Vettel positive after first RB5 test

Sebastian Vettel described his impression of the new Red Bull-Renault RB5 as 'positive' after his first full day of testing in the car at Jerez yesterday. Vettel, who managed only 14 laps in Monday's shakedown before stopping with a gearbox problem, completed 61 laps on Tuesday.
He was fastest of the four 2009-specification cars running, ending up second on the timesheets behind Sebastien Buemi's 2008 Scuderia Toro Rosso, despite missing the last half-hour after a problem with a gearbox sensor forced him to stop on track.

"The first impression is positive," he said when asked by autosport.com what he thought of the car. "We made big progress, we did a lot of laps taking into consideration that the car just finished its build on Monday morning. "Unfortunately we had to stop before the end of the session, but so far the feeling is good in the car."

Despite being impressed by the RB5, Vettel believes it is too early to make any performance comparisons with his rivals.

"It's the first day, so let's keep our feet on the ground," he said. "It's difficult to say where we will be. The other teams are starting to find their way, but for us it's a long way. "It was important to have some laps and collect some data, but after one day it's way too early to judge."

Source: autosport.com

New Red Bull to look different? Stay tuned!

Expectations about the appearance of Red Bull's 2009 car are rising, as the team prepares to launch the RB5 next Monday. Despite the questionable aesthetics of this year's bodywork regulations, Australian driver Mark Webber recently said the Milton Keynes-based squad is to buck the trend by revealing a 'beautiful' car."(The RB5 is) perhaps the most beautiful of the 2009 class, which under the new regulations was pretty difficult," he said. Helmut Marko, the motor racing advisor to Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz, confirmed Webber's claim about the shape of the Adrian Newey-penned single seater.

He is quoted as saying by the Austrian news agency APA: "Our car will look different to the majority of the others that have been presented so far."Ahead of the last major technical changes in 1998, Newey designed the championship-winning McLaren.Marko admits that fundamental rule changes can be an opportunity for unusual shifts of performance in F1. "We are relatively confident," he added.

Source: GMM