Sidepodcast

Daily: 10th February 2009

After the RB5 hit the ground running yesterday, we're now ready to see it in action as the test in Jerez gets underway. In fact, we really do need to see it in action, as it got cut off after only 14 laps. Here's what we'll be looking out for:

• A couple of teams will be heading out to the desert and favouring Bahrain over the European circuits. Toyota, BMW and Ferrari are the ones we know about, I wonder if anyone else will try and avoid the weather and join them?
• Williams seem to be running with yet another new livery. There's a lack of sponsorship going on, and some more white on the car than the previous iteration. Will this be anything like the finished product or are they just teasing us?
• Kathi left us with a great comment from Vettel, who's only summations from his brief ride in the RB5 were: "It's mostly blue and it goes round in circles." Love it. Will he be able to get any more track time today?
• And of course, given our new found knowledge of KERS, we'll be watching ever so closely for any hints about the device on any teams that may be running it.

That should keep us going. I can't wait to see the car's in action again, hopefully the weather will hold for them. Let us know what you're up to, and I'll see you in the comments.

Red Bull Launch RB5

This article was originally written for BellaOnline, but is republished here for posterity.

The RB5 was released into the wild today, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel in attendance at Jerez. The car was released ahead of the test this week at the Spanish track, and the drivers were ready to pull the covers off first thing on Monday morning.

Vettel was eager to get going, as he would take the car for it's first outing on the track, whilst Webber was looking decidedly wobbly. Having worked so hard on recovering from the broken leg he sustained in November, Webber was walking without crutches, but limping slightly. He is due to be back in the car on Wednesday, and we are all hoping he is up to strength and not pushing himself too hard.

Adrian Newey is the brains behind the design this year, and he's making full advantage of the changes to introduce some new concepts. The nose is much slimmer than the other cars that have already been launched, and the front wing has much more to it than their competitors. The new car also features an updated engine, as Renault were given special dispensation by the FIA to upgrade the motor, after falling behind on power in 2008. Apparently all the teams agreed to this, so Renault, and therefore Red Bull, are not being favoured in any particular way.

The team are feeling very positive about the changes and the upcoming season, with Team Principal Christian Horner confident that they can achieve a win. With Sebastian Vettel on board, it's important that they can improve and hopefully outshine their sister team. Toro Rosso beat Red Bull easily last year, and it must have been slightly embarrassing for the bosses.

Horner also believes that the vast change in regulations will cause a lot of field spread in the early races, with those that have gone the right way, and those that need to think again. Once teams can see what's working and what isn't out on track, though, things will begin to close up once again. Horner reckons that once development begins again mid-season, then the championship could close up nicely, and the competition could be fierce. We certainly hope so.

Red Bull RB5 Unveiled

Red Bull Racing unveiled their 2009 challenger the RB5 in Jerez this morning, and isn't she a beauty? As discussed earlier today the designers have gone to town with this car, which features the busiest front wings of all the 2009 designs.

The car also carries aggressively contoured uprights near the wing mirrors and a nose with an unusually high aero profile and a groove pressed into the central section.

The radiator inlets look tiny in the photographs, while the wing mirrors are situated wide of the drivers vision. As yet there's no sign of the shark-fin engine cover that we've seen running on the Renault and Toyota already this year.

I'm a huge fan of the colour scheme too, the deep blue works very well with the black of the tyres and for some reason the cola promotion blends in better than in previous years.

Also interesting is the location of the driver numbers which are found on the sidepod uprights, but if someone could explain what the device hanging from the underside of the car's nose in the first picture does, we'd be most grateful.

Update: General consensus suggests the device might be used as some kind of ballast, or could possibly contain laser equipment for monitoring ride-height.

Webber and Vettel both attended the unveiling at the Jerez circuit. Sebastian sported a fetching hat before donning his helmet and taking to the track for a first outing in the RB5.

Things may not have gone entirely as planned though, as the car was spotted being loaded onto the back of flatbed truck by mid-afternoon. Reports suggest the problem was temperature related, so the tight chassis packaging is already paying dividends then.

Please do also let us know what you think of the new machine in the comments. Is this the best livery of the year and more importantly, is it a race winning car?

Thoughts Ahead of the Red Bull Launch

We're not entirely sure what time Red Bull are planning to reveal their 2009 car this morning, but an educated guess says it'll be around 9am GMT. Before then though, it might be worth having a quick round-up of gossip and expectations prior to the event.

On Friday the team released a preview video detailing the changes to rule book for this year. The animation offered a sneak peek as to what we might experience livery wise and Dave confirmed the video features a close approximation of how the car will look.

Ian from Racing Bulls recently posted a list of Technical Specifications of the RB5 which covers the finer points of the new machine alongside a small teaser image.

Additionally, and I'm not sure if this has been covered elsewhere on the web, but we have it on good authority that the Newey pencil has been working its magic and the RB5 might just feature amongst other things:

• An unusually sculpted nose
• A complex multi-planed front wing arrangement

It should be noted that the above information didn't come from anyone who's commented on this site before, and may or may not be exclusive to Sidepodcast. However, given that a team only get to launch a new car once a year the rest of the rumours are probably best left unprinted.

Vettel is due to debut the new machinery on track in a couple of hours, and we may just find ourselves looking at one of the best looking cars on the grid.

Red Bull Animation Highlights Changes in 2009

It's been a while since we had an F1 car launch, but on Monday Red Bull will debut the latest design from the mind of Newey - the RB5.

Dave left a comment earlier from a rather snowy Milton Keynes, highlighting a new animation from the team designed to offer insight into the rule changes for 2009, as well as hinting at what might be unveiled in Jerez on Monday.

With a similar look to last year's Singapore preview video (and presumably again made in association with AixSponza), Vettel runs us through aero simplifications, engine regulation changes and a visual guide to an electric KERS implementation. This is must see viewing.

• Length: 01:52 
• Size: 71.3 MB 
• File: vettelvsrulebook.mp4 
• Transcript: Coming soon 
• Torrent: vettelvsrulebook.torrent 

Racing Bulls mentioned earlier today that the team have already finished the car and driver photo calls, meaning they are already way more organised than Renault were .

Also, according to Dave, the cars in the video are pretty good approximations of what we'll see hit the track Monday morning. Admittedly, it's not a striking departure from last years paint job, but the vehicles do look rather nice. I can't fathom what's going on with the wing mirror uprights, though. They sort of mimic the Ferrari design of putting the mirrors out as wide as possible, but then the upright slopes inwards rather than forwards.

If you spot anything else of note, do let us know in comments. What do you make of the livery and how did Vettel get so good at commentary?