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.

 

[sportsman]

It was Renault who stated Red Bulls case.Not Red Bull.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101442 Red Bull team principal Christian Horner accepts that question marks over the legality of the team's engine mapping could lead to Formula 1's regulations being clarified.
Horner underlined that he had no concerns about the legality of the car and that suggestions that it was against the spirit of the regulations are irrelevant in this case.
"There's no clause in the regulations that refers to the spirit of the regulations," said Horner.

"The regulations are straightforward, it's either in or out. It can't be a little bit in or a little bit out.
"Renault made their case very clearly and the stewards listened to the discussion and looked at all of the evidence, not just from this race but from all of the races from this year and deemed that [the car] was in full compliance."

 

[siffert_fan]

The easiest way to sove this problem is to make multiple engine maps illegal. Each driver now has several maps he can select from with the turn of a dial on the steering wheel. Make each team select one map and live with that choice for the entire weekend, with ther being no means of cockpit selection.

 

[FB]

Including the ability to run the engine leaner or richer for fuel saving or attacking siffert_fan? I suppose the driver could just control things with their right boot, but that would be asking too much now wouldn't it...

 

[siffert_fan]

Including the ability to run the engine leaner or richer for fuel saving or attacking siffert_fan? I suppose the driver could just control things with their right boot, but that would be asking too much now wouldn't it...

Indeed, I am old-fashioned (perhaps just plain old) enough to think that the only control there should be in the cockpit beyond the throttle, brake and gearshift is the "pit lane speed" button. If these are truly the best drivers that open wheel racing has to offer, they should be able to handle everything else. It's not like I'm asking them to master using a clutch or anything like that!

 

[Brogan]

Oh dear... http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/7945149/-Red-Bull-ride-height-queried-

Some more details have since been added to the article, the following is from Martin Brundle:

"I've been running round the paddock trying to understand because there's a story going through the paddock like wildfire that it's an adjustable thing - under the regulations you must have a tool to adjust anything on a Formula 1 car - and that this was in the car in Canada and this is the fourth thing Red Bull have been asked this year to change, to take off the car," Martin said.

"That's being extrapolated to 'yeah, well have they been changing it in parc ferme to run low [to the ground] for Qualy, putting the fuel in and lifting the ride height for the race' which is saying they were cheating - and it's a very strong accusation if it builds up into that.

"We need to tread very carefully on this, but I'm pretty sure if the FIA found something on the Red Bull that was like that they would have thrown them out. They wouldn't have just said 'look, we don't want that on the car thank you very much'.

"I've seen some wording where it was decided that that piece that could adjust the third damper on the front, which is a ride-height control effectively, was easy to adjust, didn't need a tool, wasn't available to the driver and the FIA I think were satisfied that it wasn't being adjusted to breach the regulations.

 

[Brogan]

Autosport are now running the story: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101572

Of course it will be impossible to prove whether any changes were made manually, without using tools...

 

[The Artist.....]

This sounds suspiciously like the Benetton defence...

Oh, we have this device that can be used to change the suspension, but we "NEVER" used it... and you can't prove that we did either so Nur nur nur!!!

There was a large amount of discussion about this at the start of last season (or was it 2010) about precisely this sort of mechanism - as in testing Red Bull were seen to be quickly changing their ride height....

 

[Brogan]

I have no idea how long this device has been on the car but I recall a lot of discussion about Red Bull ride height when F1 switched back to low fuel qualifying a few seasons ago.
No-one could understand how they were so much faster than everyone else in qualifying, with the car being a lot lighter (and therefore normally higher) due to only a few kilograms of fuel.

Has it been in use since then, or is it something they developed for this season?

I wonder if we'll ever find out the full details?

 

[Kewee]

Horner says "I think it's just a case of the car being competitive, when others are complaining the reason is the car is quick." Hearing that has become as annoying as Vettels finger.

 

[The Artist.....]

Horner says "I think it's just a case of the car being competitive, when others are complaining the reason is the car is quick." Hearing that has become as annoying as Vettels finger.

