The car was driven by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen,[6] and made its competitive début at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix.

[3] The RB14 was the last car built by Red Bull Racing to use customer Renault engines as the team switched to Honda power in 2019.

Team principal Christian Horner justified the decision by revealing that analysis of the team's performances in 2016 and 2017 showed that while the chassis were competitive by the end of the season, the decision to delay their respective launches had resulted in an uncompetitive car at the start of the championship.

Daniel Ricciardo completed a shakedown of the car at the Silverstone Circuit one week before pre-season testing began.

[10] (key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) † Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance.