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.

 

[Bill Boddy]

After the safety car Button quickly built a buffer, after that he was matching Vettel's previous lap. This is also what Vettel has done on occasions. Hamilton was stuck behind Vettel with no way past. So I shouldn't read too much into this.

 

[Viscount]

True, but whilst the top 4 maintainted the gaps to each other and all finished within a few seconds of each other they completely dropped Alonso and the rest of the grid who were unable to match their pace, with Alonso finishing 17 seconds behind Webber.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/7634593/-Red-Bull-are-not-a-happy-camp-

 

[Jen]

If Ninja's link is true, then I can't say I'm overly despondent. I have nothing against RBR except the last two years

 

[Brogan]

I expect there are more than a few wry smiles around the paddock.

Red Bull can't complain too much - they've pretty much had the best car since mid-2009 and picked up all the silver for the last two seasons.

Surely they can't have expected it to continue for much longer?

 

[teabagyokel]

Red Bull can't complain too much

Oh, I think you'll find they can.

 

[Il_leone]

If anyone is looking for a job in F1 I saw Red Bull Racing advertise for interns a month ago

 

[Brogan]

Has anyone read anything about the mysterious front wing problems Red Bull had at the weekend?

Did they try and go too far with the flexing?

 

[FB]

A bit of dissembling from Vettel...

I don’t know what the problem was when we had to change the nose of the car; I wasn’t sure if I had damage or something stuck at the front – maybe a piece of rubber or something. I tried another lap, but it wasn’t the right thing to do, so we decided to come in and change the nose to make sure. It lost us some time, but it was the right thing, as I was told there was some damage to the front left of the wing.”

Nothing much from Mr Horner:

We also had front wing damage on both cars that necessitated two nose changes.

 

[Fenderman]

In the last few laps when Hamilton and Vettel were dicing the Red Bull's front wing looked quite a bit lower than the McLaren's. There was no apparent flexing, it just looked closer to the ground all the time. Someone, either in the Beeb commentary or in the forum commented on Webber and Vettel damaging their wings by clouting them on kerbs. I've watched the full race replay a couple of times but either I keep missing it or I was imagining things.

 

[Galahad]

A bit late I know, but Autosport's race report has the following:

"[Vettel's] Red Bull had taken a hit to the front wing from debris"

No comment on the reason for Webber's change.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I presume that the FIA have checked that the new wings are exactly the same as the old ones.

 

[Brogan]

An update on the hole in the floor: http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/05/27/...discuss-red-bull-floor-controversy-on-monday/

There's a suggestion it may now be found illegal tomorrow at an FIA TWG meeting and Red Bull will have to make changes for Canada.

 

[Brogan]

Now that Red Bull have confirmed their driver line up is unchanged for next season, it should give them a good head start on the car.

The drivers are a known quantity so they won't have to make any changes to accommodate a different driver's style (perhaps they wouldn't have anyway - they wouldn't want to compromise Vettel).

Red Bull could once again hit the ground running with the first race of 2013.

 

[Il_leone]

the timing of the announcement was quick.... curiously Helmut Marko has been very silent

He must be somewhat that neither of his proteges at Toro Rosso are good enough to be promoted to the senior team like he quoted at the beginning of the year replacing both Buemi and Klein

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Klein or Algesuari?

 

[Il_leone]

whoops must be having brain fade I mean Algarsuari

 

[teabagyokel]

I can't tell you how delighted I am Ferrari have closed on their lead after the German GP, because they should not have started the race.

 

[Jen]

'They who should not have started' - Ferrari or Red Bull? Not being arsey, just looking for clarification - I think I know what you mean, but in this sport that's not enough it would seem!

 

[teabagyokel]

Jen - Red Bull.