Newey: taking maximum time to exploit rule changes? © GEPA

Will Red Bull Racing’s late roll-out for the new-for-2009 RB5 pay dividends for the team, or leave them on the back foot throughout the course of the season?

Red Bull Racing will be the last of the larger-budget teams to unveil its 2009 car, with the Adrian Newey designed RB5 launching four weeks after Ferrari’s F2009 at the second test of 2009 at Jerez on February 9. With a ban on in-season testing, it is important that the Red Bull RB5 hits the ground running and is on the pace in testing, otherwise the reduction in time for troubleshooting and modifications could prove detrimental and will likely dog the team for the entire season.

But if there is anybody who is going to take advantage of the new 2009 rules with the biggest aerodynamic changes in at least two decades, Newey is your man. With a track record on maximising time to exploit new regulations by delaying the launch of his racers, the superstar designer could well be on the verge of pulling something out of the hat once again. The Leyton House March 881 of 1988, the Williams FW14 in ’91 and the McLaren MP4-13 from ’98 where all unveiled shortly before the season-opener and all were pretty much one of the quickest cars on the track. Past glories maybe, but this year should provide him with an excellent opportunity to recapture that form.

With the team opting to spend longer in the windtunnel and with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in the design process before producing the goods, David Coulthard agrees that a late launch will be of little concern to the Milton Keynes based squad.

In terms of Adrian’s decision to work longer in the design process before committing to manufacturing, if you have a quick car and it can be made reliable then it doesn’t matter how early you have it out in testing.

My view is that you find out where you are with your mechanical package in terms of springs, ride heights and what-have-you fairly quickly. And very rarely does changing a spring package make the car go significantly quicker.

You might optimise it for that track on that day, but the headline elements to make a grand prix car go quickly are driver confidence – because there’s no question that when you’re confident that unleashes lap time performance – aerodynamic load and efficiency is a key area, and making the tyres work.

So if the car comes out having used the extra time to develop further and it performs, I think this could be a very strong year for the Red Bull Racing team.

Current Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber shares a similar view and agrees that Newey’s decision to spend a bit longer in the factory might not prove such a handicap.

There is a lot of stuff you can do now to make sure the cars are reliable – and we had very good mechanical reliability last year.

If we can keep that sort of reliability up with this car, then Adrian Newey’s decision to delay the launch to give him more development time to get a bit more performance out of the car could be a good one.

Another area which should benefit Red Bull will be the FIA’s recent decision to allow Renault to improve its engine which should put it on more equal terms with the other engine units out there. It became apparent last year that the French unit was at a disadvantage when the Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso leapfrogged Red Bull with a reported difference of some 30bhp.

This change alone should create a level playing field and means Red Bull can go into the new season with parity in that area. It then boils down to whoever has the most aerodynamically efficient car on the grid that will be in the best position to beat their rivals. And we all know that Newey is a dab hand at creating a competitive racer. Time will of course tell when the team turn up for their first test and we will see where they are when they get to Melbourne.