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.

 

[Titch]

I'm sorry Jen I have a bad feeling about this. I feel 2014 is about to start at the point of it's finishing in 2013.

And the team in question will expect us all to be delighted.

 

[The Artist.....]

I'm really getting pissed off with Red Bull since last weekend; Christian Horner is in Wah Wah Wah it's so unfair mode, and constantly trying to blame the FIA for what was, unambiguously an attempt by Red Bull to circumnavigate the rules. In all the bluster that Horner has now been coming out with "immature technology" "never broke rules", blah blah blah, maybe Horner should look at his team's behaviour.

They were told that their fuel rate was deemed to be too high. They did nothing
They were told again that their fuel rate was deemed too high. They did nothing.

This reminds me so much of Schumacher at Silverstone in 1994... The team knew better than the stewards, and having constantly bleated about how it's so unfair, and shouldn't have happened, he's also bringing the sport into disrepute.

Just take it on the chin Christian. Take your punishment like a man, not like a big baby!!!

 

[gethinceri]

Even HE knows he's a ****.

 

[Quintessentially]

It's in the interest of the new rules that Redbull don't succeed with this latest stunt. It will open up a can of worms if they do and in fact I would suggest a fine should be levied for what seems to me a frivolous appeal.

 

[The Artist.....]

So Red Bull has launched a formal appeal. I hope they get further punishments handed down to them for bringing the sport into disrepute! This sort of action seems like a reason to quote 151c

 

[Mephistopheles]

If they win the appeal it will give licence to do exactly the same thing next time out and make a mockery of the rules..

If you liken it to football Red Bull were shown two yellow cards which they ignored and so got shown the red card there can be no appeal against that.

 

[Plutus]

If Red Bull can prove that the FIA device wasn't giving the correct readings then they do have a point.

 

[The Artist.....]

Plutus.

The rules state that it's the reading from the meter that matters - not anything else! Not a leg to stand on!

 

[Mephistopheles]

I believe that other teams were having the same problems with the sensor but they followed the stewards directive telling them to apply an offset, and so RB do not have Eine Stütze, um...

 

[Plutus]

As I said if the device was not functioning properly and Red Bull can prove it, then there is "a leg to stand on".
Imagine the scenario that if the device reads that there 105 litres of fuel flowing through per hour and in fact there are only 80 or 90 flowing through, then a team, it doesn't have to be Red Bull, will end up with a hefty performance deficit and it makes the sport an unlevel playing field due to false information from an unreliable device.

 

[Plutus]

The FIA and the teams should consider dropping the rule anyway. It will cause an upset among the fans if it continues to happen, especially the casual viewer will lose interest in the sport, were decisions are dragged out until after the race.
Simple change: The teams or the FIA fill the cars with 100L prior to the race, the FIA seals the tank cap and then they just blow it all during the race. The driver who has used more will just run out of fuel on track and no one will have a problem with it.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It would make no difference some people will have a problem no matter what the rules are as the old saying goes you can't please all of the people all of the time, and like I said before the teams voted for this rule...

I don't really care what the rules are as long as teams stick to them, we don't really know everything that was going on for all we know Red Bull may have been blatantly cheating to try and make up for the deficit in power they know the Renault power unit has.

 

[Plutus]

Mephistopheles
Exactly, we don't know everything and there seems to be a reason, why they think they can appeal. They have lawyers that deal with these issues, they probably know better than we do.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I remember that BAR were able to prove to the stewards that their car had at no time during the race been below the weight limit. It didn't do them any good, of course, since the FIA President overruled the stewards. And they were told that if they appealed the punishment would be higher. Despite the head of the FIA having changed there may still be some of the feeling that orders must be obeyed still exists.

 

[RasputinLives]

BAR will still using fuel as ballast though which was completely illegal so they never proved they weren't breaking the regs. Red Bull just might and it could be they didn't but the point remains they still gained an advantage.

The other teams adapted to the faulty sensor to get the correct readings so if the readings were reading 10 higher than they should they were running 10 lower to compensate. Red Bull decided to use there own readings and therefore had an unfair advantage over the rest of the field. The appeal should focus on the fact that Red Bull disobeyed a direct order from the FIA and NOT the fuel flow rate. I just hope the FIA approach it from that angle.

Red Bull have more money for craftier lawyers though so I expect another farce like 'testing gate' last year. Maybe Red Bull will argue they turned up Ricciardo's fuel flow for security reason like Merc did with the plain helmets.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Maybe I'm being stupid or something but how can fuel flow be measured at the injection nozzles with any accuracy? by that time surely the fuel is being mixed with air and it would be impossible for an outsider to know what the fuel to air ratio is it may be lean or it may be rich and this would mean an increase or a decrease in the actual amount of fuel being used at that time compared to the main sensor which I assume measures the actual pure fuel flow leaving the fuel cell, and so how can fuel flow measured at the nozzles be a reliable indication of fuel flow rate?

Am I being thick here.?

 

[Bill Boddy]

If I remember correctly the rule stated that the weight of the car should never be less than a specific figure. The way that the FIA checked this was to empty all the fluids out of the car and then weigh it which is not actually the same thing. Yes, BAR were avoiding the spirit of the rule but since the engine would not run once the amount of fuel in the car became less than five litres they contended that the five litres should be considered as part of the static weight. They went through the data with the stewards and as a result agreed that the car had been within the regulation.

A good example of how the regulations and the means of checking them do not always agree, why, someone could even make flexing wings look solid on static tests if the tried hard enough.

 

[siffert_fan]

As I said before, if the FIA is incapable of supplying sensors that are far more accurate that those they are currently supplying appear to be, IMO they should not be issuing sensors at all. Furthermore, if they (the FIA) then tell each team a correction factor to put into their readings, how can anyone be certain that the correction factors are correct or even not knowingly altered to disadvantage a particular team. It becomes a matter of faith, and I don't think that the FIA has a history that warrants such faith.

 

[Blog Zbod]

The technical regulations give equal stature to data from the fuel injector sensors (TR 5.10.3) and the fuel mass flow sensor (TR 5.10.4). There is no regulation giving the data from either device dominion over the other, just TD016/14. The FIA only took the decision to issue TD016/14 well after it was apprised by two different teams -- neither of which was Red Bull -- that some of the Gill sensors they were issuing failed to meet homolgation standards (as required by 5.10.4).

I think the FIA only issued TD016/14 because they sensed they were losing control of the process. And if Red Bull win their appeal, they will have done that very thing. And they've no one to blame but themselves.

Maybe I'm being stupid or something but how can fuel flow be measured at the injection nozzles with any accuracy?...

Because TR 5.10.3 require that it be.

...by that time surely the fuel is being mixed with air and it would be impossible for an outsider to know what the fuel to air ratio is...

Not so.

How Direct Injection Engines Work

 

[The Pits]

The key is that the FIA alone are allowed to determine which method can be used. Red Bull decided off their own back not to use the sensor.

The sensors being fit for purpose is a different matter, and should also be addressed, however, a very dangerous precedent will be set if the dq is overturned.