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.

 

[gethinceri]

"Hey Max, you'd better not fuck this opportunity up"
"Hey Danny, you'd better not let another new team mate beat you this season"
"Hey Carlos, see what we do for drivers who REALLY want to make a place for themselves in F1"
"Hey Daniil, fuck it up at Toro Rosso and you're out on your arse"
I can't think of a better way to turn up the heat on four drivers.

 

[Hamberg]

Red Bull clearly were missing having a moaning bitch in the team. Makes Horner look less pathetic/whiney/of a puppet.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yeah setting a precedent of kicking a driver out after one bad race is certainly not going to put immense amount of pressure on their drivers and course them to make mistakes.

 

[Il_leone]

I think Vettel junked far more Red Bull chassis than Kyvat did in his first season with the main team

The move is protectionism... I don;t see how Kyvat will get promoted back to Red Bull unless Ricciardo leaves and goes to Ferrari

I hope Daniel shows Max a few manners... it would be interesting to see how Helmut reacts when Max starts throwing toys out of the pram

 

[F1Brits_90]

Now I reading more into this im hoping this is just the story I was expecting in abu dhabi for 2017. That it was move him or lose him because Mercedes were interested & ive heard particularly/more importantly Ferrari were very serious in getting him on a pre contract to be teammate vettel. As this is expected to be kimi farewell year.

If it isnt then red bull & Christian Horner have gone further down in my estimation. As why is that vettel has horner around his little finger even now he's left red bull

 

[RasputinLives]

Don't think it was Ferrari. Kimi all but confirmed he'll still be at the team in 2017. Wouldn't surprise me if it was Merc though as they were trying to get him back in his F3 days. Verstappen was quickly given the Torro Rosso seat (over Sainz) to stop that happening back then.

I don't think this has anything to do with Horner as much as people like to hate him. I think this is all Marko. Having read Mark Webber's autobiography recently I think Marko makes all the driver line-up decisions.

To be honest I think Red Bull think this is a master PR stroke and that because people love Verstappen and Kvyat was in bad books last time out it will get fans excited and strengthen their brand. I'm not 100% sure it will work like that.

I'm pretty sure Verstappen will be on Ricciardo's pace and the media will talk about him like he's the second coming but I can't help but feel Red Bull are putting all their eggs in one basket.

If you're Ricciardo right now its pretty clear Red Bull see a future of Verstappen leading the team so whats the point of helping push the team back to the front if you're not going to be the lead driver when you do? Surely you cash in you reputation prior to it being knocked down and go and get another drive?

If you're Kvyat and Sainz its pretty clear you're not wanted by Red Bull and therefore whats the point in sticking around? Drive the wheels off and try and go somewhere else. If not in F1 then somewhere else in Motor Sport. Why should Red Bull care about that if they go? Well their Red Bull junior programme is not looking exactly flowing over with talent and potential just yet so they would be left with the choice of chancing it with them and looking stupid or sourcing drivers from elsewhere and looking like they don't believe in their own system.

Interesting times.

 

[Andyoak]

I can Ricciardo's career following the same path as Button'ss.

 

[Road of Bones]

Oh Sniff, you've nailed it again...

Marko has his dog shot « Sniff Petrol

 

[Greenlantern101]

RasputinLives I think it's a little rash to say Red Bull don't want dannil and Carlos. It may be they just want to give them time to mature. Some drivers simply get into F1 too fast. Grosjean for example.

 

[FB]

Although the Sniff Petrol article is amusing I think they have gone too far with photoshopping the image to accentuate the fact that the poor sod has lost an eye. Not clever, not nice.

 

[RasputinLives]

RasputinLives I think it's a little rash to say Red Bull don't want dannil and Carlos. It may be they just want to give them time to mature. Some drivers simply get into F1 too fast. Grosjean for example.

I know that's the party line but it doesn't add up. If you take out retirements Kvyat and Ricciardo are 8-8 in terms of beating each other in races. Kvyat finished in front of Ricciardo in last years championship and until Russia has hardly been in any accidents. He scored Red Bull's only podium this season and equalled their best result of last year.

Do you really think that going back to Torro Rosso is going to make him grow as a driver and that Red Bull will suddenly say "Hey look how much better you are! come on back to the A-team!"?

No this is a clear message that he is not wanted.

As for Carlos the whole media line of "moving Max removes the 'toxic' atmosphere Torro Rosso" is another message that he's not going to get promoted to the Red Bull team. If he and Max can't function as team mates at Torro Rosso they're hardly going to bump him up to Red Bull are they?

 

[TR]

If Ricciardo gets poached by Ferrari and Verstappen clinches with Horner, a Kvyat/Sainz line-up at RBR in 2017 is entirely within the realm of possibilities.

As it stands Kvyat and Sainz are still red bull's third and fourth choice options. If Red Bull were to loose any if its first choice drivers in the upcoming silly season, they are not going to draft some else for RBR.

 

[RasputinLives]

If I was someone's 3rd and 4th choice on standby in case something went wrong with someone else I Don't think I would feel wanted.

"hey Danill. I know I said I'd go to the prom with you but there is this other boy named Max who is way more popular so I'm going with him in case he gets asked by other girls. You can go with my less attractive Italian cousin and if Max dumps me , and there is no one else available, then I'm all yours"

It's the stuff romance is made of.

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

In any case why would Red Bull want Sainz or Kvyat at this point?

