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.

 

[Kewee]

teabagyokel .... I don't believe it is necessary for a top level sports person to be arrogant but they do need immense self belief. Hamilton is a good example. His family background and watching with huge respect his brothers struggles has always kept him grounded. It's been a constant reminder of where he came from and the hard work necessary to reach his goals. In his rookie year there was never a hint of arrogance, just total belief in his ability. In contrast, with Verstappen there appears to be a sense of entitlement and maybe a slight lack of respect for the other drivers. That's just the impression he's created and going by the postings here others appear to have noticed also. Read my posting several back about Lydia Ko, she's absolute proof that arrogance is not needed to rise to the very top of your chosen sport.

 

[Kewee]

Which kind of reminds you of the debut season of a certain, now three time, world champion in 2007.

The big difference of course cider_and_toast is Hamilton was winning GP's, Verstappen isn't.

 

[FB]

And Hamilton started in a car capable of winning Grands Prix whereas Verstappen hasn't so it's a bit of a specious argument.

 

[Kewee]

True, but the theme of recent postings was whether arrogance was present in their personalities, not so much their ability to win due to the cars they're driving. There is no doubt Hamilton lucked into a great car.

 

[FB]

I think Lewis got into the McLaren based on skill and talent. Anyway, on the arrogance thing, I haven't seen anything about Max that suggests arrogance. Confident yes, arrogant not yet.

 

[Kewee]

Couldn't agree more regarding Hamilton, he's been an exceptional talent since day one. I may be wrong regarding Verstappen, I hope so, I'm just having trouble warming to him for the reasons I've stated in my previous postings.

 

[Titch]

Has MV been promoted to Red Bull because of talent, or because Kvyat has been demoted as a punishment ? I still think it's much to soon for him to be in a major team, I don't think this is a move that will do him any good. Plus we shall see even more of his Dad now.
Cult Verstappen, not good.

 

[Kewee]

Titch .... Evidently the change was going to be made early in the European season. Russia may have brought it forward by just a single GP. The switch was going to happen by Monaco I believe.

 

[Kewee]

FB.... Further to your posting when you said Lewis got the McLaren drive based on skill and talent, I think it's fair to say that as well as Alonso, the entire McLaren garage including Ron Dennis were taken by surprise at just how quick Hamilton was straight out of the box. He could so easily have won his first GP as a total rookie.

 

[teabagyokel]

In his first season, Hamilton was told that most drivers don't go so close to the wall at turn 13 at Indianapolis. His reply: "I'm not most drivers."

That's quite arrogant.

Verstappen IS arrogant; he needs to be arrogant.

 

[Il_leone]

I think the part of arrogance that crosses the line is when you start disobeying team orders to sabotage the team's or teammate's race

That is usually the point where the interteam battle begins and no doubt MAx has probably had a lot of disagreements that we don't hear within the team and its affecting the Sainz side. It's too early to say Max is destroying Sainz but probably hindering his development

The problem so far is Max Verstappen gives the impression that he is driven to succeed (which is not wrong) but at all costs even if it will screwing up the other side of the garage. This can be managed more in big teams where the politics are more complicated and vicious but in a close knit small team it may destroy the harmony it had

Max it may work whilst he is successful but if he is not then teams will be happy to see the back of him

RasputinLives I remember the hype about Max's Dad that he only had about 50 odd single seater races and was in F1..but it turned out to be far too soon despite two podiums as he paired with Schumacher but I never got the impression he was arrogant perhaps he's learned a thing or two from his time with Schumacher to succeed

 

[Olivier]

The expectation for Jos to perform was probably too much to handle. The situation is not very different with young Max. Hopefully he can learn from his father's mistakes, keep his feet on the ground and stay out of trouble, Something tells me that won't be the case ...

 

[Incubus]

teabagyokel That's probably true but ultimately it's not arrogance nor the lack of it that trully matters,. It's talent. and the ultimate benchmark of talent is still how a driver fares against his team-mates. From that point of view both Verstappen and Sainz, whatever the promise they have so far shown, are unproven quantities as they've only ever had each other a team-mates.
Now Max will be up against Ricciardo, who certainly is a proven quantity, so it's the moment of truth for Max now.

 

[RasputinLives]

I'd it's team mates then we could look at Kvyat and Sainz as former team mates in GP3. Both started with a car that had issues with tyres and Kvyat gradually pulled it back and won the title. Sainz got better but never really scored any great results.

Now it simplifies it because both Sainz and Kvyat have gotten a lot better. But if Kvyat was better than Sainz but not quite on the pace of Riccardo, given Max's F1 showing so far, would't (shouldn't) that place him at about the same rating as Kvyat.

 

[gethinceri]

We're about to find out.

 

[Il_leone]

Well two things to note about Kyvat

i) McNish did not think his GP3 title was not as convincing as some of the other Red Bull Junior driver's titles

ii) Christian Horner called him "The Real Deal" a pity he did not have the balls or management skills to back Danii up then

 

[Il_leone]

What if Ricciardo destroys Verstappen ? What would Red Bull's excuse be then? He's just a kid or he's not familar with the team ? Or he needs a bit more time? or we have not given him the car to showcase his abilities?

How about this one - I've got Danii's tyres for the next set of races!

 

[vintly]

The third one Il_leone, he needs a bit more time – if you mean will Ricciardo destroy Verstappen initially. He won't destroy him long-term, Max is good enough not to be destroyed by anyone.

 

[Kewee]

He won't destroy him long-term, Max is good enough not to be destroyed by anyone.

I think it's way too soon to make a claim like that. With all this talk about Verstappen I think a lot of people are forgetting how good Ricciardo is.

 

[vintly]

Saying Max won't be destroyed is hardly a bold claim - Red Bull have done their homework and it's clear to see Max is no slouch.

My guess is that Ricciardo will beat him over the year but not in every race, and that Max will perform to the team's satisfaction.