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.

 

[siffert_fan]

You might be right, but I'm glad nobody was sticking "always" labels on me when I was 20 years old. We live and learn.

The problem is, his age notwithstanding, this is his THIRD full-time season, and he doesn't seem to be learning much. So far this season, he has had a prang of some kind in EVERY weekend!! How is that making progress?

If one has to use his age to excuse his errors, then, IMO, that is a strong argument that he was brought in to F1 too soon.

 

[F1Brits_90]

a few interesting thing from Rosberg on sky as he was as harsh as i was. & then simon lazenby said he has time because he is red bulls boy & are right behind him "well they have to be running out of patience, that's clear, he costing himself a lot of points. i hope that Max really thinks about it. He needs to change his approach. If he wants to ever win the world championship he needs to start learning.”

i am a fan of Verstappen, he 1 of the best drivers to watch usually, but this season 6 races in. does not look good
Aus - Spun trying to overtake magnussen in frustration
Bah - He could been on podium, but got overtake done then squeezed Hamilton. getting a unnecessary puncture
China - should've won, but careless in overtaking hitting both Hamilton & Vettel
Baku - let his ego get in the way, when Riccardio was clearly the faster driver, doing some very questionable move before the inevitable crash
Monaco - when he should coasted to Qualy with 10mins left, takes too much risk & ruins his whole weekend before its begun, loses 2nd at least

with his 3rd place in spain. ive calulcated that he could've been on 104pts. instead he's on 35

 

[teabagyokel]

If he’d have qualified and run second, they’d have got him past Ricciardo as soon as his power unit cut out. Given no incidents, he had the win as a cert.

Schumacher used to time his amateur hour moments largely for the races he wasn’t going to win anyway - even though he had parade-lap-Minardi moments they were often overshadowed by brilliance elsewhere.

Max has missed two very presentable chances this season.

 

[Galahad]

If one has to use his age to excuse his errors, then, IMO, that is a strong argument that he was brought in to F1 too soon.

I completely agree, far too soon - so soon, in fact, that there isn't really anyone to compare him with. I don't see him ending up as a De Cesaris, let's say, but three years in F1 doesn't necessarily confer maturity - particularly since he appeared to get very little constructive criticism from the people who matter (Horner, Marko, daddy) for his mistakes in years 1 & 2.

 

[teabagyokel]

I think if you asked Montoya, he might suggest he has been taking tips from Jos.

 

[RasputinLives]

Red Bull Honda it is then. I think this is a good move.

 

[cider_and_toast]

The link for anyone interested:

Red Bull drops Renault for 2019 Honda Formula 1 engine deal

Somewhat ironic that a team who whined and bitched their way out of an engine deal picks up an engine deal with a company that was dropped by a team that whined and bitched their way out of the deal.

Watch the faces at McLaren drop even further when firstly Alonso buggers off and then the Red Bull Honda rips up the track while the McLaren Renault goes further backwards.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yes it could very well turn out that McLaren have done the donkey work for Red Bull. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. Red Bull have obviously seen something positive at Toro Rosso.

 

[Il_leone]

F1's worst kept secret and the fact is Honda will power 4 cars so their chances of progression is much greater given its the same team

Apparently Hartley and Gasly gave positive feedback about the upgraded engine . All they needed to do now is convince Honda to operate from Milton Keynes right on Red Bull's door step

Mclaren did the donkey work because they were not willing to share their work with other teams to help resolve the problems more quickly and it turned into an expensive PR disaster.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Mclaren did the donkey work because they were not willing to share their work with other teams to help resolve the problems more quickly and it turned into an expensive PR disaster.

And that was thanks to Ron Dennis.

There were a number of us on here who said at the very beginning of the McLaren Honda relationship that the decision not to allow the engine to be used by another team was a bloody stupid one. You reap what you sow.

 

[FB]

Did you see something the other day that Martin Whitmarsh has offered to come back to McLaren "to sort things out".

Laugh, I nearly wet myself.

Sorry, off topic.

 

[Angel]

So will the fact Red Bull are now going to take the Honda engine for 2019 make Daniel Ricciardo want to stay or be more determined to leave?

I wish them luck, given the performance of that engine so far I can't see it as a step forward yet, it might be one day, but I doubt it will be in 2019 somehow.

 

[cider_and_toast]

For years RBR have been compensating for a lack of top end engine power by having the best aero man in the business. If Honda continue to develop in both power output and reliability then, with Newey still involved, they will still be a top three team, easily.

Remember, there are a few aero tweaks coming in for 2019.

 

[Bill Boddy]

....
Laugh, I nearly wet myself.

Sorry, off topic.

Definitely too much information.

 

[Il_leone]

Honda will get it right they could have just walked away from F1 given such a hammering by Mclaren in the public eye

The deal makes sense there are more gains for both Red Bull Corporation and Honda , you've got 4 cars using a Honda engine . There is a junior team that can blood young drivers which both sides will support unlike the Honda and Super Aguri set up.

Honda have an office in Milton Keynes which I see on the train and that is on the door step of Red Bull so the infrastructure is there to succeed

Red Bull found building its own engine expensive requiring another 250 people which is bizarre given they have 700 already working on the car and they are not short of money

Red Bull also saw that Renault will always make improvements to Team Enstone rather than itself

If Honda can get this right next season we will see other engine manufacturers coming into F1 ... the rumour appears to be Porsche and I bet Mclaren are hoping they will come in


cider_and_toast to Ron Dennis . Its funny how he has not been blamed for the mess Mclaren are in

 

[Galahad]

I read somewhere that the Honda upgrade for Montreal put it on a par with Renault (for power, at least). If true this decision was a no-brainer.

 

[Titch]

I remember when Honda was an engine that everyone wanted, what happened ?

 

[Il_leone]

Basically Honda have made progress far more quickly than Renault can to please Red Bull but what do you expect when Team Enstone is the factory team and not Red Bull?

Also Renault have a working relationship with BP where as Red Bull have Exxonmobil fuel so will never get No 1 treatment

 

[Il_leone]

You have to say Williams might have missed the boat given rumours suggested Williams Honda partnership was on the cards and got themselves ahead of Red Bull in the queue

 

[Andyoak]

They got into bed with Ron Dennis.
We kept being told it was the engine for the last few years but McLaren are still shit... I stand by what I said way back when: it wasn't just the engine.

As for Red Bull... Hold on to Danny, because Honda need honest but positive feedback. That was where Alonso got it so very wrong.