Current Red Bull Racing

Red Bull Racing

FIA Entry: Red Bull Racing Renault
Car 1: Sebastien Vettel
Car 2: Mark Webber
Engine: Renault V8
Team Owner: Dietrich Mateschitz
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Chief Technical: Office Adrian Newey
Chief Designer: Rob Marshall
Race Engineer Car 1: Guillaume “Rocky” Rocquelin
Race Engineer Car 2: Ciaron Pilbeam

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2005
Races Entered 107
Race Wins 15
Pole Positions 20
Fastest Laps 12
Driver World Championships 1
Constructor World Championships 1

Team History

Before Red Bull

In 1997 Paul Stewart, aided by his father Jackie and the Ford Motor Company, made the leap from F3000 to F1 as an entrant. Jonny Herbert won 1 race for the Stewart team before it was sold off to Ford who re-branded the cars as Jaguar.

Ford stuck with it through thick and thin (mainly thin) through to the end of 2004 before selling the team to Dietrich Mateschitz, who owns the Red Bull drinks brand, for $1 on the understanding he invested $400 million over 3 years

Red Bull Racing

With Christian Horner installed as team principal, McLaren refugee David Coulthard and Christian Klien as the drivers Red Bull went racing. Their first season was certainly more successful than Jaguar had managed, even with the same Cosworth power plant, with Coulthard managing a 4th place at the European Grand Prix and the team finishing 7th in the Constructors Championship.

Adrian Newey joined from McLaren as chief designer for 2006 and Red Bull swapped to Ferrari engines. Coulthard managed a podium at his "home" race in Monaco prompting Christian Horner to jump naked, other than wearing a red cape, into a swimming pool.

Christian Klien, who shared the car with Vitantonio Liuzzi in 2005 and Robert Doornbos in 2006, departed the team for 2007 and was replaced by Mark Webber. The RB3 was the first full "Newey" car and was coupled with a Renault motor. The car was very unreliable, suffering from a variety of different problems but Webber managed a podium at the European Grand Prix and the team finished 5th in the WCC.

Retaining the same engine and drivers for 2008 Red Bull slipped back to 7th in the WCC and again only managed a single podium, for Coulthard in Canada, but the reliability issues which plagued the car the previous season were mainly resolved.

2009 was Red Bull's break through year. With Coulthard having retired Webber was joined by Red Bull junior driver Sebastien Vettel. The new rules allowed Newey to design a car which challenged for both the Drivers and Constructors Championship. Webber won 2 races, Vettel 4 and the team climbed to 2nd in WCC taking 3 pole positions en-route.

In 2010 Red Bull justified Mateschitz's investment winning the Constructors title and Vettel the Drivers Championship. They won 9 races through the season, 5 for Vettel and 4 for Webber and took 10 poles. Webber led the title race for much of the season but it was the 23 year old Vettel who stole the title in the last race of the season and became the youngest Champion as a result.

2011 sees the team retain the same driver line up as 2010 and continue with Renault engine power in the new RB7 car.
 
On the old appeal, the full judgement has been published:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2014/04/18/fias-verdict-rejecting-red-bulls-appeal-full/

This is interesting:
[box=118]43. As Article 2.7 TR provides that any competitor must, at any time, be able to prove that his car is compliant with the TR, a competitor who follows the procedures set out in TD/016-14 and TD/031-13 will obviously have satisfied the FIA Technical Delegate that his car does comply with the regulations as set out in Articles 5.14 and 5.15 of the F 1 SR, assuming, of course, that the measurements indicated by the sensor homologated by the FIA or the back-up system with the correction factor did not show that the car exceeded the limit set in that article.
44. If a competitor decides not to follow the TD, he has to accept the risk that the evidence he intends to bring as an alternative to that foreseen by the TD will not satisfy the Technical Delegate, the Stewards or, should the matter come before it, the International Court of Appeal.[/quote]

So in the technical regulations, Article 2.7 gives the teams the burden to prove their cars are legal. Obeying the Technical Directives is considered by the FIA as a way of proving compliance with Article 2.7.

The FIA pretty much conclude that Red Bull's "incontrovertible data" left out some of the most important determinants that the fuel flow meter was inaccurate. However, they do not find Red Bull fraudulent.
 
I think the key areas in the appeal are points 52 and 59.

The FIA were basically saying the Red Bull method of measuring the fuel flow was not actually 'measuring' the physical fuel flow. It was a software simulated estimate of the fuel flow, not a physical measurement. Only the FFM actually measured the physical flue flow and it showed it was over 100kg/hr.

screenshot.42.jpg

screenshot.41.jpg
 
As an addendum, they have now found the two reasons for the sensors failing on the Renault-powered cars.
  1. The chemical composition of the fuel was damaging the sealing ring.
  2. They were modifying the part and putting a longer 'tube' in.
The sealing rings have already been modified to take into the account the fuel composition.

After Spain, it will no longer be permitted to modify the component, so that is resolved too.
 
Having spent many years having to identify the correct rubber compounds for different formulations I find it astonishing that such a technical sport as F1 could miss that they have the wrong O ring seals on the fuel flow meter. Someone should have their arse kicked at Renault/Red Bull.
 
Apparently it's due to the Total fuel that the Renault teams use.

Surely the fault is with the FIA though, for not ensuring the seals work with all fuels?
You can't really expect Total to change the composition of the fuel due to a rubber seal corroding.
 
No, but you would have thought someone would have tested the rubber with the different fuels. Whether that is the FIA's or Renault's responsibility I don't know but this is pretty basic stuff.
 
Having spent many years having to identify the correct rubber compounds for different formulations I find it astonishing that such a technical sport as F1 could miss that they have the wrong O ring seals on the fuel flow meter. Someone should have their arse kicked at Renault/Red Bull.

Maybe Gil and the FIA can make one for next season that won't fail consistently and drift off into the wilderness like a David Moyes led Man utd side .... hell they might even ask each fuel manufacturer for a composition list to test against as well ....

Then again, powdered Sarkozy rind and ground de Gaulle kidney are not what I would have expected in the TOTAL fuel composition ...
 
Red Bull's PR defence of their image by offence goes horribly wrong. I jusdge this by the nature of the content in the public comments:

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...s-fallout-from-fuelgate-controversy-continues

A perfect example of how to alienate yourself from the fanbase that you are trying to attract. How can such an enormous PR driven corporation manage to build an online brand persona that represents that of a spoilt 10 year old in the playground?
 
It is all a game ... tit for tat ... payback and retribution ... elephant-like memories ....

A team like RBR ... a measly drinks company ... fights its way to the top of F1 and shames "real" manufacturers ... for four years ... in a row ...

They are not going to roll over and get their tummy tickled by the FIA of all people ...
 
"Red Bull have taken a swipe at Mercedes over their rivals' attempts to get their punishment for Daniel Ricciardo's Australian GP disqualification increased, accusing the championship leaders of being 'rattled'."

"Mercedes' fourth consecutive victory in last Sunday's Chinese GP has increased their Constructors' Championship lead over holders Red Bull to 97 points."

Ermmmmm.....
 
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