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.

 

[Jen]

Aren't we all?

 

[Mephistopheles]

Bog off the lot of ya...

 

[FB]

Errm, Red Bull thread anyone? No? Just me then?

 

[Slyboogy]

Red Bull Racing thread.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don't think there are anymore superlatives left FB

 

[Blog Zbod]

... Anybody remembers '94? Young German star, ambitious up and coming team, overwhelmingly superior car, even Senna seemed belittled ... Nothing surprises me anymore.

Flashback: A tale of dodgy traction control and alleged cheating in Formula 1

 

[siffert_fan]

BLOG-

What part of "alleged" do you not understand? If I allege that you are a neo-nazi pedophile, would that make it true?

 

[Blog Zbod]

BLOG-

What part of "alleged" do you not understand? If I allege that you are a neo-nazi pedophile, would that make it true?

No idea what's got your knickers in a twist, but I didn't write the damned article, I merely offered background to the reference Olivier had made in an earlier post.

But if you're asking for bona fides, Michael Shumacher cheated. Often. His entire 1997 F1 result was disqualified. Because he had cheated. Based on his history, I contend it is logical to conclude that, if he had an illegal tool at his disposal that would improve his race performance but use of which was undetectable, HE WOULD USE IT.

You would know better than I if he was a Neo-Nazi Paedophile.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Lets be honest every team pushes the boundary of the rules and sometimes they cross them and cite that that it is not against the rules but simply against the spirit of the rules, this is called a grey area and isn't really cheating it is just to find out where the limit is, and cannot seriously be called cheating.

On the other hand asking a driver to deliberately crash so as to cause a safety car to gain advantage for their other driver is not simply cheating it is a criminal act considering the danger the other drivers and marshals are put in..

I believe both ends of the scale have been explored and utilized by the same fat bastard who's name should not be mentioned...

 

[siffert_fan]

Blog-

Name one driver (or team) that wouldn't use such an advantage. Please provide proof to back up your choice.

There is an old exchange that is still true of racing today:

Reporter:
"What do you think of Driver A?"
Driver B:
"He cheats!"
Reporter:
"how do you know he cheats?"
Driver b:
"Because I cheat and he is beating me!"

There is also the old truism: "Losers cry "foul""

 

[teabagyokel]

Blog-Name one driver (or team) that wouldn't use such an advantage. Please provide proof to back up your choice.

Sorry to jump in:

Team: Coloni
Proof: They were shit.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I reckon Minardi never cheated as I believe they were in the sport for the love of it and the crack a great little team sadly missed.

And as a footnote when I typed in "Minardi." Chrome didn't like it as a word and do you know what it came up with as a spelling suggestion?

Fucking "Dinar." I kid you not..... WTF... Chrome spell checker is sooo shit....

 

[gethinceri]

Yep, Mephistopheles, you clearly use it a lot.

 

[Lewywo4]

The scrutiny or reaction if any, given by some teams or officials to Red Bull, because of Vettel's exhaust note at Singapore, could be interesting this weekend at Korea.

 

[Fenderman]

It will be interesting to see and hear what transpires in Korea. If suddenly that engine note is not heard and Vettel is suddenly off the pace then there may be something to the accusation. However, from this video one could just as easily explain it away by saying that Vettel took that 2nd gear turn in 3rd. The engine sounds like it is momentarily bogging down at low rev's.

One of the characteristics of (known) traction control systems is a fluctuation in the engine note as the system "steps" through its effect. There is a degree of imprecision as such a system manages the torque applied to the drive wheels. Loss of traction is detected by sensing wheel spin (i.e. the ECU compares what the sensors "tell it" about the wheel velocity relative to the output from the engine and the selected gear). On sensing loss of traction the system compensates by reducing the torque to the drive until the tyres regain traction. It then increases torque until it detects loss of traction again. This cycle of actions can occur many times before full acceleration and traction is achieved and/or the system "disengages". That gives rise to a sound as if the throttle is being blipped rapidly. Again, that's not like the "grinding" sound we hear in the video.

 

[RasputinLives]

is anyone really thinking this whole nonsense might be true?

 

[Fenderman]

Peeps thought the flappy wing was nonsense ... oops worm can ...

 

[downforce]

is anyone really thinking this whole nonsense might be true?

I don't think they have traction control, that would surely be very obvious to the people with technical knowledge at the FIA and other teams.

Neither do I think Vettel is 2.5 - 3 seconds faster than the other drivers, including Webber.

I don't believe there is 2.5 - 3 seconds between F1's fastest and slowest driver, let alone Vettel and the other contenders!!

 

[Olivier]

is anyone really thinking this whole nonsense might be true?

The folks at F1technical are in overdrive trying to figure out what it is. There's no consensus there but most people tend to think is an ingenious KERS or an engine mapping (again).

 

[Mephistopheles]

I assume then downforce that you do believe Vettel does have some sort of gadget/gizmo on his car, illegal or otherwise that the rest don't have, which gives him that 2 seconds per lap advantage?

I could only watch the race in highlights and after the safety car due to it being highlights Vettel suddenly seemed to go from no advantage to about 20 seconds and I though how the fuck did that happen...