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RB8 will be an evolution despite rule changes - Newey
ESPNF1 Staff
January 2, 2012
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Adrian Newey: "The changes for next year are principally a ban on exhaust blown diffusers and a change to the nose height" © Getty Images
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Adrian Newey is viewing Red Bull's 2012 car as an evolution of his previous three cars, despite changes to the regulations.
Since Formula One's aerodynamic regulations were given an overhaul in 2009, Red Bull has produced race winning cars each season and won championships in 2010 and 2011. Key to its success has been its evolution of a successful design over the past three years and a main feature of those cars has been the exhaust blown diffuser. In 2012 exhaust blown diffusers will be banned, but Newey says that will not mean a change of tack for RB8.
"It's still an evolution," he told ESPNF1. "The changes for next year are principally a ban on exhaust blown diffusers and a change to the nose height. I don't feel that that means you have to have a wholesale change of the underpinnings of the car. So RB8 will be the fourth generation of the car that started off as RB5."
Asked if he was frustrated that the FIA had banned a technology that Red Bull had pioneered over the last three years, Newey said: "I guess its par for the course really. F1 has a long history of a team, whether it's us or someone else, who comes up with an idea and then it gets clamped down. That's the nature of the business."
After a number of retirements due to reliability issues in 2010, the 2011 Red Bull was near-bullet proof. Newey said the team is hoping to maintain that into 2012.
"You can never count on reliability because it comes through a lot of hard work and discipline," he added. "It's that balance of trying to push everything as hard as you dare in the pursuit of performance without losing reliability in the process. In 2010 we threw away a lot of points with problems, but they were silly problems, they weren't problems due to the fundamental reliability of the car."
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ESPNF1 Staff
I can see RBR be the dominant force that Williams was in the early- mid 90's with Newey as designer. Newey has pretty much without fail produced a competitive car, and often a dominant one this season will be do different We saw with the Blown Diffuser debacle mid season RBR not loosing as much performance as McLaren so don't see its removal being the difference, particularly on a car designed not to have it to begin with. Newey and his team are Aero whizzes, with frozen engine regs Aero is the key. Being a evolution from on a dominant car the RB8 will be strong from day 1. With the more radical approach the other teams are saying they taking and the limited testing that there is it may take a few races for them to get the car working properly. So watch Vettel cruise to easy victories in the first races as the other teams sort their cars (and in case of lotus drivers as well). How many races this takes the other team will decide if the RB8 is dominant or merely competitive.
Posted byReally got take my hats off to Newey. He's such a genius and totally make the other teams' technical department looks sad. The other teams are just trying very hard to bring Newey and RBR innovation down rather than just focusing on their own performance gains. First it was the flexing front wing, then exhaust blown diffuser.
Posted by3 words... NO BLOWN DIFFUSER... Im calling it now. IF RBR takes a conservative approach, they will come back to the field...
Posted byI'm not a fan of seeing domination in F1 but you have to admire what Red Bull has done the past few years, the RB8 is just going to be another chapter in that domination. Red Bull has to concede so much ground that even if the RB8 is not at the same level as the RB7 it will still be at least a step above Ferrari and McLaren unless they make a great leap forward.
Posted byHe said the same thing about the RB7... so I guess we can expect another title winner.
Posted byWe know Adrian Newey is innovative.I think the RB8 will be a competitive car but i don't think the car will have the dominant performance of the RB7 still the car will be challenging for the titles.
Posted byAdrian Newey is a genius and i think he will make the RB8 a competitive car.But I think the car might not be a dominant car like the RB7.But I think the car will still be competitive.
Posted bySure it will be competitive but I guess it's not dominant as recent years...
Posted byI agree, I am a huge ferrari fan but i believe it will be the closest year yet (besides 2010). I can't wait to see kimi.
Posted by@Umar Razzaq I dont think it wont be as competitive i think it wont be as successful..