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.

 

[RasputinLives]

Don't forget Hungary.

I love the fact that Red Bull are so concerned about the 'spectacle' now days. Not that I'm cynical about their motives or anything

 

[Il_leone]

Red Bull did not care about the spectacle when everyone saw Vettel disappearing into the distance after the 1st corner most of the time

Nor were they repentant on the fact that they were spending more money despite the resource restriction agreement

Nor where they repentant when they kept telling Pirelli to make the tyres more durable so they show their full speed

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah but lets not single out Red Bull. None of the teams care about the spectacle. They care about winning. They only harp on about the spectacle when they aren't winning.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Agree Jean Todt and Ferrari were the same back before then and made it blatantly obvious it was strictly business

The Commadore before then really pushed the boat out that turbos should be allowed still when everyone except Ferrari and Honda had turbo engines in 1988

 

[sushifiesta]

I don't really see how Red Bull Mercedes would work for either party in the long term. Red Bull would only have very limited influence over the development direction and specifications of the power train whereas Mercedes risk missing out on wins/championships by pairing what's probably still regarded as the best chassis on the grid with the most powerful engine. Certainly the partnership would advantage Red Bull and disadvantage Mercedes compared to their current situations, however.

Any partnership with Ferrari (and Honda, although that seems incredibly unlikely...) would have the same issues and their relationship with Renault seems to be well beyond repair (plus it looking like Renault will be acquiring a works team to focus on) so Red Bull are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Right now it seems to me like the only outcomes are either that Red Bull tempt a new manufacturer in to F1, or they pack their bags and leave the sport for good.

 

[teabagyokel]

If I had an F1 engine, any F1 engine, I would not sign up to supply any team with Christian Horner in it. The man is a walking PR disaster for which ever unfortunate would deign to do a deal with them. They were slagging off Renault when they were winning titles!

 

[Galahad]

I don't expect for a second that Red Bull would be getting the same engine specs as the works team, and Horner said nothing to contradict then when asked about it on the BBC today.

With Renault they have likely humiliation; with Mercedes certain, albeit narrow, defeat. An unenviable choice, but I feel for the spectacle it would have been best to work better together with Renault. I remember when Adrian Newey was moving heaven and earth to get their engine.

Of course, in a similar situation McLaren made the opposite decision to that which Red Bull look like making.

 

[erinha]

Well, at one point there was a works team Renault and Red Bull at the same time and Red Bull was faster. Did they have different or same engines back then? Though it was towards the end for Renault as the works team.

 

[Il_leone]

the problem is who wants to work with Red Bull if they publicly humiliate their engine partners

- they were expressed concerns that they were not getting the Ferrari engine to work with their chassis back in 2006 so quickly found a loophole
- they were not happy about the reliability and power from the Renault engines at certain points every time it failed

- whilst having a lot of success they kept moaning about needing more power from the Renault engine but there was a lack of credibility or acknowledgement for providing a very driveable engine that plays to the design strengths of Newey


They were looking to strengthen their relationships by signing up as de facto No 1 team and now they are accusing Renault of wasting their money.

With Mercedes or Ferrari Red Bull will know they are not the No 1 team .and will not be given priority of the engine design

-------------------------------------------------------

Someone should get a guitar and smash Horner on the head and shut him up if I was the Renault chiefs



Red Bull would not leave the sport unless they find a suitable buyer and it can only be a manufacturer to take advantage of their magnificent facilities

 

[Galahad]

When it was V8s, the specs were frozen so everyone had the same.

 

[Il_leone]

Galahad

That is what Red Bull thought about Ferrari V8's but they were just not able to get the maximum out of the engine or they believe they were not getting the same so switched to Renault

 

[Brogan]

Red Bull won't be using Renault engines next season.

F1 news: Red Bull won't use Renault engines in Formula 1 in 2016

Presumably they have secured a deal with Mercedes, or are confident of being able to.

 

[Il_leone]

Brogan I presume they will simply swap engines with Lotus then? Ferrari might say one engine manufacturer has dominant supply over the field and might veto it

I can't see Merc supplying 5 teams aside the factory team , Williams believe they have a strong customer deal in place ( 7 years was the contract) that leaves Lotus and Force India ( Hulkenberg re-signing for them might make Merc happy that there is a German driver)

 

[sushifiesta]

Interesting that the article also says Renault won't supply any customer engines next season Brogan , so either they buy Lotus or leave the sport for good. Hopefully they buy Lotus and Renault and Honda both sort the engines out, otherwise we're looking at F1 only having two manufacturers in the sport in a few years time. With only one team I think that already puts Honda/Renault at a disadvantage compared to Ferrari/Mercedes, who will have 4/5 teams each, though... unless Toro Rosso end up having to take a Honda engine, I suppose.

I still don't see how Red Bull Mercedes/Ferrari is going to work, whoever supplies the engines will be shooting themselves in the foot and Red Bull are making themselves a customer team. It has looked more and more inevitable as Renault have failed to improve since last year and the war of words has continued though.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

RB using Mercedes engines looking pretty doubtful.
Red Bull's hopes of Mercedes deal are 'all but over'

 

[Brogan]

Mercedes appear to have ruled out supplying engines to Red Bull: Red Bull's hopes of Mercedes deal are 'all but over'

They don't have many options left now.
They could always keep McLaren company at the back I suppose.

Hehe, snap!

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Well someone once floated the idea of reversing the grids. Looks like the constructors title next year could be a reverse of 2011 with McLaren & Red Bull coming last. Only Manor (OK, and Haas) could ruin that little scheme.

 

[sushifiesta]

Take your bets on the various options then! All of them seem to have pretty big issues one way or another. For the neutral I guess Red Bull Mercedes/Ferrari would be the most intriguing going in to 2016.

Red Bull leave F1 - it would be seriously bad news for F1 to lose a big team but it seems like a pretty feasible outcome at the moment.

Red Bull end up having to stick with Renault - hell of a lot of water to fit under a very low and crumbling bridge though.

Red Bull get a deal with Mercedes or Ferrari - they might not want to risk losing their competitive advantage over Red Bull, but Mercedes/Ferrari might be forced to accept it to prevent Red Bull leaving the sport. Maybe they'd only supply year old engines or something. Ferrari will already be supplying 4 teams with Haas coming in...

Red Bull get a deal with Honda - this would be hilarious but they're far worse off than Renault at the moment and it has all the same disadvantages for both parties as a deal with Mercedes/Ferrari. Maybe McLaren would accept it as based on Horner's response to the Renault issues he might end up outside Arai's house with a baseball bat after a few months of a Honda engine.

Red Bull pair up with a new manufacturer - far too late in the day for 2016 unless someone has a super secret development programme they've been working on. This would be the best outcome for F1 though, in my opinion.

 

[RasputinLives]

rufus_mcdufus there are rumours that Manor are going to have Merc engines next year so they'll prob be in front of the Hondas

Bernie won't let Red Bull leave F1 as its worth too much money too him. He'll step in somewhere.

 

[Greenlantern101]

It has to be a Ferrari powered Red Bull next year then. They would rather leave than go Honda, nobody is predicting a turn around any time soon (apart from Honda). Renault are only doing a works team. Mercedes handing major rival the keys to beat them, I don't think so.

Its a Ferrari engine or gone. Even then Ferrari might take the Merc route.
Back to making soft drinks boys.

I won't miss them.