FEBRUARY 9, 2009

The new Red Bull RB5 is unveiled

Red Bull Racing has unveiled its latest F1 challenger with the RB5 being shown to the world for the first time in Jerez. The car is the latest to be produced by Adrian Newey and his engineers at Milton Keynes and the team hopes that this will provide them with the chance to finally break into the big time in F1. The team says that its goal is a win and argues that the design team achieved that last year, building the Toro Rosso with which Sebastian Vettel won the Italian GP at Monza.

Newey has an enviable record as an F1 designer but his efforts this far at Red Bull have been frustrated with the 2008 season hampered by a down-on-power Renault engine. The French engine company has been allowed to make some improvements to bring the engine up to the same basic level as the opposition and so there should be no more excuses, Newey and his designers started work on the car early and the development programme was allowed to go on longer than many of the other teams as Red Bull decided to sacrifice extra testing time in order to get more development time. This is fine in theory but is a risky course of action if the team has any major problems.

The new car is very different to the old RB4. It will be run today by Sebastian Vettel with Mark Webber back in action for the first time since his cycling accident later in the week.