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.

 

[F1Brits_90]

So it does happen as I talking about last night its far too harsh on kyvat because it was his fault undoubtedly but it was 1 mistake & they always say win as a team lose as a team. But like win as a team lose as an individual so if he had had a problem in Spain & Monaco maybe. Now if I being generous to the hatchet man marko I know Helmut Marko is ruthless just ask Buemi & Alguesari but it would be too harsh on kyvat because he did great in China it could be a way to have a look & evaluate the talents of both verstappen & sainz. With Riccardio v Verstappen & Kvyat v Sainz

You be hard pressed to find a driver on the grid that hasn't made at least 1 stupid mistake at some point & i think it could be too early for max but he's proved me wrong before but as I said would they drop
Vettel when he crashed in Webber in Fuji 07 & Turkey 09
Grosjean in belgium 2012
Verstappen when he crashed in monaco 2015
Pastor Maldonado in 2014/2015
Lewis Hamilton in Canada 08
Massa at times in 2002

 

[ATL11]

Is this not F1 kicking Red Bull in shins to manufacture something as they realised that the season is descending into another Mercedes bore16fest*, so let's make another boring race (Russia) into something exciting by doing something a little different?

As for Kyvat being dropped what a load of bollocks, he stood on the Podium in China a full whole race ago, this is contract shenanigans as I reckon Ferrari came sniffing for Max!

Also what next?? A driver is dropped within a race weekend because his 2nd sector time in Free Practice 2 was below the vector?

As for Vettel, you whinny little boy, it's called racing!

China you screwed up not Kyvat, first corner in Russia okay you're a little unlucky, but the 2nd incident in Russia, you ever seen a pin ball machine? If you have a slowing car with 10 other faster cars behind you gaining, logic says you might get tagged by another. Man up, anyway, you do seem to forget winning a championship after spinning at turn 4 at Brazil & almost all of the field missing you.........

* I'm having the copyright for this for 2016.

 

[ATL11]

Pastor Maldonado in 2014/2015

Just 2 crashes for Pastor, being very kind......

 

[vintly]

Well I'm shocked at the suddenness of this, I really am, goodness me. Whetever you think of the decision, you gotta hand it to Marko for being bold at the very least!

I think it's rash, regardless of whether Young Max has a good run in Spain. Why not swap them about during the testing session at the circuit after the GP, to get an absolute fix on their respective times in each car, under the same conditions and the same set-up? Seems like the perfect opportunity...

 

[vintly]

Another article on motorsport.com here better explains the whole picture I think. It seems my analysis was rash, as opposed to the decision. I stand corrected, but won't be eating my own hat . Here's the pertinent info from the article as I see it:

"When Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull for the start of 2015, it had partly been forced on the team through the shock departure of Sebastian Vettel.

Nevertheless, despite a difficult season with Renault and plenty of reliability frustration, Kvyat knuckled down, shone occasionally and more than justified keeping his place in the team for this year.

But amid the huge promise shown by Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz during their rookie campaign, it was clear that Kvyat would have to step up his game in 2016 if he was not to face pressure to keep hold of his seat for next year.

As Marko warned in a pre-season interview with the official F1 website about the drivers: "Be very clear: the one who is not delivering goes."

 

[Greenlantern101]

There is more to this than Kvyat having a few crashes. We clearly don't have the full picture.

I suspect Max was about to sign for someone else, be it Ferrari or McLaren or whoever and this swap was part of a deal for next year.

I do feel for Kvyat, he outscored Ricciardo last year after all. Just shows you that Red Bulls driver contracts are worth less than a handful of toffees. I suspect Kvyat is reading his contract very carefully in the company of his lawyer.

 

[vintly]

 

[Titch]

I'm not a Verstappen fan, but even allowing for that IMO it's to soon for him to go into a big team.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Presumably this signals that Sainz is going nowhere and needs to be looking for a new drive.

 

[Grizzly]

Haas Defends Gutierrez After Russian GP Crash Oh! So that's how you do it is it?

 

[Grizzly]

Anyone know any more about this situation as well?

Red Bull chief Dietrich Mateschitz suddenly closes his TV station

Followed by

Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz in u-turn over TV station closure

 

[Viscount]

Vettel had only finished 17 F1 races when he moved from Toro Rosso to Red Bull and things went pretty well for him.
Verstappen's moving to Red Bull having finished 18 races and showing great potential.

Harsh on Kvyat dropping him mid-season, but I think Verstappen will prove to be a better prospect. Plus it will give them the opportunity to benchmark him against a known quantity, Ricciardo.

 

[Titch]

Grizzly I didn't know he had a TV station, so I can't help.

 

[Viscount]

Grizzly It was apparently just a power play. The employees were planning to unionise, so he threatened to just close down the channel to get them to reconsider their union/council plans.

 

[RasputinLives]

This is all about making sure Verstappen doesn't go anywhere else. To be honest I find it a very hard pill to swallow the way they've treated Kvyat.

Why didn't they do it at the end of last year? It would have at least given him chance to land another drive.

 

[teabagyokel]

Laugh if Verstappen T-bones Vettel.

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

I think this is harsh on Kvyat, though he fully knows the score when it comes to being a RBR driver. In terms of entertainment value for F1, Max joining RBR is going to be pretty good to watch.

 

[The Pits]

Laugh if Verstappen T-bones Vettel.

or Kvyat!!

 

[KekeTheKing]

Why didn't they do it at the end of last year?

So that they could have him race in Russia?

Eager to see Max in the Red Bull. Tough break for Kivvy though.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Hope Ricciardo beats Verstappen convincingly over the coarse of this season.