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.

 

[Il_leone]

Even throughout the years Red Bull won the championships they complained they were lacking in power and needed the rules to be tweaked for engine development

The engines were certainly not that far down on power in 2012-2013 when Lotus and Williams were able to win races but I always go back to 2013 when Red Bull were complaining about the pirelli tyres stopping them showing off how fast they were.
Then when the tyres were changed even with a big margin they decided it was better to show off just how fast they really are whilst everyone else pretty much gave up to get ready for the power trains. They did not get their priorities right then.

I am surprised Renault did not leave them after the debacle of 2015 or made more noises about it . Renault have a habit of getting things right by about year 5 when they've competed in F1 so I expect Team Enstone to be much more competitive

 

[Titch]

Ford

 

[TR]

It is Spyker obviously

 

[RasputinLives]

Verstappen had an upgraded engine for Austin (and rest of the season) whilst Ricciardo doesn't

Ricciardo unaware Verstappen was given upgraded Renault F1 engine

Didn't hear this mentioned once all weekend. Was it some sort of secret?

 

[Galahad]

It doesn't fit with the prevailing narrative, so unless/until the narrative changes inconvenient facts like these will be swept under the carpet.

 

[Rutherford]

It was mentioned on Thursday by some sources. Here for example: Wieder Motorstrafen in Austin: Renault bringt Motor-Upgrade

DE: Von Red Bull hören wir, dass Max Verstappen Renaults jüngste Ausbaustufe bekommt.
ENG: We hear from Red Bull that Max Verstappen is getting Renault's latest upgrade.

Published on Thursday, 19/10/17.

A bit weird that Ricciardo had no idea about it, maybe Red Bull is showing him the door.

 

[teabagyokel]

So Ricciardo outqualified Verstappen with a knackered old engine, while Verstappen had the upgraded version. That's quite impressive assuming the new engine has not been pilfered out of the back of a lawnmower.

 

[Andyoak]

A Honda lawnmower I could believe... Probably a wheezy old Clio.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Quote from Ricciardo when he was told about this:

"Seriously - I didn't know. Whose was faster?"

Ouch.

 

[Il_leone]

glad Daniel still can still about the whole matter and not do a Webber " Not bad for a No 2 driver " rant

 

[Rutherford]

Ricciardo and Verstappen finished six races together this season. Well done Red Bull.

 

[Il_leone]

horrendous reliability record for Red Bull drivers this season

 

[TR]

Yet by some sort of miracle they had no double retirements!

 

[Olivier]

Santa Little Helpers ...

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Do I detect a distinct lack of interest in the car launches this year? Here's the 2018 RBR (which like all other cars will no doubt be quite different by the time the season starts). I quite like the 'temporary' colour scheme actually.
More pics here.
Red Bull F1 launch: 2018 RB14 revealed in temporary livery

 

[vintly]

Do I detect a distinct lack of interest in the car launches this year?

Yes although I think it's been a gradual slide. Launches have become less and less relevant, as the true nature of the car, and what it eventually ends up looking like, will not be fully apparent until Melbourne anyway.

 

[cider_and_toast]

It's good to finally see a car that looks like it is trying to take a different design approach. Looking at how small the size of the radiator ducts are in the side pods I hope it doesn't have any cooling issues. I know it's quite hard to see but they look tiny.

 

[Titch]

The wheels look a bit smaller, or is that an optical illusion. I do like the colour scheme though, it’s a shame its not permanent.

 

[FB]

What is this rather odd looking pipe doing in the middle of an important area of air flow? Most unlike Mr Newey unless there is some deep and unknown benefit.

 

[Titch]

Looks like a bungee holding the back on, I’m sure it’s not though.