JEREZ, Spain- After succeeding in winning the last two world championships with the same driver, Team Red Bull launched their 2012 defending car February 6 th online at this famous test track.
The new RB8 incorporates the similar stepped nose designed that most of the other teams are using (with the exception of McLaren) and considering that the different nose that many observers can see, top designer Adrian Newey believed that the current car is much better than last year’s predecessor, but is worried more about the exhaust blown diffuser, which is now banned from competition.
“It’s the fourth evolution of the RB5 this year, so obviously the pressure is to try and stay there if we possibly can,” Newey said. “It’s a difficult task, we have lost the exhaust technology with the restriction exhaust outlet position that we were able to develop and perhaps be ahead of the pack on in the last couple of years, that led to a big re think over the winter. Whether that will affect us more than other people is difficult to know of course.
“We designed the RB7, last year’s car, around that exhaust position and were probably the only people to do so, so it may be that we’ve lost more than other people through that. Only time will tell, it will be good to get out to do some testing and to see where we get to.”
But defending world champion Sebastian Vettel took the Red Bull car to new heights in 2011, winning 11 of the 19 races and clinched the championship with still four races to go in the season. But the German believes that he did not expect last year to go well, and now he is using the same psychological thought.
“The thing is, at the beginning of last year we didn’t really expect whatever happened last year, so I think it’s the same thing again,” Vettel said. “It would be wrong to go into this season and expect 2011 to happen again, as in getting into the lead early and having a very big gap to other competitors in the Championship. So I think it will be very, very tight this year and everything else would be a surprise to be honest.”
” Looking at the cars, you know there’s not much room we have left to play (with) for designers and to find something extra. You know, the last two years we have had two big things taken away, the double diffusers, plus, for this year, the system around the blown exhaust. So we are missing that and therefore I think it’s difficult to really create a difference. We’ll see, obviously we hope our car is better than all the others but it will be difficult, and I think the cars will be fairly similar, as in the gaps will be even closer than they have been.”
But as Vettel was winning most of the races, his Australian teammate, Mark Webber, who could not triumph in any races until a problem with Vettel’s car made Webber win his first race at the final round in Brazil.
“The characteristics of the RB8 we’re looking for is a car that’s very driveable,” Webber said. “Which means not only from an engine side, Renault are doing a good job there, but also aerodynamically we need a car that’s functional on all circuits in all temperatures and clearly we need to get the best out of the tyres which was a huge thing last year for everybody.
“That’s pretty much done now. Everyone knows how the tyres behave, that’s old news. We need to move on and develop the car as best we can without the exhaust affecting the blown diffuser, which was the very powerful thing that the teams used last year. This year that’s changed so that’s going to be a key area of trying to understand the losses we’ve had there.”
But over the winter, team principal Christian Horner kept his faith in both drivers, and even if the rumors over the last two seasons which predicted that Webber would leave for greener pastures never came to happen, as Horner signed the Australian to another one year contract. But Horner was psyched up for the upcoming season, believing that the car can do well at the first tests in Jerez, Spain.
“This year’s car build has gone fantastically well, and I think it’s the epitome of continuity, continuity across all areas. Horner stated. “I think we’ve designed and built this car in a record amount of time, in a ridiculously short amount of time. Adrian’s never famous for his drawings being early, but the design team, the production teams, all the associated departments that go into producing these cars, have delivered, and delivered in a fantastic way. We’ve hit our target of being at the first test so, despite the snow over the latter part of this week, I think we’re in great shape for the first test.”