Adrian Newey admits Red Bull racing against time to complete RB9 – Formula 1 news
Red Bull Racing chief technical officer Adrian Newey has admitted that they are racing against time in completing the development work on their 2013 car, the RB9.
The Milton-Keynes based team has had a superb run in Formula 1 over the last years, winning both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. Newey has been credited with being the brains behind the championship winning RB6, RB7 and RB8 cars which ran in
the 2010, 2011 and 2012 Formula 1 seasons respectively.
Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel won the drivers’ championship for a third consecutive time in 2012, becoming the youngest triple world champion in the process. However, Vettel had to battle it out with the Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso who he overtook
in the championship with 4 straight wins. In the final race of the season, Vettel recovered from a first lap hit, rain and very changing conditions to come out as the title winner.
However, since the 2012 Formula 1 season was extremely competitive, Red Bull Racing had to continue developing their car right until the second last race.
“We were introducing developments to the car right up to the penultimate race,” Newey told Autosport. “That has made it difficult to introduce all of those and simultaneously develop the next car.”
The squad now faces an uphill task of finishing the development work on their 2013 car, the RB9.
He told Autosport, “If I'm honest, this has compromised the timescales of the new car more than we would have liked. It was the right trade at the time because we managed to get the job done but it means a busy winter trying to catch up again.”
The 2013 Formula 1 season officially gets underway on February 5 in Jerez, Spain with the first pre-season test. The teams will get a chance to give their new cars a shakedown two more times in February before the first race of the season begins in Australia
in March. Let’s see if the defending champions are able to finish developing their 2013 car in time.
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