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]

Apparently, one of the teams has asked the FIA for their opinion on this.

That was the nose on Vettel's car being changed at Abu Dhabi.

 

[teabagyokel]

Brogan - Maybe he was unlucky

Naw, if Red Bull are found to have an illegal car again, then they'll be warned very harshly about it again, and allowed to go away and put on a newly illegal part again.

 

[The Artist.....]

Brogan, now that is interesting.... It's an area that isn't currently tested for loading, but it clearly moves - and is flexible... What it suggests to me is that the whole front of the nose is flexible, which clearly is in breach of the rules....

Some stiffening solution required methinks!

 

[teabagyokel]

Some stiffening solution required methinks!

Off topic, but I misunderstood and thought that was some kind of liquid...

 

[Viscount]

Saw that as well on another forum, I don't think the yellow nose is actually flexing, it seems more of an optical illusion. The shadow moving over top and on the left you can see the camera separate from the nose when he lifts the right hand side, rather than it flexing with the nose.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

It is quite clearly flexing. Shadow theory aside, look at the bottom edge as he lifts the corner, the whole front of the nose lifts and twists.

 

[RickD]

Got to wonder how that passed any tests on the crash structure.. Isn't one of the tests a front impact test?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Only on the main tub, the nose itself is designed as a crumble zone.

 

[Lewywo4]

Saw that as well on another forum, I don't think the yellow nose is actually flexing, it seems more of an optical illusion. The shadow moving over top and on the left you can see the camera separate from the nose when he lifts the right hand side, rather than it flexing with the nose.

Viscount....I don't think it's an optical illusion, that the yellow nose is flexing.

http://www.f1zone.net/news/new-flexi-saga-questions-rubber-red-bull/16603/

 

[Viscount]

Well either way, it's apparently not of a concern for the FIA.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/specialists-clear-red-bull-over-rubber-nose-saga/

 

[Bushi]

Found this:

 

[FB]

So everyone has been trying to think about the way the CF is laid up, the FIA have been developing more and more different tests for the wing elements and it's the nose the flexes. Looks like a moving aerodynamic device to me.

 

[Fenderman]

Quite like Total F1's take. So far I have found nothing on the FIA or official F1 websites about an investigation or decision. I suspect it may due to the fact that it has been an issue since pre-season testing ( http://www.totalf1.com/full_story/view/435192/Red_Bull_rubber_nose_flexing_confirmed/ ) and that to do anything about it now would blow the whole championship, FIA and F1 into serious disrepute. They have left it too late and they are terrified of the consequences.

Interesting how it was possible, in the Mosley days, to disqualify a whole team from the WCC because of a prat photocopying old and out of date data, but not possible to sanction a team for clearly bending the rules to the nth degree time and time again.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the FIA really do need to incorporate video evidence into their judgement of technical infringements. After all, they use video replays in judging sporting regulation infractions with regard to drivers behaviour on track.

 

[Brogan]

Congratulations to Red Bull on winning their third consecutive WCC.

Interestingly there are a lot of glum faces on the Red Bull pit wall.

 

[FB]

Not bad for a soft drinks company is it? Wonder how much longer they will keep pumping the money in?

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Love them or hate them you have to give them a lot of respect for winning the Constructors Championship for a 3rd year running.

 

[Brogan]

I believe they're the first team to win their first three WCC titles consecutively.

It really has been a purple patch for them since 2010 and if not for Brawn's trick diffuser in 2009, they probably would have done the double that year too.

 

[sportsman]

Fenderman. Found this report interesing.Full articles explains new testing for 2013

http://www.totalf1.com/full_story/view/435636/Teams_to_face_tougher_front_wing_tests/
Whiting also said he had no concerns about the visible flexibility of the nose tip of the Red Bull car - which was highlighted in video of it during a pitstop at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – as all cars feature lighter than normal bodywork in that area.
"What you saw on the Red Bull at the last race was extreme, as they had cameras on that part and the guy was actually twisting those cameras to try and get the nose off," he said.
"I think if other cars had cameras mounted in those places and they did the same thing to get the nose off then they would do something very similar.
"We are satisfied that the Red Bull car is no more flexible than anybody else in that area so it was a rather strange phenomenon – which I don't think anyone was expecting to see – but there was a perfectly logical explanation for it."

 

[siffert_fan]

They really have to be concerned about yet another alternator failure. Why that doesn't afflict the manufacuters team as well as the Bulls seems curious to me.

 

[FB]

Probably down to the way the Red Bull is designed siffert_fan. Didn't one of his McLaren designs have serious overheating issues?