Red Bull Racing revealed the new RB8 F1 car for 2012 season. The RB7 was quite a machine, so will the new design affect its performance?

The most drastic change of all is of course the step nose, dictated by new FIA rules regarding maximum height of the car’s nose. It is also the reason why most cars on 2012 grid will be extremely ugly.

RBR maintains its cool livery, but even that fails to make up for the front-end. The chassis is also the same shape, but Adrian Newey and his team had to fiddle with the rear ride height to cope with the removal of the exhaust blown diffuser.

“The restriction nose height which is a maximum height just in front of the front bulkhead hasn’t really changed the chassis shape very much,” said Adrian Newey. “We’ve kept more or less the same chassis shape, but had to drop the nose just in front of the front bulkhead”.

“The exhaust allowed us to run a high rear ride height, it’s much more difficult without that to sustain a high rear height so we have to go back down and have to redevelop the car around that lower ride height.”