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.

 

[RasputinLives]

Sky suggesting tongue in cheek today that we're not getting TV coverage of the Mercs because they've annoyed Bernie by refusing to supply Red Bull engines.

Its true we didn't see a lot of them. Then again we only really saw Max Verstappen for most of the race anyways.

 

[Titch]

It's a bit unsporting of thr Mercs not to supply a customer engine. What are they afraid of, some competition?

 

[Brogan]

Why should they supply arguably one of, if not their biggest rival, risking their own chance of WCC and WDC titles?

I can't think of many other sports where one team would help a rival team to potentially beat it.

 

[Bushi]

Probably because if they don't, there hardly be anyone around to see them win the WCC and WDC.

 

[Brogan]

The latest twist in the saga...

Niki Lauda says Red Bull never came back to confirm engine deal

 

[RasputinLives]

Why should they supply arguably one of, if not their biggest rival, risking their own chance of WCC and WDC titles?

Which is exactly why teams should be teams and engine suppliers should be engine suppliers.

Sorry. I have ranted about that a lot today.

 

[Il_leone]

Remember the animosity last year between Red Bull and Mercedes over a particular race. I can't remember but Lauda walked into the Red Bull hospitality with a cake to apologise for the inconvenience and was pretty much told to by Helmut Marko who said next time come in here with a bulletproof vest

Why should Mercedes help Red Bull? It is Red Bull who got themselves in this mess in the first place not planning their long term strategy as well as Mercedes. I go back to 2013 .. everyone was concentrating on the powertrains for 2014 whereas Red Bull focused on simply crushing everyone once Pirelli gave them the tyres they wanted and taking their eye off the ball.

Then they go and blame Renault so publicly who first and foremost do recognise the situation and am sure would listen because history shows they do get it right

Also Red Bull have short memories about the contribution of Renault made to their 8 titles or would they now say it was down to Newey or Vettel mainly

Mercedes certainly would not give Red Bull an engine on the cheap either

 

[FB]

Manor take Mercedes engines from Team Enstone, Enstone move to Renault freeing up Ferrari engines for Red Bull. It's just down to whether Red Bull can negotiate 2015 or 2016 engines. Without Newey designing next years car would Ferrari be that worried either way?

 

[Il_leone]

Its when Red Bull are not winning and their first point of blame has always been the engine is rubbish so can Ferrari accept that?

 

[RasputinLives]

I keep saying this and I'll just say one more time and I'll shut up.

The reason they are blaming the engine is because it is the engine. We've seen at Singapore and elsewhere how good the chassie is.

I understand that the way they have said it has not made them any friends (they didn't have many in the first place) but as the same people saying its disgraceful are the also saying what Alonso said over the radio today is the kick Honda needed I wonder if there is more to the dislike than that.

 

[Il_leone]

the difference is Honda seems to be in total denial that their engine is the problem with Mclaren and claiming how good it is and better than Renault. Well Mclaren Hondas were easily passed by Renault powered cars today.

As for Red Bull they've basically just trampled on Renault in public . For a global brand like Renault who have a great F1 pedigree, they have actually done well and not turned around to Red Bull and told them since you don;t think much of our engines we won't supply any or tell the engineers to stop firing them up at the race weekend then. The sight of Red Bull not competing because Renault are striking is something Red Bull deserve for kicking them in the guts

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

Well it seems like the only Ferrari option is the 2015 engine, and RBR is hitting out at them. It's all going a bit bizarre.
Red Bull accuses Ferrari of "playing games"

 

[Il_leone]

Its almost like Red Bull are making themselves so hated to the point where no one wants to give them engines so they have to leave F1

Unless Honda are willing to offer free engines

 

[Road of Bones]

Perhaps that's Honda's plan to prove that the McLaren chassis isn't quite the masterpiece either

 

[P1]

Well one thing is clear, Red Bull still have a damn good chassis - which is why they can't get a decent engine.

I think Renault should buy Red Bull instead of buying Lotus. If they buy lotus they have an uphill struggle to develop engine and chassis. If they buy Red Bull they can focus on the engine.

Plus I Mateshit has no leverage on the pricing. I mean how much money can you get selling a team which can't make the grid because it has no engines! It would be a steal for Renault and much more marketable to sponsors.

 

[Bill Boddy]

If McLaren have got it right that RBR has a faster chassis than McLaren then why would they ever think that Ferrari would let them have the latest engine. RBR should have put money into the Renault engine when they could have done so.

 

[Il_leone]

It seems like Red Bull feel they have a divine right to a competitive engine and cheaper than the rest ... I am sorry but who is going to work with a customer who berates your engine so publicly and damages your brand reputation... any corporate bigwig whether F1 fan or not can see no business sense in that in working with Red Bull in taking such risk

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maybe RBR are engineering their exit whilst being able to blame everyone else in the sport; they are a marketing company and image is the most important part of their business.

 

[Il_leone]

Does seem that way that they are making themselves unworkable so will say to Bernie " Look no one wants to work us so we are leaving!"

 

[Incubus]

Maybe RBR are engineering their exit whilst being able to blame everyone else in the sport; they are a marketing company and image is the most important part of their business.

---------------------------------------------

Precisely, except that they don't even have to take to the trouble of blaming anyone else. F1 is not their primary business. In fact it's probably quite low on their agenda. Their business is flogging cans of foul-tasting soft drinks. F1 is just a promotional vehicle amongst many. So they may very well leave the sport altogether if they' re not in a winning position and it won't even be a big loss to them.