The Red Bull F1 team enters the 2012 season facing perhaps the toughest opponent of all – impossible expectations. Coming off of a record-breaking season in 2011, Red Bull is clearly the juggernaut of the Formula 1 world. The pressure to perform will be enormous from the time the team rolls their new RB8 cars out of the paddock in Melbourne ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Anything other than domination from the drop of the green flag might be seen as a step back.
On paper, there’s no reason that Red Bull can’t maintain their form and outmuscle the competition in 2012. It all starts with defending Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel, who put together one of the strongest seasons in F1 history in 2011 with 11 wins and 15 poles in 19 races. At just 24, the German driver is already a two-time world champion and poised to challenge some of the all-time records set by his countryman Michael Schumacher.
On any other team, Mark Webber would be the top driver and a leading championship contender. However, Vettel’s success has relegated Webber to a secondary role at Red Bull over the past few seasons. It’s a position that Webber has sometimes bristled at being in, leading to occasional dust-ups over team orders and which driver has superior cars. The Red Bull team insists that Webber and Vettel will be treated as equals in 2012; with a win in the season-ending race in Brazil and a third-place finish overall in 2011, Webber deserves to command respect.
Red Bull hasn’t sat on its laurels in 2012. Instead, the team has introduced a new RB8 car that has turned some heads in testing. In particular, a slot on the nose of the car that is ostensibly there for cooling has been controversial.
