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.

 

[sushifiesta]

F1 news: Renault confirms it is renegotiating F1 deal with Red Bull

 

[RasputinLives]

Thank you.

(Although thats not actually what he said but it was still interesting to see what he did say)

 

[F1Brits_90]

what does that mean as im abit confused, does that mean that red bull are staying with renault but as a number 2? which is sounds the unlikeliest way to stay after a 2 way slanging match for about 12 months publicity asking mercedes & ferrari for an engine

& or confirming renault are taking over lotus by asking whether it will be granted historical status

 

[The Artist.....]

It goes further than that; when all of their contracts expire, Renault will cease providing engines to non-factory teams, and may even walk away from the sport altogether if they do not buy Lotus.

BBC Sport - Renault to stop supplying engines to other F1 teams

 

[P1]

I took away that Renault will also stop making engines. Quoting Ghosn: "the occasion of Renault as a developer and supplier of engines stops". This goes beyond not being a supplier - they also don't want to develop engines. They want to be a chassis manufacturer now.

It seems we may end up with a Red Bull-Ferrari and Renault-Mercedes.

 

[FB]

I thought engine suppliers had to supply a certain number of teams.

 

[Il_leone]

FB

Now you mention it we will have a situation where if 11 teams are present then we have

Mercedes power ; Merc, Williams, Force India
Ferrari ; Ferrari, Haas, Red Bull, Toro Rosso
Honda ; Mclaren

unknown : Sauber, Marussia
Renault :Lotus??


I thought engine suppliers were only allowed to supply 3 teams unless given dispensation to supply 4 teams . Both Sauber and Marussia will be anxious about the engine they get because it looks like one of them will have to be provided Honda engines

I can;t see Ferrari or Mercedes being allowed to supply 5 teams

I really feel sorry for Renault because they have been kicked from pillar to post by Red Bull publicly and have maintained their dignity in all this

 

[Il_leone]

I read that Ghosn means Renault will honour teams with existing contracts which is has with Toro Rosso and Red Bull until 2016 unless off course they end it early which is probably 99% certain

This is actually financially damaging for Red Bull who will

i) Lose Infiniti title sponsor from Nissan ( who are alliance partners of Renault)
ii) Lose money from being only 4th in the constructors from previous years where they were top 2
iii) Lose sponsorship money from Total who will no doubt follow Renault as well
iv) Pay for a customer Ferrari engine
v) Pay for the early termination of its contract with Renault

 

[F1Brits_90]

interesting what vettel had to say about Renault on bbc sport & does make me wonder if he knows something we dont (yet but its possibly worst kept secrt in f1) As he mentioned how hes sad because the success they achieved together would "unfortunately get forgotten" & also how Renault did a fantastic job supplying red bull with a strong engine & the latest techniques, When we had the era of blown exhausts, Renault was one of the best & most advanced. There are a lot of things Renault has achieved that people tend to forget. I hope they stay in the sport."

 

[RasputinLives]

Renault do a lot of stuff up and down the single seater formula's and there really would be a gaping hole if they decided to pull out of Motorsport all together. I don't think that will happen though. They are currently having their praises sang very loudly over in Formula E and the 'green' think is even more of a PR boost so they are probably thinking why bother if F1 if all they are going to get is flack.

Of course they'll change the engine regs again in a year or two and they'll come back in them when they can compete on a level playing field.

What no one has accounted for of course is that Renault have pulled out of F1 as an engine supplier but their old engines were still supplied under the Mechrchrome name. I can see a similar thing happening now. Who would want to run them I don't know but they'll still be there like Cosworth was.

 

[Il_leone]

Renault have done a lot for the sport . They almost quit in 2010 and managed to carry on and develop a very driveable engine.


Vettel's comments about them deserving more credibility shows that Red Bull are a bit ungrateful to helping them promote the brand in F1

The Red Bull Management are incompetent when it comes to handling crisis situation Maybe they should look at themselves that they maybe doing something wrong that is not working which needs to change

 

[marksawatsky]

All this turmoil because teams are no longer allowed to test mid season and improve their performance. Was the cost savings really worth it in the big picture?

 

[Brogan]

They're threatening to quit.

Again.

'Red Bull will quit F1 if they don't get a competitive engine in 2016'

Reminds me of another team I dislike.

 

[Road of Bones]

Good news for McLaren then...

 

[sushifiesta]

Red Bull Volkswagen??!! Or Volkswagen Red Bull from the sound of it, at least from 2018. Another big Eddie Jordan claim.
BBC Sport - Volkswagen close to buying Red Bull F1 team

 

[erinha]

Red Bull started to threaten everyone again, because they want Ferrari to give them a good deal with engines.

 

[RasputinLives]

Have they build an Indy Car to try and scare the FIA yet?

 

[Bill Boddy]

I don't see why Ferrari should supply RBR with engines, at least not their quick ones. VW haven't had time to build their own since it was decided that they would buy out RBR so I presume that RBR will just have to take whatever they are given until a new engine is ready. By which time the spec will have changed.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Oh deep joy. Red Bull (a brand if not very nice drink) team up with Volkswagen (a boring car maker with it's origins in Nazi Germany). I can't wait.

 

[Bill Boddy]

They will fit into F1 well, bending the rules seems to be in their blood.

Volkswagen to recall 500,000 pollution-hiding cars in US - BBC News