Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Red Bull 'pushed to the wire' with new car

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Christian Horner says Red Bull "pushed to the wire" with the development of its 2016 car having passed its crash tests on Wednesday.

The new RB12 will be unveiled officially at the start of pre-season testing in Barcelona next week, with Horner confirming the car had passed its final crash tests during the launch of the new livery on Wednesday evening. Horner says the delay is down the team taking risks with the new design and shows how serious it is about bouncing back from a tough 2015.

GALLERY: Red Bull livery launch

"The team morale is really strong despite the lateness of engine decisions and everyone got their heads down to make a competitive car for this year," Horner said.

"They pushed to the wire. We hadn’t done any crash tests until Monday this week and completed them all in three days. The last one about an hour ago. We take risks which other teams would never dream of. That is our DNA and the competitive drive."

And Horner says Adrian Newey remains involved with the car's design but insists his role has not changed since he stepped back from F1 last year.

"Adrian Newey has had an involvement in a similar way to last year’s car and he is offering guidance and advice while being involved in the concept of the car rather than the detail of the car.

"That worked extremely well last year, we had a strong car, and the technical team is growing in strength and confidence. It is still a blend which works well."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.