Red Bull launch the RB6

2010 F1 season

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Red Bull have revealed their 2010 F1 car, the RB6.

Here are the first pictures of the new car.

Red Bull have taken a gamble by missing the first test of 2010 to work on the design of their RB6. Designer Adrian Newey expalined the changes on the new car:

The RB6 is very much an evolution of the 2009 car. We tried to refine and evolve it rather than go to new concepts.

As a result, the car looks similar with elements such as the chassis and pull-rod rear suspension retained. The two main challenges were the larger fuel tank and the smaller front tyre. With the fuel tank, there was more to it than simply putting a bigger tank in the car – it puts more load on the brakes, so the brake cooling has to cope with that and you also have to consider what effect that extra fuel will have on the tyre degradation early in the race and if there’s anything we should change mechanically to cope with that.

The narrower front tyre changes weight distribution and the balance of the car. I think it’s a sensible evolution of the 2009 car. One obvious difference is that the 2009 car was not designed to suit a double-diffuser and we had to try to put one on as best we could around the existing rear suspension and gear box. With this car we’ve been able to design that part of the car from scratch.
Adrian Newey

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Red Bull RB6 launch pictures

See here for pictures of the RB6 on-track: F1 testing pictures: 10th February

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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115 comments on “Red Bull launch the RB6”

  1. STRFerrari4Ever
    10th February 2010, 7:57

    Mmm definetly looks good seems like they’ve kept the pullrod suspension but more pics later on will tell us the full story.
    Also it’s great to see they’ve got some more sponsors on their car good on them!

    Thank you Keith for getting this before anyone else!

    1. They have kept the pullrod arrangement – it’s visible in at least two of the photos.

      1. That’s interesting – BBC are saying the pullrod system has been dropped.

        Looks just like the RB5 to me though – looking forward to the comparison images.

        1. F1technical.net is describing the RB6 as retaining the pullrod system – http://www.f1technical.net/news/14157.

        2. Hmmmmm… Are the raised sides of the cockpit no longer a requirement?

          1. That’s an important question. Either the cockpit sides aren’t raised enough or the cockpit has actually become smaller, since drivers’ helmets look to be jutting out of the cckpit substantially more than last year. That can’t happen unless all the drivers have grown taller! Did the need for a larger or longer fuel tank cause the cockpit size to be reduced?

        3. Adrian Newey is saying that they’ve retained the pull rod suspension and I think he should know.

        4. its the same car an evolution like the STR this year the str had to design on their own but it doesnt seems the case

  2. mercedes nose? mclaren fin?

    1. No, what you don’t realize is RBR designed them first, ages ago! (2007 for the fin, last year for the nose)

    2. lol get real…
      RBR nose and RBR shark fin…my friend!

      Notice how close they parked the rear end to the wall….no pics from rear LOL

      1. i think there’s actually something covering the diffuser at the back, it looks flat all the way across…?

        1. Yes there was a cover on the diffuser – and people standing in front of it to prevent a clear view.

          1. From BBC Sport:
            While waiting for a recovery truck, he positioned his helmet and head protection behind the car so photographers could not take pictures of the car’s diffuser, a crucial part of the rear of the car that promotes aerodynamic downforce.

      2. Shark Fins been around for a little bit longer than 3 years:

        http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/082708-0954-motorracing2.jpg

        It’s very hard to come up with genuinely original and innovative solutions in F1.

    3. I think he’s joking

      1. Lost the pull rod suspension?
        And the other thing I picked up by overlaying the RB5 on top on new car is they seem around the same length…

        Very rough measure but looks very similar.

        1. The pullrod arrangement is still there – visible in two of the photos above.

  3. At last we get to see it. Can’t wait for a few more pictures.

    Webber testing today and tomorrow.

  4. It’s certainly a Red Bull nose and fin (they created the first shark fin, and the first shark fin that attached to the rear wing). Very much evolutionary, as you’d expect from the car that won the last 3 GPs last year.

    1. Not sure if its the picture angle but that look like a seriously high nose with a big void under it.

    2. LH – I think you’ll find they won 6 GPs last year. Seb 4 and Mark 2

      1. Jarred Walmsley
        10th February 2010, 8:34

        What other GP did Webber win besides Germany?

        1. Brazil, though noone noticed because Jenson won the championship there. I hope he gets a win this season too. Top chap.

