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]

vintly .... You said max "won't be destroyed by anyone". Adding "by anyone" is an extreme claim and very different than saying Max won't be destroyed.

 

[TR]

teabagyokel [...] 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.

I think this is one of the key reasons behind Red Bull shaking up their driver up. They already had fairly good metrics on Ricciardo vs Kvyat and Verstappen vs. Sainz. They will now be able to measure Ricciardo vs. Verstappen and Kvyat vs. Sainz. This should give them a fairly good idea of how their drivers rank, and who is going to get booted if (*sorry* when) they want to make room for a new driver.

 

[Titch]

So will we see Sainz v Ricciardo next ? I doubt it.

 

[TR]

So will we see Sainz v Ricciardo next ? I doubt it.

No need. That data can easily be inferred from the data that will be gathered now. (However if Verstappen fucks up royally and Sainz out performs Kvyat, this certainly would an option.)

 

[vintly]

vintly .... You said max "won't be destroyed by anyone". Adding "by anyone" is an extreme claim and very different than saying Max won't be destroyed.

Ok Kewee, whatever, it's an extreme claim and I stand by it. I like to make bold predictions - you don't have to agree with them. As for whether it's too soon for me to make that claim – that's my call, not yours.

 

[RasputinLives]

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

double negative has me confused.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives

That should read " Kyvat's Gp3 title was not convincingly won as titles won by other junior Red Bull drivers"

 

[Il_leone]

As for Max Verstappen getting destroyed well we will truly get to find out whether Max's ego is all overinflated and he proves he can't cut the mustard at the highest level or he proves as formidable as Senna was when he first burst into F1

 

[RasputinLives]

RasputinLives

That should read " Kyvat's Gp3 title was not convincingly won as titles won by other junior Red Bull drivers"

Well other than Sainz none of the other Red Bull Juniors have won a junior title. As Kvyat had Sainz as a team mate when he won in GP3 he think that negates that.

Frankly I find that view a load of Tosh.

 

[Kewee]

vintly ..... I wasn't making a personal attack on you. If you read my original posting again you'll find I said "I think it's too soon", saying "I think" was acknowledging we had different opinions, I wasn't claiming to be right. You need to remember vintly we all have different opinions, that doesn't mean we're making personal attacks or claiming to be right, we're just expressing an opinion.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives The problem with the Red Bull system is you've got to winning the junior title to move into F1 to stand a chance

but history shows you don't have to be good in junior career to be successful in F1 from previous world champions

I do feel Kyvat has been given the raw deal and it is his misfortune that the Verstappen PR machine went into overdrive from the moment he was announced as one of the TR drivers

Verstappen does love raising the stakes ... I'll wait when he loses the stakes and is knocked down a pedestal or two

Surely if the unthinkable happens where Verstappen beats Ricciardo ... Red Bull would drop Daniel?

 

[Il_leone]

Oddly Red Bull and Toro Rosso have yet to announce who is doing the testing at Barcelona next week????

 

[RasputinLives]

Il_leone

Vettel = no junior title
Riccardo = no junior title
Buemi = no junior title
Vergne = no junior title
Verstappen = no junior title
Liuzzi = no junior title
Klein = no junior title.

I think your view that Red Bull demand a junior title is a bit skew wife.

 

[RasputinLives]

but history shows you don't have to be good in junior career to be successful in F1 from previous world champions

Also that's not true either. There is no world champion in the last 30 years who has not had a mediocre junior career. We've had drivers like Button and Kimi who have been pulled up 3 or 4 levels fairly quickly and we've had the likes of Alonso who has been driving round in rubbish equipment but still getting results. But the idea that someone can jump from being average in a junior field to a world champion is nonsense.

 

[The Pits]

what about Webber and Coulthard?

 

[TR]

Il_leone

Vettel = no junior title
Riccardo = no junior title
Buemi = no junior title
Vergne = no junior title
Verstappen = no junior title
Liuzzi = no junior title
Klein = no junior title.

I think your view that Red Bull demand a junior title is a bit skew wife.

I am not sure what you count as junior titles, but of that list

Ricciardo= 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 WEC and 2009 British Formula 3 champ.
Vergne= 2010 British Formula 3 champ
Liuzzi=2004 International Formula 3000 champ

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

Also that's not true either. There is no world champion in the last 30 years who has not had a mediocre junior career.

I would argue that Mansell and Hill are examples of F1 champions with pretty mediocre junior results, although Hill at least has the excuse that he didn't start racing until he was 20 years old and even that was on motorbikes. For the most part you are right though.


I'm not sure where you are getting the junior results for the Red Bull drivers from but several of them have indeed won junior titles. In fact of the juniors that made it to F1 only Buemi and Verstappen did not win at least 1 title in the junior categories, and Verstappen is a special case because he was rushed through the categories so quickly.

 

[RasputinLives]

TR and Spinodontosaurus - Il_leone was suggesting a Red Bull Junior needed to win his Junior category in order to be promoted into the Toro Rosso F1 seat. Whilst they may have won other junior titles none of the drivers I mentioned won the category they were in before their promotion. My point was that the idea a Red Bull Junior has to win their category to keep in the system and gain progression is not true, they just have to be quick.

It was a response to Il_leone stating "The problem with the Red Bull system is you've got to winning the junior title to move into F1 to stand a chance"

Not true

 

[teabagyokel]

They'll even let you lose a title to Paul di Resta and progress!

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives perhaps I did not go as far as saying not just with Red Bull junior teams to even have a chance of being promoted to the F1 teams and what is considered a junior category title

Ricciardo - British F3 champion
Vergne - British F3 champion
Liuzzi was an F3000 champion !!!!

but I take that back Helmut expects you to win the series you enter - try telling Felix Da Costa that

I guess how do you define mediocre or average junior career is the key over the last 30 years

I mean Damon Hill was quick but world champion material not many saw springs to mind