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.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Such as a rather large bimetallic strip.

Gary won't be happy unless it has moving parts:

"...There could also be a linkage that has a ratio on it to increase that movement...."

 

[Blog Zbod]

Auto Motor und Sport are reporting that the FIA examined the RB9s after India, specifically looking for Gary Anderson's tea tray bending mechanism. It was Force India put the bug in the FIA's ear but I've not read whether they got the idea from Anderson or if Anderson got it from Force India.

They heated the leading edge of the tea tray to 300°C and found no irregularities. Which could mean Anderson was wrong, or it could just mean Adrian Newey is cleverer than the chaps who rules.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Adrian, he's pulled the wool over the FIA's eyes before.

 

[FB]

300C? What the fuck is the tea tray made of?

 

[F1Yorkshire]

And more importantly at those temperatures the tea will end up stewed in seconds. You would need highly insulated tea cups to go with the tray. Chocolate biscuits are clearly a no go.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Adrian, he's pulled the wool over the FIA's eyes before.

These are not the droids you seek.

 

[Il_leone]

Apparently Horner defends RB saying they did not win by simply spending more than anyone else

--------

Newey pledges future to Red Bull for now

 

[Blog Zbod]

The second Red Bull engineer poached by McLaren is Dan Fallows, who was Peter Prodromu's deputy. Whitmarsh well and truly has raided the Red Bull cupboard. Makes me wonder if Red Bull will replace them both next season, even though they still will be under contract to RBR, so that their successors will have continuity from the beginning of the new turbo era.

 

[Il_leone]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24756035

Helmut lets us know what Ricciardo's position is at Red Bull in relation to Seb so much for equal opportunities

Yes Red Bull have lost a 2nd engineer to Mclaren


I would not call it raiding the Red Bull cupboard since it was them who raided the Mclaren cupboard for Newey plus a group of engineers from Mclaren left for Red Bull in 2006 to join Newey

 

[Blog Zbod]

The latest theory (put forth by Auto Motor und Sport) is that Vettel's new-found dominance is owed to finally getting the interconnected suspension dialed in. It now moderates both pitch and, critically, roll. Controlling roll at the rear keeps tyres nearer to optimum camber, which will so optimise available traction that it could have the appearance of traction control. And the RB9 has an unusually-long wheel travel at the rear, which is integral to the chassis' exaggerated rake, but the long wheel travel complicates the matter of roll control. So this is yet another detail that enhances the effectiveness of the car's extreme rake.


A couple of weeks ago, Steve Matchett (presenter on NBC Sport's F1 coverage and MSC's mechanic at Benetton) mentioned that Red Bull engineers produce 1000 design changes per week. Every week.

I don't know how many changes is typical among the other teams but Matchett seemed quite astonished at this number. I can't imagine the logistical nightmare just to test that many, much less to create them.

 

[Olivier]

They have automated the A/B testing. That's impressive ...

 

[The Pits]

When I was at Red Bull, they explained that the design office would produce 1000 drawings per week, of which between 3 to 7 actually made it to the wind tunnel model, many are filtered out during CFD. I am not sure how this compares to other teams in the same process.

 

[Fenderman]

Sounds like normal practice to me.


Edit: Note forgetting of course that a drawing may be just one small part such as a winglet or suspension arm...

 

[The Pits]

And they may make several drawings of the same part, with some subtle differences.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Scarbs reckons the jiggery-pokery with the RB9's splitter comes down to the mounting hardware, which is titanium. The TR allow the use of as many fasteners as are required to secure it. And Adrian Newey has calculated the RB9's skid block's lip is not will not be secure with any less than 16 fasteners.

So when the splitter lip touches down, before any damage can befall the wooden skid block, track surface first has to grind through the heads of 16 titanium bolts.

 

[Bushi]

What partly happened last year in India.

 

[Blog Zbod]

I don't think this has been remarked to here before. Infinity and Renault were developing a special 2014 engine package exclusively for Red Bull, but the FIA found out and put the kibosh to it. All engine suppliers must provide identical units all around, team and customer alike.

You've got to give Horner and Newey props for indefatigably exploring every avenue for any legal advantage. Sometimes finding the boundary necessarily means getting your wrist slapped because you've exceeded it, and they are not averse to a little corporal punishment.

And no, that was not a jibe at Mad Max (but it did come quite close).

 

[Il_leone]

Blog Zbod @the_pits

Which is why there is the cynical suggestion that Red Bull spend more than any other team on the grid breaking allegedly resource restriction agreement amongst FOTA

I think last time I heard Red Bull left FOTA because they felt they were being targeted by some of the established teams so by that deduction they can what they like with how much they spend

 

[teabagyokel]

I think, Blog Zbod, they scour every avenue for any advantage, and then argue to the FIA that either it is legal, or to the FOM that disqualifying them wouldn't be in Bernie's best interest.

Yeah, no... this is why they're at the top.

EDIT: And credit to them, because I'm pretty sure everyone else is cheating too, just less successfully!

 

[Blog Zbod]

...I think last time I heard Red Bull left FOTA because they felt they were being targeted by some of the established teams so by that deduction they can what they like with how much they spend

Horner stated their objection was to the empowerment of the FIA to police an aspect that was so nebulous as spending, but they remained open to "tangible, measurable" controls applied uniformly through the SR and TR.

...EDIT: And credit to them, because I'm pretty sure everyone else is cheating too, just less successfully!

For some queer reason, the expression, "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin' " comes to mind.