Red Bull Racing launched its 2011 challenger – the RB7 – today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit near Valencia, Spain. The car, which the team hopes will successfully defend its two Formula One titles, was unveiled in the pit lane at 0830hrs by 2010 World Champion Sebastian Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber. This was followed by a press conference in the Team’s Energy Station with the two drivers, team principal Christian Horner and chief technical officer Adrian Newey. The RB7 completed its first lap of the circuit when testing began at 1000hrs.
It's just 11 weeks since Sebastian Vettel drove to victory in Abu Dhabi and less than six weeks before the car will contest the Bahrain Grand Prix. This morning was the culmination of months of hard work in Milton Keynes, where every department has been focused on increasing the silverware in the Red Bull Racing trophy cabinets.
Christian Horner commented: ” It’s a great feeling to arrive here and roll out the car with the number one on it as the reigning World Champions, but now the challenge is to keep it. The team’s been very focused on RB7 over the last few months; Adrian didn’t release his drawings any earlier thannormal, so the whole design group and production team have done a remarkable job to produce this car in the shortest possible time. It’s a long season, the longest in F1 history, and we have some great opponents, but we are very motivated and will be working hard to hold on to the two world titles. I’m sure it’s going to be a fascinating battle.”
“You’re always looking for the next thing,” he says. “I was thinking about this recently: in Formula 3000 I achieved a championship win in the same time frame as with Red Bull Racing. Then in F3000 I went on to win three titles in a row. I would dearly love to emulate that with this team. “We’ve joined some of the elite names, some of the great teams in Formula One and now we’re determined to build on that. We were the most successful team in F1 in 2010 and we want to consolidate that position and seek out even greater success.”
The realisation of that ambition is going to rely heavily on a combination of successful drivers and the RB7 revealed this morning. The former have already proved themselves...
“We are very lucky in that we have possibly the strongest driver line-up in on the grid,” he says. “Sebastian will go into 2011 as the youngest ever F1 champion and he will undoubtedly want to become the youngest double winner.
“Mark too had the season of his career,” he adds. “He won four races and was in championship contention right up until the final race. He will have learned a lot of lessons from 2010 and will come back stronger, more motivated and hungrier than ever.”
For the whole team the 20-race calendar is going to be tough work, with the highs, lows and excitement and surprise which are part of every Formula One season. Christian's belief is that the foundations built in 2010 will stand Red Bull Racing in good stead: “As long as we can apply what we learned from 2010 and give it our best shot, the results will take care of themselves – as they did last year.”
Adrian Newey: 'We Have Evolved A Successful Lineage'
Adrian Newey said: “It’s always a special moment when a car runs for the first time. The big challenge for us this year was the reintroduction of the KERS system. It’s always a challenge to find solutions, which don’t compromise the aerodynamics of the car. This season, with McLaren, Ferrariand Mercedes all having KERS, we need to get it to work, simply for performance off the line.” Adrian Newey has won a lot of trophies in his motor racing career, and his desire to win is as undimmed as ever. But as his RB7 was shown to the world for the first time this morning, he says it's very much a team effort which has brought Red Bull Racing success.
Newey has won Formula One world titles with Williams and McLaren and IndyCar accolades in America. But the difference about Red Bull Racing is, he says, its team spirit and philosophy.
“The motivation to compete and win is still as strong as ever simply because I really enjoy this team,” he says. “We’ve got a great outfit and we have a good atmosphere here. We don’t pretend to be anything we’re not. We’re a Formula One team that goes about its business of trying to make the best possible car it can. The team of engineers, indeed everyone, in every department, is working extremely hard to achieve that. It has a great atmosphere and I find that very refreshing and very motivating personally.”
'We’ve got a great outfit and we have a good atmosphere here'
And the car which will challenge this season has a decent DNA in the RB6 and the RB5 which won the team its first races. So while regulation changes have not been as drastic as for 2009, the intorduction of Kers, a flexible rear wing mean this is a quite different car to the one which Sebastian and Mark last raced in Abu Dhabi.
“However, what we have done is taken the philosophy of continuing evolution. We have evolved RB6, which itself was an evolution of 2009’s RB5, and this is, if you like, the third generation of a successful lineage.”
On the day it launched its all-new RB7, Red Bull Racing is pleased to welcome several new partners for 2011, as well as reconfirming continuing and enhanced agreements with many of its existing partners. Red Bull Racing’s Partner portfolio now includes: Total, Rauch, Pepe Jeans, Casio, SinghaBeer, FXDD, Geox, Pirelli, Alpinestars, Platform Computing and Siemens.
Mark Webber: 'The Re-set Button Has Been Hit'.
“2010 was my best year in F1, with a lot of big boxes ticked along the way,” Mark said. “It was shame I didn’t manage to pull the Championship off, but it was still very rewarding to be competing for it until the very end.” Which means it's not a case of ripping everything up and starting again, but rather getting better and better in all areas.
“There were many things that we did absolutely right last year and there’s no point in saying ‘we must change everything’,” he says. “You fix the small things that went missing along the way and match those to the good things that were achieved and that’s what hopefully makes you up your game.”
'I’d rather have Adrian in our corner than almost anybody else'
But, he realises that one of the major factors involved in our continued success is the RB7 unveiled here this morning. But Webber also maintains Red Bull Racing has a key personnel advantage.
“We’ve seen in the last few years in F1 that they make big regulation changes every year and that’s something we, as a team, need to be on top of. In Adrian Newey, we’ve got someone who’s better able to roll with those kind of punches than almost anyone else in Formula One,” he adds. “He’s absolutely brilliant at interpreting new regulations and I think I’d rather have Adrian in our corner than almost anybody else.”
Mark's first chance to get behind the wheel of the RB7 will be later this week for days three and four of the Valencia test. It will also his first chance to see how he and Pirelli get along.
Sebastian Vettel: 'Now There's Another Job To Do'
“At the end of last year I felt tired and needed a rest,” he said. “But I’ve had that rest now and I’m really looking forward to it again.” And looking forward is a reminder that everyone, every driver, every team starts from the same position in March. “2010 is behind us. It’s a very proud memory, but now it’s 2011 and there’s another job to do, so we move to the next challenge, which is trying to do the same again.”
The same again, but with a different set of regulations and set of wheels under him.
The unveiling of the RB7 this morning is also the unveiling of new technologies and tyres for theGerman driver. How does he feel about the changes to car and rule book?
'2010 is behind us. It’s a very proud memory, but now it’s 2011 and there’s another job to do'
“KERS we know about already, we have seen the effect on the track in 2009, but the moveable rear wing is a bit of an unknown. No one has ever driven the car with that type of wing and it’s difficult to know how it will work: will overtaking be just about possible, which I think is the idea, or will overtaking become very easy and therefore artificial, which is what no one wants to happen.
“With KERS, the question is how good and how efficient your system is. Not just in terms of performance but in how quickly it recharges the batteries under braking and how much it upsets your car when you do apply it. Obviously, the teams that had it in 2009 have a little bit of an advantage, but we will just have to work hard on that.
“In the end, though, it is just one variable and there are always variables. We have different tyres to work with this season and we have to see how we deal with that. You just have to adapt and try to make your driving style suit the car. It happens every year and we will deal with it. It’s good, it definitely keeps you on your toes.”
