Before the season, Red Bull was in no hurry to copy the reactive ride-height system developed by Lotus into the design of the RB8. Team principal Christian Horner stated that "things have to work as a package rather than as individual components." The system was later banned by the FIA. Like most 2012-specification cars, the RB8 features a stepped-nose to conform with new regulations intended to improve safety in the event of a collision. A slot was cut into the step of the nose section; Adrian Newey claimed this had no use other than to aid cooling for the driver.
Vettel, following a habit he began when joining Scuderia Toro Rosso, named his RB8 "Abbey". According to him, "it's just a cool name", unrelated to any band album or the famous Silverstone corner.
The legality of the RB8 became an ongoing theme throughout the 2012 season. Before the Monaco Grand Prix, several teams complained over a slot in the rear floor of the RB8. Red Bull argued the hole was within regulations, having been introduced at the Bahrain Grand Prix and passed every scrutineering session. Nevertheless, the FIA introduced regulation changes before the Canadian Grand Prix that outlawed a hole in the floor, forcing Red Bull to alter the design.
A second dispute arose at the German Grand Prix, when FIA Technical Delegate Jo Bauer referred Red Bull to the race stewards over what he felt was an illegal throttle map. The accusation was that Red Bull were abusing the regulated linear relationship between throttle opening and torque — allowing more air to flow through the engine and out the exhaust towards the diffuser, potentially producing more downforce or acting as a rudimentary form of traction control. The race stewards cleared Red Bull of wrongdoing, but the FIA introduced further regulation changes before the Hungarian Grand Prix, again requiring design modifications.
A third dispute came as teams prepared for Hungary. Red Bull were accused of illegally altering the ride height of their car under parc fermé conditions at the Canadian Grand Prix after the FIA had asked them to change a part. The technical regulations required any ride-height adjustments to be made with a tool, but the FIA had requested a change that enabled front ride-height adjustment by hand. Horner admitted the team had been asked to change the offending part, but denied that they had illegally altered the front ride height after qualifying.
After three pre-season tests — one in Jerez and two in Barcelona — the RB8 debuted at the Australian Grand Prix. Webber and Vettel qualified fifth and sixth respectively; Vettel finished second and Webber fourth. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, wet weather disrupted their race; a late-race collision gave Vettel a puncture and dropped him out of the points, while Webber finished fourth. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Webber was seventh and Vettel eleventh in qualifying; Webber overtook Vettel on the final lap, finishing fourth, with Vettel fifth.
The RB8 secured its first pole position and victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Vettel leading throughout despite pressure from two Lotus cars. Webber finished fourth. The result moved Vettel into the lead of the Drivers' Championship and Red Bull into the lead of the Constructors' Championship for the first time in the season.
At the Spanish Grand Prix — the first race after the sole permitted in-season test at Mugello — Webber started and finished eleventh; Vettel started seventh and finished sixth after both drivers pitted to replace front wings. At the Monaco Grand Prix, Webber took pole position after Michael Schumacher was penalised, and won the race. Vettel intentionally did not complete a full timed lap in Q3, started ninth, and finished fourth, 1.3 seconds behind Webber.
The FIA had deemed a hole in the RB8's floor illegal by the Canadian Grand Prix, where a slightly altered car arrived. Vettel qualified on pole and fought Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso through the race before finishing fourth after an extra pit stop due to poor tyre degradation. Webber suffered similar problems and finished seventh. At the European Grand Prix, Vettel qualified on pole for the third time in 2012 but retired from the lead on lap 33 with an alternator failure — a recurring issue for Renault engines and particularly the RB8. Webber fought back through the field from nineteenth to finish fourth.
At the British Grand Prix, Webber qualified second and overtook Alonso for the lead in the closing laps to win; Vettel finished third. At the German Grand Prix, Alonso won from pole. Vettel made a controversial overtake on Jenson Button around the outside to take second but was issued a penalty post-race and dropped to fifth for going completely off the track. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton won; Vettel finished fourth and Webber eighth. This left Webber and Vettel second and third in the Drivers' Championship, 40 points adrift of Alonso. Red Bull led the Constructors' Championship by 53 points over McLaren.
After the summer break, at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Vettel qualified eleventh after missing Q3 and finished second following a large collision at the start; Webber qualified eighth and finished sixth. At the Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull suffered their first double retirement since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix: Vettel suffered another alternator failure, and Webber spun at the Ascari chicane with resulting tyre vibrations forcing him out.
Red Bull arrived in Singapore with a new "double-DRS" device, similar in effect to the F-duct system banned after 2010. Teams agreed unanimously to ban it for the 2013 season. With Hamilton leading before a gearbox failure, Vettel inherited the victory. Webber finished eleventh after a time penalty.
At the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Vettel took pole and Webber qualified second — Red Bull's first front-row lock-out of the season. Vettel led every lap and set the fastest lap to become the first driver to take successive wins in the 2012 season. Webber was spun by Romain Grosjean early in the race and finished ninth. Vettel closed the gap to Alonso from 29 to 4 points with five races remaining.
At the Korean Grand Prix, Webber took pole but Vettel seized the lead at the first corner and won; Webber completed a 1–2 finish. At the Indian Grand Prix, Vettel took pole, Webber qualified second — Red Bull's third successive front-row lock-out and the first time any team had achieved this since 2007. Vettel led from start to finish for his fourth consecutive win and fifth of the season. Webber held off Hamilton in the final two laps to remain on the podium after a KERS problem dropped him behind Alonso.
The livery was the same as the previous championship-winning car: blue with yellow inserts and light blue, yellow, and grey stripes. The Red Bull logo stands out on the car. Compared to previous models, the red inserts of Total and the Infiniti sponsor markings were more visible. At the British Grand Prix, the livery featured 25,000 fan-submitted images for the Wings for Life Foundation.
After the 2012 season, the RB8 was used in demonstrations and rewrapped in various liveries. In 2018, MotoGP champion Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa drove the RB8 in the Toro Rosso STR13 livery at the Red Bull Ring. On 5 March 2020, Max Verstappen drove the RB8 in the RB16 livery at the Circuit Zandvoort. The RB8 was also used in drag races against other cars presented by Carwow.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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