Red Bull reveals 2010 title hopeful
Date published : 10 Feb 2010 - 09:01:38
Red Bull unveiled its new RB6 car in the Jerez pit lane on Wednesday morning the car the team hopes will allow it to win its maiden world title in 2010.Last year's championship runner-up was widely regarded to have developed the best 2009 car by the end of last season, RBR finishing its breakthrough Formula 1 campaign as the team to beat with three successive wins.Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber pulled the wraps off its successor at the start of the opening day of the second group test of pre-season, with rival squads no doubt keen to get a first glimpse of design genius Adrian Newey's latest creation.The car features a wider nose section than last year's RB5, but with Newey calling the design a "sensible evolution" of its predecessor the car features a similarly intricate front-wing arrangement and the shark fin engine cover that he first set the trend for in Formula 1 in 2008.However, Newey has been able to optimise the RB6 around the double diffuser, having missed out on the concept in the initial design process of the 2009 car.Having scored six victories and four 1-2 finishes overall last year as it finally emerged as a front-running force, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes the Milton Keynes-based outfit has plenty of reasons to be optimistic about its chances in 2010 and therefore has no hesitation in admitting it has set itself some "aggressive targets". 2009 was a massive year for the team and I think we took a huge step forward," Horner said. "Red Bull Racing's still a relatively young team and so the lessons that we learned last year will serve us well going into 2010. "The performance of the car developed throughout 2009 and I believe we ended the year with the best chassis. "We've had stability over the winter and continuity in all areas, so I think we're in good shape. "We completely respect the quality of our opponents, but we're setting ourselves aggressive targets. It's fantastic to see the car finally taking to the track after so much hard work and effort. RBR opted to skip last week's opening test at Valencia to spend more time on its car in the wind tunnel and is confident its tactic will pay off as it joins all the nine other established F1 squads for the four-day Jerez test. Webber took the RB6 out for its maiden laps just before a mid-morning rain shower hit the opening hours of the test in southern Spain.Force India is also running its new VJM03 for the first time on Wednesday morning following its online launch, while the all-new Virgin Racing team becomes the first of the 2010 debutants to track test its first car alongside its rivals.
