Adrian Newey admits to being worried about the RB8 ahead of 2012 F1 season – Formula 1 news
Red Bull’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, has admitted to being worried about the RB8 before the team even began the 2012 F1 season.
“Unfortunately, we realised even before the season that it would take some time to understand the car,” Newey told Italy’s Autosprint magazine. “We were worried. The problem was with the ‘blown’ exhausts that we introduced in 2010 and around which we completely
designed the 2011 car. Everything, including the position of the batteries, was based on it.”
Newey also confessed his frustration with the FIA constantly changing the technical regulations. He said that the rules are becoming a restriction and lack in spirit since they can still find loopholes and then apply the rules as convenient.
He added, “That is the true nature of F1. Yes, we have found some possibilities that maybe the rules do not provide for, but are not prohibited.”
Newey also admitted to being sick of being under attack from other F1 teams and the FIA for breaking the technical regulations even they have not found any rule they might have broken. He said that while they were put under pressure for using the hole in
the car’s floor during the race in Bahrain, their rivals, Ferrari, were using an identical solution at another point in the season.
Red Bull Racing has been winning both the constructors’ and the drivers’ championship consecutively for the last three seasons. All of them have been with cars made by Newey. Although, the beginning of the 2012 F1 season saw Red Bull struggling just like
many other teams on the grid due the new exhaust systems. The youngest triple champion, Sebastian Vettel, had enjoyed a very impressive 2011 season but had to struggle before finally getting his lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in the second half of the
season.
The team itself has admitted that the past season has been the most stressful and difficult for them. Team principal, Christian Horner, has also admitted that Newey’s 2013 car, the RB9, is behind schedule since they were quite busy in maintaining their previous
car to win the title while other teams had already begun working on the new car at the end of the season.
Tags: