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.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Until it can be proven it seems like a case of sour grapes from Ferrari's as they are starting to fall behind in the Championship.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Fenderman I've just watched the VDG - Webber incident again and there is no doubt the image is from its immediate aftermath.

And haven't we been through this rigmarole with RBR before. I have no doubt they'll go skipping off into the sunset.

 

[sushifiesta]

Also, traction control is something that could easily be seen by listening to onboard feeds or looking at telemetry isn't it?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Bit of a shit traction control device if it still leaves skid marks really, innit?

Interesting that you should use the terms "Shit and "Skid marks" in the same sentence....

 

[Blog Zbod]

Bit of a shit traction control device if it still leaves skid marks really, innit?

Yes, but Adrian Newey isn't exactly known for sophisticated work, now is he?

Whoever originated this rumour must be young enough not to be familiar with the sorts of marks the muscle cars of old made when equipped with fat tyres, a limited slip differential and NO traction control, because that's exactly how they looked. Which hardly can be counted coincidental, as F1's current TR permit LSDs but forbid TC.

It also occurs to me that this might be the result of the Coandă exhausts. At low speeds, the chassis has low inertia and low downforce and will show a greater change from the aerodynamic influence of each individual exhaust pulse. As the firing order of a V-8 alternates from one bank of cylinders to the other, so will the exhaust pulses, and the Coandă-enhanced traction along with it. Not unlike how a "hot rod" with a "radical" cam rocks noticeably at idle but smooths out when revved.

 

[canis]

A quick look at the picture makes it look more like a Diff than TC. With TC the dark sections of the skids would be in line with each other, but it appears to me that the dark sections alternate side to side which looks more like a Diff allowing the power to vary between the wheels to try and balance out the grip.

The type of traction control that would be needed for a F1 car will need to come through ECU control, so you either need to put the code for it on the ECU or change the ECU to take an external control from the TC box. Either way it should be blatantly obvious that this sort of change has been made to the core software that is held on the ECU.

But, having said all that, didn't Red Bull have a major ECU failure at Aus? I know McLaren took the blame for it but if they had been messing around with the programming it may go some way to explaining the only failure of the ECU since the release for testing earlier this year. (and yes this is just me feeding the conspiracy theorists )

 

[Jos the Boss]

Ok, I've now talked the matter over with Jon Wheatley, Red Bull's team manager: This is what he had to say (well, let's go to my next tweet)
"Ok, seen the clip, been through the data and what happened, in chronological order, was 1) High degree of rear wheel slip." (NT)"2) Joint in the tarmac. 3) Cross axle oscillation. 4) Alternating driveshaft wind and unwind out of phase." (NT)"If you have a good look at the vid you can see the rubber marks alternate left and right rather than as pairs." End of quote.

@MrSteveMatchett

 

[Il_leone]

Galahad

Webber does hit contract negotiations with Mateschitz directly which never Horner or Marko has a say. If anyone decides Webber should not be at Red Bull its Mark himself

Helmut keeps making noises and pushing him to the exit door but Mark keeps elbowing back saying I think I'll stay for another year

 

[Blog Zbod]

Galahad

Webber does hit contract negotiations with Mateschitz directly which never Horner or Marko has a say. If anyone decides Webber should not be at Red Bull its Mark himself

Helmut keeps making noises and pushing him to the exit door but Mark keeps elbowing back saying I think I'll stay for another year

I'm sure everyone in the RBR organisation knows Webber is due much of the credit for their three consecutive WCCs, so he should be able to write his own cheque. The only question in my mind is how long Mateschitz will be willing to tolerate Mark's "problem" with team orders.

There's every appearance of a warm welcome awaiting Webber in endurance racing. Two of the keys to being a successful entertainer are knowing when you make a graceful exit, and always leave them wanting more.

 

[RasputinLives]

I'm sure everyone in the RBR organisation knows Webber is due much of the credit for their three consecutive WCCs, .

Thats sarcasm right?

 

[Mephistopheles]

The only question in my mind is how long Mateschitz will be willing to tolerate Mark's "problem" with team orders.

Marks "Problem!" with team orders!!! What about Vettels problem with them?

 

[RasputinLives]

Too put it bluntly Webbers problem is he's a bit crap. But he's familiar crap so he'll prob get the chance to superglue himself into that seat for another year.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Mark only likes about three of the circuits on the calendar and one of them is Silverstone....

 

[RasputinLives]

Silverstone last year was actually the last time Webber finished ahead of Vettel in a race. Oh dear.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Silverstone last year was actually the last time Webber finished ahead of Vettel in a race. Oh dear.

Dietrich doesn't earn a single centime from Webber coming ahead of Vettel. And Webber shows no sign of having the chops at this late stage to suddenly become a WDC contender. So where he makes money for the team is by being the highest-finishing #2 driver in the WDC, which he was for Vettel's first two WDC seasons. And he only was off that mark by one slot on the third season (2012).

And thus far this season, he leads every other team's #2 driver. Statistically, he is the best #2 driver on the grid.

 

[Fenderman]

Hmm, "the best No.2 driver on the grid" Conjours up all kinds of images

 

[RasputinLives]

Actially Blog Zbod if you look at the percentage of points scored compared to a team mate he is the worst number 2 on the grid.

 

[FB]

Worse than Massa?

 

[RasputinLives]

I'd have to dig the thread out but they were the bottom 2 I think. Although Grosjean was prob down there too.

 

[KekeTheKing]

What are the odds that Red Bull are pounding around Austin today? I'd actually respect the hell out of them for that one.