          The leading edges of the nose bumps are more severe and further back. Diffuser will probably be the biggest change though. As an aero-centric engineer Newey was probably rather more annoyed than everyone else that they were made legal last year.

      2. He said the last 3 GPs – that is to say, the final three races of last season, in addition to the three they won earlier on.

      3. I think you’ll find that he mentioned the *last three* gp’s were won by red bull.

    3. Red Bull fin?

      First was the McLaren MP4/10 maybe?

      http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5986/mclaren1995mp410bcmercmqg0.jpg

      Ferrari aparently had one too in the seventies.

      1. Gawd there were some ugly cars in the nineties.

        1. I like the Mclaren of 1995, it was different to everything else that year,

      2. You beat me to this one Patrickl.

  5. well it would be a bit ironic after all the fuss over noses over the last couple of weeks, if they didn’t have a ”nose”redbull

  6. Man that looks so cool! Hope it goes as good as it looks!

  7. It looks a lot like a carbon copy of last year’s car, the RB5, just adapted to 2010 standards. But then again it shouldn’t because the aero design of the RB5 (except for the DDD) really set the standard for the aero of the cars post new rule regulations. With less mistakes, and the Renault expecting to be strong on mileage and reliability, Vettel’s got a shot at the title.

    1. and webber…

  8. it seems those nose bumps have been exaggerated a tad more and the front wing looks a bit more sophisticated. hope it delivers even better results than last year. GO WEBBER!!!

  9. Haha, love it. Can anybody tell me, if vettel wins this season, is he a younger drivers champion than Lewis? I’d quite happily see red bull win the constructors this year, they have invested loads into f1 and are starting to really come on. Good on them I say. I can’t wait for Keith comparisons on this car.

    1. the thing with the comparisons to last year’s car, it’s way different from the 2009 launch version, more similar to the round 1 one and almost identical to the one that appeared in abu dhabi…

    2. Yes he would be the youngest.

  10. even with the other cars, they have covered the diffusers with a cover with “no photographers please” on it! class…..

    1. McLaren did the exact same thing, probably because it could be contrued as controversial.

      Ferrari didn’t allow many photos but the car span an the diffuser wasn’t covered.

      Just strikingly simple. You get the feeling this new, “diffuser war” is going to begin with Ferrari going to the stewards in Bahrain.

    2. I think the teams should get creative with the diffuser covers on write things on them like “Hire a better engineer” or “Quit taking pictures of my ass.” You know, just for kicks. That would be classy…

      1. *…and write…

  11. Guys, i always wonder what’s it with Vettel and his head-warmer (winter cap)!! It just gives him a look of a demolition derby racer rather than an inspiring F1 racer of which he’s every inch of!!
    I say the look is really dull!!
    What say you?!

    1. It’s called a beanie, and it’s far better than wearing an identikit basecall cap like all the rest do. I’ve noticed a few of the Red Bull drivers wearing them, as well as the Virgin guys at their shakedown last week.

      Also, it makes far more sense to wear a beanie in the winter than a baseball cap.

      1. Ok Ajokay..u win!
        But i still feel he’ll look a whole lot better without them though.
        :-)

      2. Baseball caps are hideous in my opinion, I wish they didn’t have to wear them. Vettel’s beanie looks nicer.

        1. I love Vettle’s Beanie. I had hoped he’d wear it to a post race conferance.

      3. You might not have noticed, but the choice was “condom hat” or “no condom hat”. There are no people wearing baseball caps in the pictures …

  12. Aside from what seems like a more metallic blue paint, it looks very similar to what finished at Abu Dhabi. Which makes sense, I guess.

    1. The thing is we’re not seing the magic. Which’ll be the diffuser. Regardless that’s a highly developed car, New front wing, new V interpretation, more cut away on the side pods. Fully intergrated diffuser pull rod combanation. Don’t know if they’ve been able to do as Renault an keep a shortish wheel base but if you look carefully, there’s quite a bit different on that car.

  13. Yet another car that tries to imitate the Red Bull nose, a Red Bull fin …. oh wait, it is actually a Red Bull…

    1. Yes I know. I couldn’t tell because so many other teams have copied red bull apparently. But here she i the rb6 this is the one ;D .

  14. The best front brake ducts so far!

    I still don’t get why the cover the diffuser – they are testing the car later on today, is that few hours really going to make a difference?… I presume it’s just because they can and others have done as Jones82 mentions above.

    1. Becasue no moving photo is ever going to be as good as a fully focused, light prepared sitting photo of your diffuser.

