Daniel Ricciardo's New Car Charges Out Of The Gate

Here she is.

This is the beast Australia's sole Formula 1 hope will pilot this season.

It's also the car Red Bull hopes will get them back to the top of the pecking order in the championship, powered by a TAG Heuer branded Renault engine.

Unlike recent seasons, the team decided to shakedown their machine a week before pre-season testing begins in Spain, with Ricciardo putting the first kilometres on the car at the Silverstone circuit in England.

Development of the car also started much earlier than usual.

"The pattern of the last few years has been to launch 'aggressively late'," said the team on their official website.

"This has allowed the design department the maximum amount of time to add goodness to the car before the cut-off point at which the design is frozen and a launch car produced."

This year though, Red Bull are doing things differently.

"It's preferable to finish the car early and deal with any snags now, when the car is on a track a short drive from the factory, rather than using up one of our eight ultra-precious test days doing the same at the Circuit de Catalunya."

The RB14 is the first to be fitted with the new mandatory "halo" cockpit protection device offering greater protection to the drivers in the event of a crash.

The "digital" blue and black camouflage colour scheme is temporary and designed to disguise aerodynamic tricks or parts other teams might try and copy.

The RB14 will be re-launched in "race ready" paint at testing in Spain next week.