Newey's emotional thank you to the factory

Mark Webber has been driving quite some laps around the Barcelona track in Red Bull Racing’s RB3 car. That in itself is quite an achievement for a brand new car and on a day when Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz jetted down to Spain to see his team get the new season underway, it’s fair to say that everything has got off to a promising start.

The demanding (that really means “occasionally irritating”) F1 photographers had been worried the 8.30 photocall for the new car would mean that everything would be in darkness, but in fact even the sun turned out to welcome our new machine on track. Then, RB3 actually did not break down which is also quite unusual for an out-of-the-box F1 car. Mr. Mateschitz was brave enough to make some guarded predictions to the press, saying he hoped the team would score “a podium here and there.”

Our Chief Technical Officer certainly has nothing to prove in Formula 1, with an impressive track record, but it’s fair to say that the media has built up RB3 as the “Newey Car” so it was obvious that Adrian was just a little bit nervous this morning, but he had relaxed a bit by lunchtime. “It’s always an emotional moment seeing a new car roll out of the garage for the first time, especially when it is your first car for a new team,” said Newey. “It means this car is a totally new product and not something that has evolved out of the previous year’s car which is normally the case. There was a feeling of trepidation and nerves and, although it is a cliché, it is a bit like the birth of a new baby. It’s great to see the new car running. Today has been about getting the car out on track and the fact we have managed that is a real tribute to everyone back at the factory. I have to admit that privately, back in November, I didn’t think we would make this date. I am very happy that all the hard work of all the engineers, the manufacturing staff and everyone back at base has proved me wrong. It has involved a lot of hard work, a lot of late nights, a lot of weekend work and it really is an outstanding effort.”

As a side bar, this morning, Red Bull Racing confirmed its test driver line-up for 2007 with Robert Doornbos taking on the role of test and reserve driver and Michael Ammermueller as test driver.

Once the team finishes today’s programme, the test team heads off to Valencia where it resumes development testing of RB3 on Tuesday 30th January with both race drivers in attendance for the test.

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