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.

 

[Incubus]

Are Red Bull a privateer team ? Yes because they design their own F1 cars but their purpose is not to sell road cars

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

Er no, their purpose is to flog cans of soft drink

And incidentally and historically Ferrari's purpose for racing isn't flogging cars. Their purpose for flogging cars was to fund their racing team.

 

[Il_leone]

Ferrari is still a car manufacturer because it sells road cars

 

[Titch]

Billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz owns the team. The only reason that he hasn't pulled out of F1 is because he is trying to protect the jobs of the two teams. RB employs 850 and Torro Rosso employs 350. But he won't race with an inferior engine. So now that engine suppliers have to supply all teams with the same spec engine, I imagine Ferrari will withdraw their offer.
It's not looking good.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Williams are a privateer team because they exist to only compete in motorsport.

Actually they have branched out.

Williams F1

 

[Il_leone]

I can't see how Ferrari and Mercedes can be bullied into supplying engines to Red Bull. If Red Bull seriously want one of their engines I would turn around and say" $30m please because we need extra resources to build the engines at this late notice!"

The other tactic to do is to buy out another team and own the contract like Benetton did to get the Renault engine contract as it were from Ligier. I mean Red Bull did use to own Sauber partly

 

[Il_leone]

FIA rule customer power units to be same specification as works team

Now I think Ferrari would be happy to supply one team but not both and I think they will make it clear it will be with Toro Rosso racing and not like last time Red Bull Corporation and not Red Bull Racing.

There is more to gain from Ferrari supplying engines to Toro Rosso than to Red Bull. I think Red Bull could exit but Toro Rosso might be able to survive and become a Ferrari junior team

 

[P1]

FIA rule customer power units to be same specification as works team

Now I think Ferrari would be happy to supply one team but not both and I think they will make it clear it will be with Toro Rosso racing and not like last time Red Bull Corporation and not Red Bull Racing.

There is more to gain from Ferrari supplying engines to Toro Rosso than to Red Bull. I think Red Bull could exit but Toro Rosso might be able to survive and become a Ferrari junior team

The article isn't very thorough. According to Autosport, the FIA rules for 2016 allow case-by-case exceptions to be made with FIA approval. So it doesn't sound like the door is closed. Red Bull and Toro Rosso can get 2015 engines if FIA prefer that to exit.

 

[Il_leone]

Whilst there is a case by case exception I am convinced Merc would not allow Ferrari to power 5 teams and nor would Renault or Honda.

To power 5 teams I think one of them will have to have a year old engine

 

[P1]

The case-by-case exception is for the year old engine.

 

[Westy]

I hope they can get it sorted. Red Bull are easily my least favorite team, but I like a strong grid.

It is strange that this problem has gone on as long as it has. I was thinking someone had overplayed their hand until I saw the FIA regulation. I think it would be a major blow to Bernie if Red Bull did pull out of the sport.

Going back to the privateers, sorry if that is not the correct term. I was merely trying to differentiate between the manufacturers and the others.

FOM do keep taking the sponsors away from the teams (they took Mclaren's intended title sponsor). Once again they line their own pockets and just let the teams dangle. It just seems so shortsighted. Each time this happens the sponsorship pool gets that much smaller, in turn making it harder for the smaller teams.

 

[Il_leone]

The problem has gone on this long because Red Bull wanted to bully everyone to do their rules and they seem to think everyone is at fault except themselves

Firstly they demanded that the engine development rules be changed so Renault can catch up and Mercedes simply were not have none of it and quite rightly given they were better prepared

Secondly they demanded that if the current regulations were not changed to suit them ( and everyone reduced to also ran ) they will quit

Thirdly they constantly derided Renault in public at every opportunity for producing a engine and blaming it on all their door for uncompetitiveness That is hardly a way to get through a crisis situation

Finally they use the press to make it clear that they want to terminate the contract with Renault and now may need to do a U - turn

So we come to they are so busy blaming everyone else that they have not sorted out their own house in order

Two words to describe them for their own mess

" Imcompetent"
" Stupid!

 

[P1]

This article shows door to 2015 engines still open.

F1 news: Door not closed on year-old F1 engines, despite new FIA regulations

 

[P1]

So we come to they are so busy blaming everyone else that they have not sorted out their own house in order

Two words to describe them for their own mess

" Imcompetent"
" Stupid!

They don't seem to understand that you can't win every year. All teams become uncompetitive at times. McLaren and Ferrari didn't say they are leaving sport when Red Bull left them uncompetitive for 4 years in a row. Ferrari didn't quit after over a decade of oblivion. Williams hasn't quit.

Red Bull wants the rules made so no one else wins but them.

 

[The Artist.....]

Maybe Honda should offer Red Bull a free supply of year old engines; Arai could demonstrate how it was the McLaren chassis to blame!!!

 

[soccerman17]

That could backfire very easily...

 

[Il_leone]

There is a logic in Red Bull having Honda engines since they are both based in Milton Keynes so really the excellence of Red Bull engineers coupled with Honda's resources ought to help make the engine better.

Trouble is then it could backfire for Ron Dennis if it is proven to be Mclaren chassis but Honda have to do something different. Yes Mclaren have a watertight contract with HOnda as de facto number 1 team but I would think Red Bull will only use it as a stop gap for their own engines or with another manufacturer

 

[Kewee]

McLaren/Honda's weakness is with Honda's Energy Recovery System, Honda have stated that's where they will make their gains as they work to improve their performance. ERS has been their problem right from the beginning and they know that. There won't be any problems with the McLaren chassis though some changes may be necessary to accommodate any changes made to the power units. Overcoming that won't be a problem for the McLaren designers.

 

[Greenlantern101]

They don't seem to understand that you can't win every year. All teams become uncompetitive at times.

Ahh you see, you have hit the nail on the head there. They are not a team. They are an advertising campaign. Not winning is bad advertising.

 

[Il_leone]

Red Bull are getting free advertising by being on TV. I don't people care if they win or not because they can recognise the brand and logo instantly

 

[Il_leone]

They are getting bad advertising by publicly attacking Renault thanks to that dunce Hornerand making themselves look really stupid