  15. It looks pretty clean from the design perspective, look at the slope from the highest point in the nose (the ‘V’) till the rear diffuser… awesome. Looks fast, and it is very likely that it’ll be so! Nice, design from Newey… but, still I hate these shark-fins

  16. Looks great as expected.

    1. eh?
      looks like a racing car, not asthetically pleased with it myself.

  17. Looks exactly like last years car. Nothing new to look at.
    Plus… Toro Rosso… what exactly did they design? because both look identical

  18. wow this site is faster than the f1 official site.

    ugly vertical stabilizer not only this but all other cars with this. ferrari is awesome

  19. The nose looks a lot more pronounced than the RB5. It looks ready to race!

  20. Yep, looks like the extra week of design time has gone into doing.. err nothing. Exactly the same as the last iteration of the RB5. We can assume that they’ve spent all their time making the diffuser work.

  21. Wow… the nose ridges really stand out. They don’t start flush with the nose; they suddenly emerge and stick out all the way. It also seems to me that they curve downwards as they continue towards the sidepods, but that could just be a trick of the light.

    From the looks of it, the RB6 is a sensible yet radical evolution of the RB5’s design. I reckon this car’s going to be competitive right off the mark… :)

    1. YES. This.

      I’m getting tired of reading “they dun nuffin” comments. That is a highly developed car, with room for further developments.

  22. Red bull were able to have “Total” on the end plates not in their corporate colours, so why couldn’t Renault?

    1. I thought that, although I’m warming to the red with the yellow and black, especially when I remembered Jordan had the exact same red Total sponsorship flashes during some of the years when it had the yellow and black livery.

    2. Yeah, good point. Presumably they pay Renault a lot more for their endplates. Perhaps Total are mainly Red Bull suppliers rather than sponsors?

      But, like Ajokay, I’m starting to like the red on the Renault livery.

  23. orrible. the cars running dorsal fins are an aesthetic disaster. Whatever they do to air running over the spoiler it looks more like a billboard. Should be binned alongside plastic wheel covers.

  24. On first look I can’t see anything radically different from the RB5 that finished the season, at least not any changes as big as their main rivals, but then the RB5 was rated as probably the best at the end of last season. I am going to have to wait for the comparison article between the two cars to see what exactly has changed.

    1. Me too.I think we will see most of the changes when they give us the rear view.

      A Red Bull with a shark fin….sounds like a killer!(although I still hate the shark fins)

  25. RB6 – Really Boring!!! To hell yea, BORING design to the absolute…

    1. why bother changing something that works? would you rather it be radically different and slow?

      1. What was that old saying;
        If it ain’t broke…

      2. Yes I would cos then they wont win anythin this year :p

        Nah only joking, it shows how good last years car was if most parts are the same

        1. More than that everyone copied them!
          Surley they’re better at their own design then everyone else.

  26. I see it is a development of last year design. Very high nose. It seems to me that the RB drivers will have feet well higher than all the others.

  27. I was expecting something SPECIAL from Newey….. Now I am vastly disappointed :-( …. Ok, lets see, erhmmmm did that fin join the rear? If yes, then it is McLaren IP :-) and if no, so be it.

    The car looks like a sister to the MP4-25 from the side or are my eyes deceiving men? Well, we shall see in Bahrain …

    1. Red Bull’s centre fin joined with the rear wing last year.

    2. oh look, I dont know why anyone ecpected radical, if Newey had said it was going to be radical it would have been.
      Newey said it was an evolution, thus it is an evolution that we see. f you ask me that car is still one of the most interesting cars on the grid. Look carefully an you will see plenty special Newey tweaks.

  28. Intriguing to find out what caused the 9 days extra development that caused them to miss first test?
    What part did they develop in the last 9 days?

    1. the nose? Prehaps.

      Thats a fairly different interpretation of his own V nose concept.

  29. If you looked at the 2009 RB5, you could see on the back of the engine cover, a circular hole, like a third exhaust I thought it was, can anybody confirm what this waas and if the hole is in the 2010 car.

  30. Yes there is the same hole on the RB6 although oval in shape. I guess it is for venting the gearbox cooling.

  31. I think it looks great… though a bit worried Mark and Seb won’t be able to see where they’re going. ;)

  32. I like the Red Bull livery… but this is their 6th consecutive season with the same design. They are fast becoming the new Toyota of F1 liveries!

