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.

 

[Brogan]

They remind me of an internet drama queen.
Going on and on about how they're going to quit (the forum/facebook/community) all the while not doing anything of the sort.

Just hurry up and leave already, if you're going to leave.
Otherwise stop fucking bleating like a bunch of spoiled brats and get on with the job like the rest of the teams do, who never, ever win a race, never mind multiple championships.

 

[Il_leone]

They've shot themselves in the foot and now they don't like that the rules have changed and are prepared to go

 

[Brogan]

If you haven't already read it, this is worth a few minutes of your time: BBC Sport - Red Bull & Renault: How it started, where it went wrong, what now?

 

[Il_leone]

I think Renault have been sold short in that they did not get credit for making blown exhaust gases work that generated the downforce to make their cars quick

So should Newey or Vettel get the credit for their success or maybe Christian Horner can gloat before being reminded he does not seem to know how to handle a crisis situation.

 

[teabagyokel]

Anyone hear Geri Halliwell on Radio 2 this morning?

"Christian asked 'can you ask him for a new engine?'"

 

[Il_leone]

Red Bull and Renault: Charting the breakdown of their relationship

A dossier of the public criticisms aimed at Renault ... Ferrari be warned

 

[Il_leone]

Any believe Foghorn LegHorner is delusional thinking what Red Bull have been doing to Renault aint going to affect their chances of getting a decent Ferrari engine?

Red Bull warn Renault are 'at least two to three years' behind Ferrari and Mercedes

 

[Bill Boddy]

That article says that RBR were rebuffed by Mercedes whereas Merc say that they agreed to talk to RBR but they never came back to them. I know which version of the story I believe.

 

[Il_leone]

Debate: Red Bull Exit threat – Should we feel sorry for them or is it their fault?

Here is a poll for you Red Bull fans ? I think its quite conclusive so far whose wrong

 

[FB]

F1's worst kept secret, it's a Red Bull Ferrari for 2016.

Exclusive: Red Bull and Toro Rosso turn to Ferrari for 2016 engines

 

[Il_leone]

Does this affect Sauber having Ferrari engines ? I can't see Mercedes wanting Ferrari to be allowed to power 5 teams !

Secondly not surprised given the hoises and probably Bernie involved to broker a deal. I wonder if Ferrari have asked that Red Bull would get cheaper engines if they have first option on all their drivers currently

Finally nice to see Lewis puts some perspective about Red Bull's plight

BBC Sport - Lewis Hamilton: Red Bull's threat to quit Formula 1 'really odd'

 

[siffert_fan]

I have a question:

How is the way Red Bull is behaving any different from the way Alonso has been doing for quite some time?

 

[RasputinLives]

Il_leone - Mercedes had 4 teams with engines this year so I see no reason why Ferrari can't do it for the next one.

Its 4 beacuse Manor will be running Merc engines

 

[RasputinLives]

Well we're getting different rumbles from this end

Red Bull in limbo after Ferrari 'reject request for engines'

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

The agreement states that engine suppliers are suppose to give engines to 3 teams unless there are special circumstances

I thought 4 was an exception but getting to 5 would be worrying . I don't see how Merc would allow Ferrari 5 teams to gain more ground that way

Interestingly FogHorn LegHorner, Bernie and Helmut were in a meeting after practice and Bernie gave a thumbs up sign afterwards according to Lee McKenzie

 

[Il_leone]

siffert_fan How many businesses you know that go into a partnership and publicly damage their partner's brand credibility when things go wrong ? In Red Bull's case if they were to go with VW they could not possibly damage it more than they have now .

Can you elaborate at Alonso please ? I can pick Ferrari - the team underperforms and he gives them a reminder to improve. Difference is he is an employer not a business partner. Eventually he did leave Ferrari because he can see things internally not working and no one is listening so he had to leave. In Red Bull's case they said they have been honest... well are they saying that it was all down to them that they got 8 titles from 2010 to 2013 then?

If that is the case then why were not they prepared for the powertrain era?

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives Interestingly enough Ferrari would be happy to give Toro Rosso engines since they are based in Italy and the only customer Ferrari team to win a race but possibly because they want Verstappen as part of the agreement

Whilst Red Bull might have to grovelingly apologise to Renault and take them as engine supplier

Divorces are sometimes messy in F1 but surely Red Bull have seriously burned their bridges and this is what is called "Irreconcilable differences " in the celebrity world

 

[Il_leone]

This is Ferrari sticking two fingers to Red Bull for failing to deal with their own problems properly and quite right



Some fans feel Ferrari feared being beaten by Red Bull if they provided them with engines next year, but Scuderia boss Maurizio Arrivabene insists that is not the case.

Instead, the Italian highlights the cost implications and production limitations in powering four more cars at such late notice.

“Red Bull still don’t have an engine for 2016 and it seems like that would be our fault, but this is not the case,” Arrivabene was quoted by Speedweek, part of Red Bull’s media house.

“We have to plan everything, as well, and checking our new driving unit programs and the production has shown that we would have to change all our plans in order to supply a new customer.

“I am sure that Red Bull were strongly counting on Mercedes engines for 2016. They were counting on Mercedes so much, that they haven’t just eliminated their current contract with Renault, but also the contracts with Infiniti and Total.”

Indeed, Arrivabene says had Ferrari been approached when Red Bull first reached out to Mercedes, they perhaps could have produced additional power units.

“If the whole thing had happened in June, we would have had enough time to think about collaborating. But they only reached out to us after the Monza race.

“A fourth customer team would mean a larger engineering team in order to provide them with the same service as Sauber and Manor and the team can’t be made up of freshers that have just left university.

“This is not how the F1 works. That means, if Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne calls me and instructs me to deliver engines to Red Bull, we would have to change all the plans we have made after accurate examination.”

 

[Il_leone]

F1 news: Red Bull back in talks with Renault over F1 engine supply

Red Bull and Toro Rosso have gone back to Renault about engines

 

[P1]

F1 news: Red Bull back in talks with Renault over F1 engine supply

Red Bull and Toro Rosso have gone back to Renault about engines

I predicted this last week. In that post I had said that while Red Bull had said it will not be using Renault engines, Renault had not said the contract was terminated and that they were prepared to fulfill their contractual obligations.