inspired by the Honda RA 272, which became the first Japanese car to win in F1 when Richie Ginther won the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965, while AlphaTauri, which already has a distinctive white, will carry, on the rear wing, an “Arigato” in Japanese to say "Thank you" to Honda.

Something's looking a little different... ありがとう @HondaRacingF1 🤍 pic.twitter.com/44GUwHHvrl

— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) October 6, 2021

Franz Tost, former driver and AlphaTauri team Principal, added: “It’s a big disappointment not being able to race at Suzuka, especially this year, which was supposed to be Honda’s last home GP.

“From our side, we were really looking forward to our Japanese trip even more than usual because it would have been great to see Yuki Tsunoda driving in front of his own crowd.

“It’s also a shame because Suzuka is one of the best race tracks in the world and always provides plenty of excitement and the fans really understand the sport, showing their appreciation in typical Japanese style,”- he explained – “That will have to wait until next year, but in the meantime the simple “arigato” message on the rear wing of our two cars is just a small gesture to say THANK YOU to all our Japanese fans, while racing in Istanbul.”