Red Bull Racing Debuts RB8 Ahead of 2012 F1 Season
Any Formula 1 that has success also finds itself with a major target on its back. That’s certainly the position that Red Bull Racing is in coming into the 2012 season. After dominating the Constructor’s Championship thanks to a record-setting performance by Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull Racing has established itself as the class of the Formula 1 world with the best cars and best drivers. The team is looking to keep that advantage in 2012 with the debut of its RB8 car, which hit the track for the first time in preseason testing at Jerez, Spain.
The car is being touted as an “evolutionary” car that makes gradual improvements on the previous model rather than radical changes. However, one element has caught the eye of Formula 1 observers and other teams during early testing – its nose. The RB8 has a hole at the top of its nose that is about the size of a mailbox. Red Bull officials claim that the air duct is simply designed to keep the drivers’ feet cool during hot summer races. But engineers from other teams are skeptical about the duct and believe it might have other purposes more closely related to performance.
Rival teams have reason to be worried about the design of the RB8, as Red Bull’s success has been fueled by technology breakthroughs such as its exhaust-blown diffuser. With that technology banned for 2012, Red Bull engineers were forced to redesign the exhaust system on the RB8 that dropped the ride height lower than last year’s model. The team admits that the change to the exhaust system has robbed them of one of their major advantages and might bring them closer to the competition.
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