The new charging Red Bull RB8

admin Motor Racing

This is the car that all the Formula One teams must beat following the unveiling of the new RB8 from defending world champions Red Bull Racing.

The Milton Keynes-based squad hopes the Adrian Newey-designed machine will continue their ultra successful title winning run in 2012 with the Renault-powered RB8.

Having taken Sebastian Vettel to the last two drivers’ titles alongside its 2010 and 2011 constructors’ crowns, Red Bull Racing’s latest design is the most eagerly awaited of the new season contenders.

Adrian Newey, the man generally regarded as the key to Red Bull’s recent domination, is again responsible for leading the RB8 design.

The car appears outwardly similar to last year’s all-conquering RB7, which won 12 out of 19 races, but features a revised nose layout and a different exhaust to accommodate this season’s rule changes.

Attention has been focused on the stepped nose design on RB8 and close inspection reveals a possible f-duct system could be in place… Does Newey have an aero secret up his sleeve with the now dubbed ‘Bull-duct‘?

The line-up of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber remain unchanged for the fourth consecutive season. However, ex-Toro Rosso racer Sebastien Buemi is now Red Bull Racing’s reserve.

Video of the Red Bull Racing RB8 launch:

6 thoughts to “The new charging Red Bull RB8”

  1. Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel believes the 2011-style dominance seems unlikely in this upcoming Formula One season. Autosport.com has the story.

    Sebastian Vettel believes the tightening up of the technical regulations will make it much harder for Red Bull to repeat its 2011 dominance.

    The double world champion stormed to the title last year with the RB7, but he feels that any expectation that the team could enjoy a similar advantage this year would be misplaced.

    “We’ll always look back to 2011 and think how special it was,” said Vettel, speaking during the launch of the new RB8 car.

    “But to be honest, you don’t start the season having expectations to have the same or similar season again.

    “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.

    “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 again.”

    Vettel explained that the changes to the technical rules, especially regarding exhaust blown diffusers, reduce any team’s chances of gaining a big advantage over the rest of the field.

    “Looking at the cars, there’s not much room we have left to play with for designers and to find something extra,” he added. “The last two years we have had two big things taken away; the double diffusers, plus, for this year, the system around the exhaust.

    “So we are missing that and therefore I think it’s difficult to really create a difference. Obviously we hope our car is better than all the others but it will be difficult. I think the cars will be fairly similar, and the gaps will be even closer than they have been.

    “I think it will be very, very tight this year and anything else would be a surprise to be honest.”

    Reply

  2. As for Mark Webber, the Australian is looking forward to the new season and said he ‘can’t wait’ to prove himself again after last year’s frustrations. Autosport.com has the details.

    Mark Webber says he is looking forward to proving himself again in 2012 after his difficult ’11 Formula 1 season.

    The Australian only won one race last year as his Red Bull Racing team-mate Sebastian Vettel swept to a dominant championship triumph.

    Webber acknowledged that Vettel’s form during his title-winning seasons had set a tough benchmark, but said he was raring to get the season underway and show that 2011 was just a blip.

    “Many sportsmen or women, when you don’t get the most out of a situation, you always want to come back and improve and do a better job,” said Webber in a video interview as part of the launch of Red Bull’s new RB8.

    “The bar has been lifted very, very high in the last few seasons and it’s the challenge I’m looking forward to.

    “I’ve had a really good winter and prepared for the season as best I can so I’m looking forward to the new season, I just cannot wait to get racing. We can talk a lot about it but we need to get on the track.”

    Webber added that he did not feel his 2011 campaign had been as disappointing as it had been portrayed.

    “As you say last year wasn’t an amazing season, but it wasn’t too bad for me,” he argued. “I still managed to finish third in the drivers’ championship, not far off second with Jenson [Button] there, so it was a great way for me to finish the year with the victory in Brazil and many strong results.

    “We’re always learning as athletes and I’m looking forward to 2012, it’s got some great opportunities for me.

    “You know the old cliche take each race as it comes but that’s how it will be initially and we’ll go from there.”

    Reply

  3. Red Bull Racing starts 2012 fresh from the most successful car build and winter preparation in its history, according to team boss Christian Horner.

    The head of Formula 1’s reigning champion team said the creation of the new RB8 – which was revealed online today – had been an exceptionally smooth process.

    “This year’s car build has gone fantastically well, and I think it’s the epitome of continuity… continuity across all areas,” said Horner in a video interview released by the team.

    “I think we’ve designed and built this car in a record amount of time, in a ridiculously short amount of time.

    “Adrian [Newey] is 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.”

    Horner feels that the continuity of staff within Red Bull, allied to its run of success, has given the team great momentum that will make it tough for rivals to topple in 2012.

    “I think that we’ve evolved as a team, as a unit,” he said.

    “I think we have tremendous strength and depth and I think that we’ve enjoyed great continuity over the last few years.

    “As we’ve evolved and as departments have worked closely with each other you can see, in the detail of the car and the continuity that we’ve had in our production techniques and our development rate [and] in some of our simulation tools, that [it] all adds up to achieving the kind of team work that we strive for.

    “I think we’re well set for the season ahead. You can never take anything for granted. We certainly don’t underestimate the quality of our opponents, but we’re going into 2012 with a lot of determination to keep the two trophies in their cabinets.”

    Source: Autosport.com

    Reply

  4. The restrictions in this year’s Formula One technical rules has frustrated Red Bull Racing designer Adrian Newey. Autosport.com has the story.

    Adrian Newey said that the tightening of Formula 1’s technical restrictions for 2012 have left him frustrated.

    Red Bull’s chief technical officer, who was speaking at the launch of the team’s new RB8, said that in particular he lamented the clampdown on exhaust rules for this season that have effectively outlawed the exhaust-blown diffuser concept that last year’s Red Bull incorporated so well.

    “Regulation restrictions like the lost exhaust are a bit frustrating in truth, because they are exactly that, they are restrictions, they’re not giving new opportunities or revenues particularly, they’re just closing a door,” he said.

    “Regulation changes I enjoy, regulation restrictions I rather lament.

    “[This year] 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 rethink 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, but it will be good to get out to do some testing and to see where we get to.”

    Newey confirmed that the concept for the RB8 has been altered considerably compared to the title-winning RB7 of 2011, due to the fact that exhaust-blown diffusers are no longer being used.

    He said that the resultant change in the positioning of the exhaust outlets – which must be placed in a specific location and at a mandatory angle – has will cause the car to run a lower rear ride-height and therefore a lesser rake angle than the 2011 car.

    “RB7 was designed around the exhaust,” he added. “[But] this year, knowing that the exhaust position from last year would be taken away, we’ve had to go back and look at how we developed the car through the last one and two years with the side exit exhaust.

    “We’ve had to, if you like, make sure that the routes we had taken that were only suitable for that exhaust position, had to be re-evaluated.

    “Probably one of the key things there is the rear ride height. The [2011] exhaust allowed us to run a high rear ride height. It’s much more difficult without that to sustain a high rear height so we have to go back down and have to redevelop the car around that lower ride height.”

    Reply

  6. Wow how scary does the RB8 look. It looks like its already won the championship and just chilling out at the side waiting for the season after!

    Can’t wait!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *