diff --git a/.circleci/Dockerfile b/.circleci/Dockerfile
index 1b331f529fc..c19d2ba60b0 100644
--- a/.circleci/Dockerfile
+++ b/.circleci/Dockerfile
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ RUN sudo apt-get update && \
     clang-6.0 clang-format-6.0 rsync ninja-build
 
 # ~100M, depends on g++, zlib1g-dev, bash-completions
-RUN curl -Lo /tmp/bazel.deb https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases/download/0.15.2/bazel_0.15.2-linux-x86_64.deb && \
+RUN curl -Lo /tmp/bazel.deb https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/releases/download/0.18.0/bazel_0.18.0-linux-x86_64.deb && \
     sudo dpkg -i /tmp/bazel.deb && rm /tmp/bazel.deb
 
 
diff --git a/.circleci/Makefile b/.circleci/Makefile
index aa7ddab12a2..b0232c3f9e9 100644
--- a/.circleci/Makefile
+++ b/.circleci/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ HUB ?=
 PROJECT ?= istio
 
 # Using same naming convention as istio/istio
-VERSION ?= go1.10-bazel0.15-clang6.0
+VERSION ?= go1.10-bazel0.18-clang6.0
 IMG ?= ci
 
 # Build a local image, can be used for testing with circleci command line.