AUTOSPORT Awards: Red Bull RB8 wins Racing Car of the Year

The machine, in which Sebastian Vettel became Formula 1's youngest triple world champion, overcame competition from McLaren and Ferrari to take the prize.

It is the third straight year in which a Red Bull has won the award, the RB6 having taken it in 2010 and the RB7 last year.

The RB8 also beat off competition from the Le Mans-winning Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, the DeltaWing DW LM12 and the Lotus E20 to win the award, which was presented by 'Rush' director Ron Howard.

Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey collected the award Peter Prodromu, Rob Marshall, Mark Ellis and Paul Monaghan, his key allies in the squad's design team.

"It took us a long time to get any consistency in to the car," Newey said. "In fact despite some good early races like Bahrain and Monaco, it was Singapore before we had that consistency.

"And then we had the finale in Brazil and when you saw Bruno Senna's car up in the air, having hit Seb, you thought it was all over. But we managed to come through. It was pretty tense."

The successor to Red Bull's all-conquering RB7, the RB8 finished second on its grand prix debut in Australia in Vettel's hands and then scored its first pole and victory in Bahrain, again via the German.

It was in the latter stages of the season however that the car came into its own, helping Vettel to an unmatched chain of four straight victories between Singapore and India. It was that chain that swung the championship momentum towards Vettel.

Click here for AUTOSPORT's video analysis of how Red Bull turned its season around

The RB8 was the first car to win multiple races in 2012, with Mark Webber following up Vettel's Bahrain win by triumphing in Monaco.

The Australian was also victorious in Britain, taking the RB8's win count to seven in total for the season. It also claimed eight pole positions and set seven fastest laps as Red Bull racked up its third consecutive double of drivers' and constructors' championships.