Last season Ricciardo demonstrated himself to be better than Kvyat, poorly timed mechanical failures prevented that from being shown in the final points tallies but it was pretty clear to see when examining their seasons. So far this year Kvyat has not closed the gap at all and has frequently been much slower than Ricciardo. He scored a podium in China but Ricciardo had better pace and only finished behind due to his puncture combined with the poorly timed safety car dropping down to the back.
At this point it is clear that Ricciardo is better than Kvyat - corrected for unfortunate circumstances we should probably be looking at something like a 180-130 points tally in Ricciardo's favour. The qualifying gap over the full time together is 0.304% in Ricciardo's favour, which is more than the advantage Vettel had over Webber (0.272%).

It's a similar story with Verstappen and Sainz, Verstappen is continuing to prove to be the far superior driver in races despite the pair being relatively close in qualifying (Verstappen has a 0.059% advantage). The points disparity between them is huge, but is exaggerated due to Sainz suffering quite a lot of bad luck. Luck corrected it should be something like 70-40 in Verstappen's favour.

Why would Red Bull want Kvyat or Sainz? The only reason they would promote either driver to the main team is if Ricciardo jumps ship at the end of the season, but by then Kvyat should have found himself a drive elsewhere if he is smart.

 

[Il_leone]

The only other dickhead who makes such driver decisions is Flavio Briatore who always treated the 2nd driver like

As brutal as the decision has been to drop Kyvat - it seems like the pundits and editors are all unanimously agree it was the correct decision and "masterstroke" to promote Verstappen and ward off all other teams

There are also suggestions that the Toro Rosso camp is very intense and toxic atmosphere no doubt over Max's petulance and prepared to play dirty attitude which is dividing the team Even the dads have been getting into the fights and no one really knows why John Booth has been hired

Kyvat has been treated like a piece of meat.. promoted hastily when Vettel quit when he has not developed and coincided with one of the worst Red Bull cars

He has to leave the Red Bull set up because it appears Pierre Ghasly is rumoured to be next to be promoted to F1 even if he does well

It must feel very uncomfortable and confidence draining that no one at Red Bull's hierarchy backed him or at least supported him when interviewed by the journalists

It seems more about massaging Max Verstappen's ego more than anything.

Carlos Sainz Jnr will not feel comfortable either as the Toro Rosso driver that does not get promoted is usually dismissed

Ricciardo knows he has to teach Max a few manners to keep his stock high and then maybe then people can ask is Max overhyped finally


RasputinLives Not surprised it's Marko calling the shots at Red Bull in terms of drivers seeing that he never wanted DC when Red Bull started and he always stuck up for Vettel whenever Webber kicked up a fuss. He never wasted a moment to stick a knife in Webber's back and keep telling the press he wants to promote one of the Toro Rosso drivers

 

[Galahad]

The purpose of the Red Bull junior driver programme is to find future world champions, not drivers who can get the odd decent result, or podium finishers, or consistent plodders. They cast the net very wide, much more so than any other team of course, meaning there are a lot of rejections. But the fact of Red Bull's support is the reason these drivers get anywhere close to F1 in the first place. A season of GP2 or Formula 3.5 costs in excess of a million euros. The investment is huge, and so the level of expectation is rightly very high. Many Red Bull cast offs have gone on to have successful careers and earn a lot of money in other series - though note that other F1 teams haven't generally looked at them.

Kvyat looked fortunate, to me, to step up in the first place. The plan was to keep Vettel and Ricciardo, we must assume, and so when that became impossible a stopgap was required. Unfortunately Kvyat has failed to match the performances of Vettel and Ricciardo in their first 20 starts after promotion, so I'd say while the decision looks a little sudden, I don't think he was on any trajectory to get to that level and Red Bull are well within their rights.

Verstappen will need to hit the ground running in an unfamiliar car, with no testing, to avoid a similar fate.

 

[cider_and_toast]

That's the real kicker for Max isn't it? While he may have that devil may care attitude that all young, quick drivers have, how much does he know about setting up cars? Stepping behind the wheel of the Red Bull could mean driving a very different machine, set up for someone with a different driving style. He's going to need to build bridges quickly and work with his new team mate. How willing will Danny be to have F1's newest superstar having to rely on his set up work to get a foot hold in the team? Red Bull may have had their hand forced by Verstappen Snr but could this also lead to Daniel's departure?

 

[Il_leone]

cider_and_toast I wonder how many bridges Max intends to burn to succeed at the top ? We've seen how Red Bull or should I say Marko is willing to defend Vettel vs Webber but Ricciardo is one of their own guys so it could get very interesting

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

We are led to believe whilst Verstappen and Sainz were evenly matched in qualifying, it was apparently Max's better and more aggressive race craft that won him over to be promoted
----------------------------------------

Galahad

I go back to how many amateurish errors/ crashes did Vettel have but the team were willing to forgive him because of his youth

Spa 2010 comes to mind when he lost control and t-boned Button..the reaction of the Mclaren mechanics with their hand gestures when he came into his pit to serve his penalty just to show their anger I'll always remember

 

[Il_leone]

Some think the promotion of Verstappen is going to be good for Sainz now as long as he beats Kyvat

and the rivalry in the main team gets intense and will mean one leaves and creates an opening probably for 2018

F1 analysis: Why Red Bull's Verstappen shuffle is good for Sainz

Danii Kyvat really is a no win situation
- if he beats Sainz - there is no room for him to be in the main team (Ricciardo leaving at the end of the season would require a team to buy out his contract which is expensive

So he could stay with the current team but with the notion he's been demoted

- if he loses to Sainz - his F1 career with Red Bull is finished

All this under the pressure and/or rumours that Pierre Ghasly is going to get promoted

 

[Kewee]

I've always considered Ricciardo a class act in every way, qualifying, race craft and outright speed and add to that the ability to stay clean in traffic. I think Verstappen will struggle to match him, he will start to show weaknesses. His arrogance will get the better of him and his emotions will affect his driving.