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VALENCIA: Red Bull revealed its new car for 2011, with high hopes of repeating last season's outstanding performance in which it won both the Formula One constructors' and drivers' titles.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel became the sport's youngest champion at 23 when he triumphed in the last Grand Prix of the season, in Abu Dhabi in November, to take the title in dramatic fashion as teammate Australian Mark Webber finished eighth, and third overall.
For 2011, the British-based Austrian-funded Red Bull has retained the pair, who take to the Ricardo Tormo race track near Valencia later Tuesday for the first day of testing of the new RB7 car.
“We are very lucky in that we have possibly the strongest line-up on the grid,” said team principal Christian Horner.
“The 2011 season is going to be really gruelling, but it's going to be fantastic... But as long as we can apply what we learned from 2010 and give it our best shot, the results will take car of themselves – as they did last year.”
Webber and Vettel fought for the top spot last season along with Ferrari driver Spain's two-time champion Fernando Alonso and Briton Lewis Hamilton - world champion in 2008 - of McLaren.
The Australian, who had led the championship at several stages in the season, said he plans to challenge for the title again this year.
“Nothing has changed, I have a great opportunity to get some great results,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“Last year there were some tough times. It was unusual for two drivers in the same team to go for the championship.”
“We're not going to get carried away with today's testing,” said Webber.
“It's very early days. We need to lay the foundations of a solid defence of the championship.”
Vettel said the 2010 season was “a very proud memory. But now it's 2011, and there's another job to do, so we move to the next challenge, which is trying to do the same thing again.”
Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey, who has also worked for Williams and McLaren, said preparing the new RB7 car for the season “has been an interesting challenge for all of us.
“There have been a number of changes to the regulations and while they are not as comprehensive as the changes for 2009, the major differences – such as the re-introduction of the KERS system and the arrival of a moveable rear wing to aid overtaking – have meant that the RB7 is quite different to last year's car.”
The new season brings the various regulation changes - most notably the introduction of an adjustable rear wing, and the removal of devices such as F-ducts and double diffusers.
This season will also see the return of KERS, a device that stores energy created by braking, which can be used to boost power at certain points during the race.
Another important change for 2011 is the introduction of tyres from the Italian company Pirelli, which takes over from Bridgestone as the sport's sole tyre supplier.
“With KERS, the question is how good and how efficient the system is,” said Vettel.
“Obviously, the teams that had it in 2009 have a little bit of an advantage, but we will just have to work hard on that.”
