09/02/2009
NEWS STORY
Sebastian Vettel was at the wheel of Red Bull's 2009 car, the RB5, for its first ever track appearance at Jerez de la Frontera today.
After the photo-call, the German completed an installation lap before returning to the garage for the car to be checked over. Over the course of the next few hours, he completed more laps providing useful information for the team, until concerns with the gearbox brought the shakedown to a close.
Christian Horner: "Following a successful shakedown, we stopped the car as a precautionary measure because the gearbox oil temperature was beginning to rise. We ran with our KERS system fitted to the car, but it was not operational. We simply carried it to assess its impact on other elements of the package, such as weight distribution, and to study the effects on the system of vibrations and other forces."
Sebastian Vettel: "The guys did a fantastic job to get the car here and ready for this first run. I was happy to be driving again, but don't ask me to comment on the feel of the car as it's far too early for that. With the shakedown out of the way, we can get down to developing the car starting tomorrow and over the next few days. Stopping early today was the right decision, as you really need to understand exactly what causes any problem on a brand new car."