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.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Sounds like the tail wagging the dog to me....

 

[Il_leone]

the gloves are off at Red Bull ... is there going to be a dividing wall and not telemetry sharing as well to follow

Seb is just letting everyone know he aint going to be soft..I wonder if he is already thinking if Red Bull don;t want me I can always join Ferrari as his back up plan

Horner I'd say is undermined like I always thought he was the puppet
--------------------

The team orders PR is pointless

All this talk about one driver not helping the other in previous runs they both have not yielded to each other when asked and expected to
------------------------------------

First blood to Vettel after Webber says I am only staying until the end of the season by issuing its me or him pretty much

 

[Il_leone]

From a NZ source

a bit drastic the headline

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-...9/Vettel-hurls-team-mate-Webber-under-the-bus

From AOL in UK
http://sportinglife.aol.co.uk/formula-1/news/article/24731/8631374/vettel-no-war-with-webber

 

[Il_leone]

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/189711...tm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Brundle alludes to the problem the team faces ... I guess Vettel has not looked at past history how great drivers reputations were damaged over a fall out with teammates and cost titles unless Vettel thinks he has the best car by a country mile and does not need to worry about the opposition

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

il_leone ... Webber one year deals always seem to come together are the mid year break... nothing unusual there...

 

[Il_leone]

ZakspeedYakspeed

I just find that headline Vettel throws his teammate under the bus a bit extreme and amusing

Well Seb has laid his cards on the table about his future situation with Webber - me or him such that Red Bull can;t use team orders..

 

[sushifiesta]

Did Red Bull send Vettel out for his first run in Q3 just so they could practice team orders? It seemed pretty pointless to have him do an out-lap and then tell him to come in again for no apparent reason.

 

[GermanF1]

sushifiesta This was done just in case nobody else would set a timed lap in Q3. Seb was sent out first, so he would have started on pole. At least that's what I thought it was all about.

 

[sushifiesta]

Pretty pointless though, what are the chances of no one bothering to set a quick lap? And then they sent him out again afterwards anyway.

 

[Fenderman]

I thought he started a hot lap in Q3 on a scrubbed set of the softer tyre because I saw a first sector time about a second off of the best times on Q2. That time would have been even longer for an out-lap. I concluded that he aborted the lap as he (and the team) knew it would only get worse with the tyre only good for one flyer. I'll have to watch it qualy again to be sure though! Duh.

 

[sushifiesta]

Yeah I'm pretty sure he was on a hot lap as well when they brought him in. I don't see what they were trying to achieve though, I think they were always planning on starting on the hard tyre but if they ended up with a quicker time on the scrubbed soft set they would have had to start on it!

 

[Fenderman]

Their choice was a consequence of doing two runs in Q2. I don't think they had counted on being at risk of not making it into Q3. It's not natural territory for Red Bull. They've had three seasons where, apart from technical problems or mistakes, getting into the top ten shoot-out was virtually guaranteed. Today we've seen the gap close between the teams and Mercedes and Ferrari come on very strong for this race. I'm not sure but I think Vettel has only one set of new soft tyres left. Red Bull will be counting on those for his last stint and hoping that they will get more laps out of them when the track is at its most rubbered in state.

Of course to use my favourite Mephistopheles quote, that could just be a load of old b............

 

[Kewee]

Seb is just letting everyone know he aint going to be soft..I wonder if he is already thinking if Red Bull don;t want me I can always join Ferrari as his back up plan

In his current frame of mind Ferrari wouldn't touch him, in fact he might have screwed his chances of ever going there. Drivers race for Ferrari, not themselves and that includes Alonso.

 

[Jen]

I would like to believe you Kewee, but am not convinced. I'm a Nando fan but still think he races for himself.

 

[Kewee]

I agree completely Jen, I think all the drivers race for themselves but I do think there's a fine line when the team has expectations of their drivers. If the situation arose Alonso would put the team first. He may not like it but he would. Since joining the team he's very much become a Ferrari man and accepts he races for both himself and the team and the teams interests come first. He has said as much in numerous interviews and I don't doubt his word.

 

[teabagyokel]

Its a moot point. Alonso's and Ferrari's interests are exactly the same - they both want WCC for Ferrari and WDC for Alonso.

 

[Kewee]

True but they have another driver, Massa, who may find himself in a position where he needs Alonso's support. Unlikely I know but if that were to happen Alonso would be expected to play the back-up role, which he would.

 

[Il_leone]

Kewee

Luca makes decisions that he thinks will bring Ferrari success.. he was prepared to hire Kimi to be Schumacher's teammate on equal status and let Michael know he will be no longer No 1

He ditched Kimi even though he knew it was a costly thing to do for Alonso

He's been courting Vettel for a while now and I am sure he would lay down the law to both Vettel and ALonso who's in charge

 

[Kewee]

Il_leone

Your first statement is completely untrue. Schumacher and Kimi were never teammates at Ferrari so your comment that "Luca let Michael know he would no longer be No 1" is something you've just made up to support something you must have dreamed. Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 and Kimi started with Ferrari as Massa's teammate in 2007.

 

[teabagyokel]

Kewee - The plan was Schumi/Kimi, but then Schumi retired.