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.

 

[Brogan]

Vettel won't be kicked out but this will be Webber's last season in F1, not necessarily his own choice.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I just wonder whether this will put a strain on Vettel's relationship with Newey. Newey is worth a handful of Vettels if it came down to the crunch. There are a lot of drivers that could do Vettel's job but it would be a lot harder to find someone to do Newey's. Sebastian will need to be on a mission of redemption for the remainder of the season or we might see Newey with Petronas emblazoned on his shirt in the near future.

 

[Brogan]

Gary Anderson made an excellent point.

Ross Brawn said in no uncertain terms that Rosberg had to hold station and was not allowed to pass - he repeated it several times.

What did Christian Horner say on the radio? "Seb this is getting silly."

Sounds to me like Vettel is in charge between those two.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

It was an early election on who rules the roost at RBR Brogan ... Papa Marko and wunderkind Seb...

A shame China is three weeks away...

 

[pirateplunder]

I still wonder how much damage Seb has really done. He has totally trodden all over Mark both with the eventual overtake and the radio message earlier (which I actually thought was worse, just the derisory tone of it) and the fact that Horner didn't tell him to give the place back speaks volumes especially as there were over 10 laps to do it. Seb has totally cemented his position and broken Mark in the process. Might it make Mark less likely to help Seb - probably but would he be that helpful anyway? With McLaren's woes, Mercedes still a little way off (and history suggesting they won't keep up in the development race) and Lotus seeming to not be as strong as the first race suggested, Seb probably sees the main challenge coming from Alonso and the second one being from his team mate. Once the fuss dies down a good result for Seb with a solid 25 pts over his main rival and a broken team mate who probably won't deal well with the pressure of the spotlight being on the inter-team rivalry.

The only danger would be in really pissing off people in the team, and then I think only Newey would matter.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think this may have soured Vettels relationship with Red Bull a bit and if he doesn't win the championship he may just decide its time to move on. I don't think it will be too Ferrari though.

I suspect, and I realise what a stir this will make, It may very well be Merc that take him on. German team, German driver and great name yo push their brand. Also mouth watering prospect of him teaming with Lewis.

Mclaren is the other option as I think they'd take him over Button

Webber may land a drive at Enstone although Massa may beat him too it.

I do think Red Bull may give Hulkenberg a go though.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

pirateplunder ... you raise some good points ... for mine this was Seb maximizing an Alonso DNF ... if he had had to run over a family of bunny rabbits crossing the track on his cool down lap to guarantee the points he would have done that without emotion...

Webbers best performances for RBR have been when he is backed into a corner... against the wall.... just him kicking against the pricks (blatant Nick Cave reference)... in the past this has been "fostered" by the team ... this time the team has had its bluff called by its #1 driver ... and the next few weeks will tell us whether it is RBR or Marko-Vettel-RBR (I think we know the answer.... but it will be fun to see what goes on...)

If I was on the MW side of the garage... following P3 when both sides of the garage pool their data and set-up thoughts... I would be omitting a few key pieces of information ... let young Seb figure out some of the set up himself...

Roll on China...

 

[cider_and_toast]

It made me think that it didn't say much for Vettels abilities if he felt the need to say out loud to the listening world "get him out of the way, he's too slow" (or words to that effect). Well, in truth Seb, if he's that slow, why don't you pass him then?

Nico gave it his best shot to get by Lewis, on track in a firm but fair way. (Not withstanding the later radio calls, which he then obeyed).

As I posted in the Vettel thread, he has perhaps caused himself more damage to a potential title effort by tweaking the tale of his team mate than the potential loss of 7 points in the championship. As has been noted, a highly motivated Webber is a real challenge. From here on in, no quarter will be given and no favors done.

I thought that the person who was the most angered by the situation was Adrian Newey who to my mind, clearly seemed both angry and upset with Vettel. I wouldn't expect anything from Horner who to me, appears to be more an more unlikeable as each week goes on. (Thanks for the book Adam Parr).

I guess the final upshot of all this is to our benefit because it is really going to add some spice to the season.

 

[Slyboogy]

It made me think that it didn't say much for Vettels abilities if he felt the need to say out loud to the listening world "get him out of the way, he's too slow" (or words to that effect). Well, in truth Seb, if he's that slow, why don't you pass him then?

Several people make this point, but he was told to stay behind and have his chance later. (quite sure it was in the same message).

At that point it was understandable that he was agitated, as both Mercedes cars were closing in on him, and one of them eventually went on to undercut him.

 

[KekeTheKing]

He sounded like a petulant little child when claiming that Webber was going too slow.

 

[Olivier]

Ferrari was heavely critized in the past for this kind of antics. So now that Red Bull has enjoyed winning so much, they just don´t want to let go. My position personally, I really don´t care so much, but Vettel can´t expect support from Webber when it comes to winning the title, if anything he should expect the exact opposite. And that´s a refreshing thought for those who don´t support Red Bull (like me)

 

[MCLS]

It's certainly going to be an interesting subplot of the season, it so nearly cost them the 2010 title, I don't think they have the car advantage to do it again this year, okay they had a fairly comfortable 1-2 in Malaysia, but Alonso was an early DNF and the Mercedes were hamstrung from the latter half of the race, I have a feeling that this could end in tears at some point.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

Velly interesting Autosport+ feature this morning ... in my words:

* RBR high speed corner downforce lightyears ahead of anyone else... the main reason they are shredding tyres...
* Reference to some F1 tyre supplier whose name starts with a "P" and has a girlfriend named Ellie...suggests rest of the field would have been lapped on Sunday if not for the tyres being used...
* Impotent team principal asked Mr P and his g/f Ellie about more durable rubber... Mr P and his missus spoke to other teams... apparently laughter could be heard half way around the world...

 

[cider_and_toast]

Slyboogy, I disagree with you. I don't think the pit wall message to Seb said anything like "stay behind". I believe (unless in Murry Walker style I'm very much mistaken) that the message said "keep calm Seb, it's only half way through the race" or words to that effect.

Clearly that message would imply an encouragement to overtake Webber but a reminder to keep a cool head and not an order to hold station for the time being.

Of course, Vettel and Webber have a history when it comes to trying to pass each other so perhaps it was less about Webbers speed (I'd be interested to see some lap charts here) and more about how hard a fight Webber would put up.

 

[siffert_fan]

I watched a complete replay of the race last night, and the ironic thing is that when Seb made the infamous "he's too slow" remark, his lap time was 3/10s SLOWER than MWs!

 

[siffert_fan]

Perhaps if Newey is miffed with SV, he can develop the car more to suit Mark!

 

[Brogan]

(I'd be interested to see some lap charts here)

Your wish is my command.

Other lap charts are available on request.

 

[F1ang-o]

Perhaps if Newey is miffed with SV, he can develop the car more to suit Mark!

Or Lewis....

 

[KekeTheKing]

Get Bernie on the line! Such a trustworthy intermediary.

 

[Fenderman]

heh, heh, you guys do make me chuckle