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.

 

[RasputinLives]

Weren't they being bought out by Audi this time two years ago?

 

[FB]

 

[Galahad]

They have a highly developed 2.0l 4 cylinder hybrid with lots of the relevant technology, and apparently the engine division remains fully staffed despite the WEC pullout. It would be a huge undertaking together with the (supposedly) liberalised Formula E as well, though.

 

[Il_leone]

Well this is a turn up... would Red Bull then have much more influence over driver choices then?

 

[RasputinLives]

I Don't for a second believe Red Bull are going to sell up to Porsche. I certainly Don't believe Honda are going to come in with a factory team again.

Now Torro Rosso being sold to Porsche I can believe but to be honest I think Porsche will want to come in as an engine supplier first - apparently in another almost certainly true rumour they've already agreed to supply Mclaren in 2021.

 

[cider_and_toast]

The end of a beautiful relationship is in sight according to Andrew Benson:

Red Bull to split with Renault at end of 2018 season

 

[RasputinLives]

Hardly a surprise with the Honda wheels in motion but interesting. Either Red Bull or Mclaren are going to end up with egg on their faces from this and I really couldn't predict which at the moment.

I can't help but feel Red Bull may reap the rewards of the hard slog embarrassment Mclaren have gone through for 3 years.

 

[Titch]

So the Red Bulls with be rubbish next year. What a shame

 

[Il_leone]

Titch
Yeah and they will be crying about needing the rules change again or threaten to quit because they are at the back

Then Verstappen will running his mouth that he deserves so much better

 

[RasputinLives]

They can't whine anymore than Mclaren and Alonso did. Not sure it's possible.

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives They've whined that Renault engines are enough and Renault did not do the traditional French approach and go on strike. They've complained the Renault engine lacked power so they will have to endure being swallowed up down the straight with the dump truck engine that is Honda at the moment

I have to say Renault Sport I think have had enough and also realise two potentially competing teams to slow team Enstone 's progress to the top would not be good

 

[F1Brits_90]

i was discussing this with my dad & it might be a bit of a risk if it was there choice but renault finally told them to off which im sure they have been dying to do for years. so it not really a risk more enforced. shame that red bull couldnt get a mercedes or ferrari engine as this season title race is shaping up to be a brilliant one then throw in a riccardio and Verstappen then it would be must seen drama that i haven't had since
Hakkinen v Schumacher/Irvine in the late 90s (but then j was 8 - 10 & i usually more exited about f1 then so Might scew it)

but as RasputinLives Red Bull may reap the rewards of Mclaren embarrassment for 3 years. & that by 2019 surely honda should sorted it out by then but how many times have we said finally like i said on mclaren thread towards end of 2016. i thought finally mclaren have got relatively competitive. just build on it & 2017 should be start of challenging podiums in force India place. but Honda on some power & mostly reliablity have gone backwards nevermind 1 step forward 2 back more 500 back so there are no guarantees considering how little progress they have made since 2014 that in 18 months. they will have all of a sudden be at least ahead if renault or at least stick to the engine allocatement by end of the European season not the start

 

[The Pits]

Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari are not going to stop developing their engines. Honda are going to spend the next few years spending money like water trying to close the gap, with a considerable handicap of time and regulation. And then in 2021 all bets are off again.

I think this move is driven by Renault, with Red Bull having their hand forced.

I dont think the balance of engine power is likely to move that much, and Red Bull are going to have the added complication of incorporating a new engine.

I was hugely positive of Honda initially, based on the development that they made to kers in 2008 before withdrawing, but it seems they may not have what it takes to crack the big time.

Now watch Red Bull Honda sweep all before them.....

 

[Il_leone]

Red Bull Honda may well reap the benefits by having Honda use 4 cars to check the engines and get more data .. the only other thing left is to get Honda to build the engine at Milton Keynes where Red Bull are based and Honda have their European base instead of Japan

Where Mclaren and Honda got it wrong is that they did act like a true partnership. Old Bernie is saying Mclaren should take the blame for failing to get more out of Honda but some of it was Ron Dennis' doing at the beginning as well by saying Honda are only exclusive to Mclaren and somehow that has translated to more engine failures and replacement parts.. the grid penalties that Honda accumulated must be near 1000

There is something to consider if Porsche do want to come in 2021 then Red Bull will lose Honda engines and allow Honda to buy up Toro Rosso to become their factory team.

Red Bull in turn will just be a title sponsor for Porsche if this is the plan

 

[RasputinLives]

Personally I think if they could get the current Honda engine to work properly for a complete grand Prix then it would be the match of the Renault. I think we've seen evidence of that. So Red Bull might find themselves in the exact same position they are now if reliability is sorted.

Cut a Honda 'mule' car pounding round a circuit in Japan from November to March!

 

[Bill Boddy]

Red Bull have reaped what they sowed.

Not once during their years of dominance did they acknowledged the part that Renault played, then when they were not dominant any more they badmouthed Renault time after time. Renault must have been delighted that McLaren wanted their engines which are currently in a car which is only just behind the front two and have a team of engineers who may well make a substantial push forward in the winter.

If you look at the top speeds of the cars, admittedly not always the best guide, McLaren are by far the slowest and yet are challenging to be in the top ten it must say something for their chassis.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Red Bull Lada?

 

[RasputinLives]

Ermmmm.....Peugeot?

 

[vintly]

Nissan

 

[RasputinLives]

Aston Martin