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.

 

[Il_leone]

He does have a point but it is down to two things i) Mercedes pretty much staying clear out of trouble more this season so they don't have to race back through the field

ii) His team has fallen away dramatically

I believe he is motivated by point ii)

I am also getting fed up of Red Bull saying they will quit.... if I was working at the factory in Milton Keynes and keep hearing that my boss has publicly said they will pull out of F1 possibly then I would be looking for a new job almost immediately and avoid the uncertainty.. the staff have families and mortgages to pay

So they are shooting themselves in the foot with staff morale as well despite trying to lay the door at Renault

 

[RasputinLives]

Red Bull are just following the mould of Ferrari. if you're not winning threatern to quit. As it led to Ferrari getting a bigger share of the money and veto over rule changes you can see why they are.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives yes the Commadore did that a few times and it did not always work out like being allowed to run turbos for 1988 season.. the Ferrari turbo proved to be inferior to Honda because it was fuel thirsty

I did not like the way Todt went out about it but Max and Bernie stood by him to the point where you did wonder if there were political conspiracies happening against the other teams. It was dirty politics and Todt was very good at it then even though it made him look like a bad loser when other teams threatened their supremacy

Difference with Red Bull and Ferrari .. Ferrari have got a passionate following like no other team wherever they go whereas if Red Bull quit it would be like they've thrown their money in and decided they have had enough and left.

The only people who will lose out if Red Bull leave are the staff who work in MK because they've proven to very bad losers

 

[RasputinLives]

Actually Red Bull fund a lot of motorsport up and down the categories and fund a lot of drivers both in their youth programme and beyond. If Red Bull were to pull out of F1 it would have consequences for the sport beyond the loss of two teams.

Back in days of yore it would not have mattered but in these days where everyone other than Merc and Ferrari have been priced out of being in F1 losing a big investor like Red Bull would be a loss.

I suspect Red Bull know that hence the threats.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Where would Red Bull go for additional revenue and marketing opportunity ? Other options for Red Bull would have less income to generate

 

[RasputinLives]

How about every other sport in the world?

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives I can only think would Red Bull buy a premiership team and what would people think of it ? I mean in football we have NY Red Bulls and Salzburg Red Bulls the latter team has been proven unpopular with the local fans

Does Dietrich wants the riches of champions league and I can only see him achieving it by buying a team in the big leagues outside of Austria !

I don;t think he will take interest in Cricket and the IPL even though that is huge for rival Pepsi.. not a youthful sport same goes for other middle class sports such as Rugby except maybe for Tennis.

Red Bull sponsoring darts does not fit promoting beer drinkers to drink Red Bull at the oche !

They can't go into Athletics because their drinks contain caffeine and would lead all sorts of failed drug test issues


It has be to extreme sports and normally male orientated . They could increase their backing in MotoGP as they do sponsor certain teams and riders

But the revenue opportunity is nowhere as big as F1

 

[Mephistopheles]

But the revenue opportunity is nowhere as big as F1

I think you are giving F1 too much credit it is nowhere near the most followed sport in the world they could go to MotoGP and generate the same amount of revenue possibly more considering the lower running costs involved, they already run their own air race event world wide.

Edit

Plus they could leave F1 as a team and stay on as a main sponsor thus cutting their outlay and still maintain their brand awareness in F1

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles F1 is the 3rd biggest viewing event behind Football and the Olympics so the revenue opportunities is not there with other sports

Yes they could simply sponsor Audi as it were or Toro Rosso still

 

[Mephistopheles]

F1 viewing figures are declining on a yearly basis they have even dropped in Britain by 5% this year despite a Brit winning the championship, I read somewhere that global viewing figures have dropped from 600 million per race to less than 200 million per race in the last six years..

 

[Olivier]

Jon Noble weights in on the debate

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/the-cure-for-formula-1-s-doom-mongers

 

[cider_and_toast]

Right, so that's it. thank fuck for F1 journo's such as Noble and Brundle. The answer is that we all get "access all areas" track side passes so we to can station ourselves at the very best viewing areas in F1. We will then all see that a car blasting quickly through a corner is the reason we should all be so glad for the sport.

It seems to me that Horners view from the pit wall is just as good as that of the Journo's and yet he thinks it's all fubar. To be honest, yes he's a gigantic throbber who never said a word when he was Bernies last "best friend forever" but he is right, if you can't compete then what's the point of competing?

 

[Mephistopheles]

cider_and_toast rearrange these words and you will find that you have.

nail the head the on hit

 

[Mephistopheles]

Also I sense a degree of despondency in Brundle lately, he seems to be putting on a face for the sake of his job and the sport but for all his bigging up of the racing it just doesn't seem to ring true somehow, on occasions he lets the mask slip and we get to see a glimpse of what he's really thinking..

 

[siffert_fan]

C_A_T

Maybe the fans should be paid to attend as is Mr Noble!

Given television's proclivity for endlessly showing the race leaders to the exclusion of all else, it is quite feasible that Red Bull could get more exposure by paying to have their banners displayed at the start/finish line than they get get by being a mid-pack runner. And it would undoubtedly be far cheaper to go that route!

 

[Mephistopheles]

so we to can station ourselves at the very best viewing areas in F1

Will 200 million people fit at Copse, Silverstone.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Hmmm, you've spotted the obvious flaw in Mr Noble's plan to get everyone to see how great F1 really is.

 

[Brogan]

This article clearly explains why all the threats to quit are (red) bullshit.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/...red-bull-is-committed-to-f1-to-december-2020/

 

[Il_leone]

Brogan Just like what comes out of Christian Horner's mouth then

 

[Il_leone]

http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...aying-at-red-bull-after-rival-boss-sack-claim

Apparently another team principal even rang him to commiserate him getting the sack !


http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/1...-he-has-agreed-contract-extension-at-red-bull

which means more whingeing and moaning from Mr Halliwell