Red Bull Racing Launch New Car
Red Bull Racing launch the RB4 at a damp Jerez circuit.
Hot on the heels of the bigger names, Red Bull Racing have this morning launched their 2008 challenger, the RB4, at the Jerez circuit in Spain.
As the frenzy of car launches gets the start of the 2008 Formula One season underway, Red Bull Racing this morning became the fifth team to launch their car.
The team, powered by Renault engines, finished fifth in last year’s competition with 24 points in total, beating some bigger names including Toyota and, most notably, Honda. In 2007 Red Bull switched allegiance from Ferrari to Renault for their powerplants, moving the Ferrari engines to sister team Torro Rosso, much to the chagrin of Ferrari bosses.
The RB4 is the second Red Bull Racing car to be designed by Adrian Newey, who had a string of success in the nineties with the Williams and McLaren teams and remains perhaps the most celebrated designer in Formula One. David Coulthard – who worked with Newey during his time at both Williams and McLaren – has been kept on to partner Mark Webber and the team are looking at stability and continuity to quietly bolster their performance.
Adrian Newey’s design shares many of the swoops and style touches seen on recent McLaren models and features the bridge-style wing that Red Bull introduced on last year’s car towards the end of the season.
Unlike the big names that have launched early so far this month, Red Bull took the low key approach to launching the RB4 by simply rolling it out on to the pitlane at the Jerez race circuit in Spain. Shunning the glamour and flashlight approach taken by the likes of Ferrari, Red Bull opted for the low key approach and at the weekend Mark Webber announced that he hoped the teams unchanged line-up and search for constancy amongst personnel would deliver even better results in 2008.
Present at the launch were the grid’s oldest and most experienced drivers, Coulthard and Webber, joined by Technical Director Adrian Newey, Christian Horner – the team’s Sporting Director; Geoff Willis – Technical Director to the Red Bull Group; and Rob White – Techncial Director to Renault, who provide the engines for the team.
The mid-January weather at Jerez was cool and damp which meant that Coulthard, the first to be entrusted with taking the new car out on track, was unable to give it a hard shakedown but the team are confident that their new car and their unchanged personnel line-up will benefit them in 2008.