Only this time it's the FIA who're complaining......

 

[Kewee]

The Artist.....Exactly. Horner never seems to understand that though. He suggested it was other teams that complained about the mapping controversy also, despite the fact it was the FIA who investigated the issue and reported it to the stewards.

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Surely Horner (if correctly quoted) is missing the point, deliberately or otherwise, if he claims that the teams can use tools or make changes manually, with the FIA simply 'preferring' the use of tools.
The regulation appears to state quite clearly that the teams do not have the choice of changing suspension settings manually or with tools.
From the Autosport article:

Article 34.5 of the Sporting Regulations states: "In order that the scrutineers may be completely satisfied that no alterations have been made to the suspension systems or aerodynamic configuration of the car (with the exception of the front wing) whilst in post qualifying parc ferme, it must be clear from physical inspection that changes cannot be made without the use of tools."

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Actually, here's the full text of Article 34.5:

34.5 If a competitor modifies any part on the car or makes changes to the set‐up of the suspension
whilst the car is being held under parc fermé conditions the relevant driver must start the race
from the pit lane and follow the procedures laid out in Article 38.2.

In order that the scrutineers may be completely satisfied that no alterations have been made
to the suspension systems or aerodynamic configuration of the car (with the exception of the
front wing) whilst in post‐qualifying parc fermé, it must be clear from physical inspection that
changes cannot be made without the use of tools.

So if found guilty, both Red Bulls (assuming their suspension settings are similarly arranged) should start tomorrow's race from the pit lane.

 

[Brogan]

Did anyone see the FIA seals on the side of the Red Bull today?

I suspect that may be related to this latest issue.

BBC article on it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/19032217

This line is important: "Basically what was on the car in Canada has been on [the car] at a lot of other races as well, and at no point has it been adjusted in parc ferme."

 

[Pyrope]

This line is important: "Basically what was on the car in Canada has been on [the car] at a lot of other races as well, and at no point has it been adjusted in parc ferme."

It may even be true... but what happens once the car gets round to the dummy grid? Isn't that also covered by parc fermé rules?

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Whether Red Bull make or have ever made any adjustments or not is, quite frankly, irrelevant to the argument. The Regulation clearly states that it must be demonstrably impossible to make such adjustments without the use of tools.

So I guess that if the adjustments could only be made by Christian Horner himself, that might be alright.

 

[sobriety]

I'm surprised that no one has fitted an alan key/torx operated selection system that can switch the settings of the suspension, adhereing to the letter and cocking a snook at the intent of the rules. It could be used legally in pitstops to adjust the suspension for reduced fuel loads, since the cars are out of parc ferme by then.

 

[Greenlantern101]

As we know Red Bull have had their 'traction control' engine map taken away from them.
Both Bulls had 3 stops today at Hungary. The podium drivers only stopped twice...

Christian has just come out and said that Webber HAD to stop 3 times due to high tyre wear. Sure he tried to blame a diff setting rather than extra wheel spin out the corners.

Diffrent engine map = high tyre wear.

Seems fairly clear that the banned engine map was acting as a traction control device.

Christian Horner is starting to make Flavio look like a saint.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/101644

 

[Kewee]

Considering all that's happened recently at Red Bull is it any wonder I don't trust them. I'm even starting to wonder whether Webber's final pit stop was necessary considering the lap times he was putting in. In hindsight it seems a very convenient way of dropping him back a few places, enabling Vettel to close the points gap between them so they would no longer feel obliged to favor Webber over their golden boy Vettel, should the title fight close up near the end of the season. Fanciful, maybe, I just don't trust anything that's happening within that team anymore.

 

[Fenderman]

Kewee And therein lies the rub. Even if all they are "guilty" of is clever exploitation of loopholes in the regulations, the doubt and confusion that follows devalues their achievements. I do think, though, that the real fault lies in the over regulation that stifles technical innovation in F1. The sport has reached the point where the good ol' laws of "diminishing returns" has forced the designers to get ever closer to cheating whether they, or we, like it or not, and for ever smaller gains in performance.