Mark Webber will have the honour of taking to the track in Red Bull's new RB8 chassis, which will be launched online the day before pre-testing gets underway in Spain.
The Australian, who won just one race and trailed team-mate
Sebastian Vettel in third place in last year's championship standings, will kick off RBR's 2012 title defence by taking to the
Jerez de la Frontera circuit on Tuesday (7 February), and will remain behind the wheel for a second day on Wednesday. Vettel will then take over for the final two days of action at the southerly circuit.
RBR team boss Christian Horner has already said that he expects 2012 to be a much better year for Webber [
see story] after he, and the rest of the field, were subjugated by Vettel's eleven race wins in 2011. Bernie Ecclestone, meanwhile, has admitted that he is hoping for more competition this season in order to prevent another
Red Bull walkover [
see story here].
The RBR launch will take place on the team's official website at 1pm next Monday (6 February), with pictures, video footage and interviews with key personnel, including Vettel and Webber all set to be published.