    1. LOL! I like that, Flanders! Classically hilariously boring livery.

      1. what would redbull do though.

        i mean im all for them going sugar free but man they’re cars look a far cry from Toyota.

    2. I reckon they should keep sticking to the same livery. It makes them easy to identify and the colours of Red Bull look great on an F1 car.

      Besides, with the Red Bull drink’s logo having stayed the same ever since it was introduced, I don’t think the team has much room to move… you can’t really do anything different with the livery. Except, of course, for variants of the drink, like the awesome Sugar-free one posted in the forum a while back. :)

  33. Oh dear. It’s only managed 47 laps in testing before it broke down…

  34. On autosport.com is really good picture of the back of the RB6.

  35. Many comments here that it looks much like the RB5. Good reason for that: it is a modified RB5.

    According to Webber’s comments to Sky Sports, the car has some tweaks and smaller changes, and is slightly longer to accomodate the larger fuel tank, other than that there are no drastic or radical changes.

    1. Biggest single differance being a fully intergrated diffuser though. Not saying your one of them but all of them are forgetting how sucsefull the second of these two cars was.
      http://bit.ly/8Zja8T

      http://bit.ly/cpqnDQ

  36. Deja Vu from 2009….. and honestly they might as well hav not shown the car besides the nose and the side we cant see much else…..

  37. poor and chaotic livery :/
    but this is not most important, we’ll see how fast is it :)

  38. They have hi-res studio shots of the RB6 here: http://www.vivaf1.com/blog/?p=2361
    I can’t wait to see what off-the-wall concept RB6 come up with in the next few weeks to show off the new car.

  39. It has a moustache!!

    I guess people were expecting fireworks from Newey and instead we have what appears to be on the outside a more evolutionary step.

    Nice front wing.

    The rear end looks very tight, tight like a tiger!

  40. everyone has been inspired by RB5 this year, so i’m not surprised if RB itself hasn’t changed so much its livery. it would be interesting to see how they have fitted the DDD.

  41. Is it just me, or is it very difficult to spot the differences between this and last year’s car? Seems like different wing supports, slightly more rounded sidepods, and slightly different barge boards, but thats all I can see. That said, I cant blame them for not changing it much. It has a very form-follows-function sense of purpose and beauty. Well done Newey.

  42. Last year they finished having the fastest car on track,hope they have a good start.Expecting a dry track tomorrow hope we will find out some true pace of the RB6.

  43. Would be interesting to see some comparison photos of the RB6 and the STR5 — both based on the RB5, but one by Adrian Newey and one, erm, not…

  44. Looks pretty good, but I expected a surprise or two. Maybe we’ll see some come Bahrain.

  45. shark fin like many other cars this season.

  46. Aleksandar Serbia
    10th February 2010, 21:59

    These years cars are ugly, they need to switch to 97 spec and just get rid of all the protuberance sticking out of every cm of the car!

    1. 2010 cars using 97 spec would not look like 97 spec cars. Aerodynamics, materials, and whatever else (electronics, blah blah) have advanced so far since then. Without knowing the 97 regs that well, you’d probably see more crap all over the cars than you did in 2008.

  47. Prisoner Monkeys
    10th February 2010, 22:40

    I’m curious – is it just me, or does the RB6 look pretty small in comparison to the other 2010 machines?

  48. Here’s an interesting picture. What’s that central outlet then?

    http://images.gpupdate.net/large/145270.jpg

    Why do they bother going to the hassle of trying to cover up the rear when as soon as it leave the garage everyone can see it anyway? It’s definitely tight like a tiger.

    They’ve really gone for the myspace angles on those studio shots, it looks like a teenage pouting as she looks up to the camera. How are suppose to make our inaccurate wheelbase comparisons now? God damn funky hip young Red Bull.

  49. fantasticplanet
    11th February 2010, 1:44

    Yeah, it looks like the RB5, hideous.

  50. Prisoner Monkeys
    11th February 2010, 2:31

    Well, I’m liking it. I don’t know what people were expecting of Adrian Newey; he’s a great designer, but that doesn’t mean he’s obligated to come up with something dramatic every time. I wasn’t expecting too much more than this because why fix what isn’t broken? The only major change that was to be expected was the team designing the car around the diffuser.

  51. love that single central outlet..
    am i right in guessing this is the exhaust..?

  52. Absolutely sensational design by Newey yet again. Wow wow and wow again…

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