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.
 
I'm talking about the way Verstappen forced Kimi off at Suzuka last year .. really not on

I think a lot of people were questioning after 6 races last year if Verstappen was the real deal or seriously overhyped

He's a bit of both, it depends which Max you get in the car. Some races he seems to be more settled and a great little driver, other races I wonder what the hell he's doing.
 
He’s young, inexperienced and overhyped. He could become a great driver he’s ruthless enough, but I think it will depend on the guiding hands that he gets.
 
Titch the ruthlessness is not the issue as he has pretty much stuck two fingers every time the team asks him to move over to help his teammate

I agree he could become a great driver if he is rightly nurtured and has the right people backing him. He's got Adrian Newey designing the car which is the main plus point. The testing point will be when Honda let him down or when Gasly is too quick for comfort
 
I actually think having Gasly as a team mate instead of Ricciardo will give Max space to breath and develop into the driver we know he could be. This year the focus will be on winning as a whole rather than a desperate clamour to out do his team mate.

Unless Gasly really surprises me. I see a good driver through his junior career not a great one but sometimes drivers step up when they reach the summit.
 
I think with Max, if the Honda engine doesn't deliver he's going to be angry Max, like he was when the Renault engine let him down. That is when he starts to drive in a less than good way I would imagine. At first I put that kind of thing down to youth, but he's been in F1 long enough now to have settled down some, apparently it's taking him a while to do that. Then again his father is known for his angry outbursts both on and off track, you have to assume the apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess.
 
Let's not tar him with the brush of his father just yet. Jos has been charged with threatening text messages, intimidation and various assault charges through his life (and got away with a lot more including apparent acts of violence against his wife and girlfriends). Max has shown nothing like that in his life so far. From what I read he takes more after his mother anyway who in herself was a superb karter.

You don't see much of his mum on race days - but then I'd you read about the court case in 2008 you'll understand why she is staying away from Verstappen snr.
 
Max did take rivals out of the race more than once. Max screw up rival's race pushing them off the track more than once, and make them finish out of position. Max was very vocal and felt free to insult his peers in public view for all to see. Max did not shy from profanities during a race when he felt being wronged. Max, with all his youth exuberance was willing in pits to physically attack his peer.

All in all he is most likely not exactly a shy fellow, and I think short break over winter and couple of hours of public service which resembled more of celebration of his excess energy, than punishment which was the original intent, will make any difference what to expect ahead in new season.

Maybe his girlfriend has to work more on him (I mean exert her calming influence, of course). :)
 
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Let's not tar him with the brush of his father just yet. Jos has been charged with threatening text messages, intimidation and various assault charges through his life (and got away with a lot more including apparent acts of violence against his wife and girlfriends). Max has shown nothing like that in his life so far. From what I read he takes more after his mother anyway who in herself was a superb karter.

You don't see much of his mum on race days - but then I'd you read about the court case in 2008 you'll understand why she is staying away from Verstappen snr.


True, and maybe I am being a little unfair however he's already been caught shoving a fellow driver, that doesn't strike me as someone who is all that calm. Hopefully he's learnt from that and will behave much better in the future, who knows? I actually hope he does. The signs though are he gets angry quite quickly and he doesn't know the meaning of compromise, that's not exactly promising for his future behaviour and he doesn't care about breaking the rules when it suits him to. It does remind me of his father in some ways. So I don't think I'm being overly unfair to him, not that you said I was being.
 
I read a story recently that during a karting race Max made an error and spun costing him a certain win. He managed to charge back through and get a good result and was quite pleased with him. Jos though was angry about it and when Max started smiling after the race he punched him in the stomach. I really hope the story is exaggerated and that it wasn't an actual punch - as the source seems to be an interview with Jos himself it's seems likely that it did happen.
 
If that’s directed at me RasputinLives, of course not, who the hell would think that??

Edit: RasputinLives I've only just noticed your message referring to Jos after the message from Angel. That sorta explains your subsequent message asking if the physical abuse of women and minors is entertaining. I missed your first message completely.

Anyway, to elaborate, not that I feel I should, but perhaps because I've only just noticed that I missed your message and that my message was lazily written – my 'dull drivers' reference was of course referring to Max. My point being, as I've mentioned on more than one occasion already and no doubt will do so again, is partly that a bunch of PC-correct, nice-guy drivers would make for a thoroughly boring grid. If everyone was like Button, or god forbid Massa, the sport would lose a large percentage of its fanbase. It was also partly to say who are we to determine what behaviour is 'the right behaviour' and whether someone knows the meaning of compromise? We see selected snippets of personality from strangers who are in heightened states of emotion after being in a race situation that we cannot even imagine. Or in press engagement situations where they're often pummelled into a response that can be made bigger in a headline. So passing judgement on them is rash, I think. I'm continually baffled by those who would rather that the celebs or sportspeople they indulge in would behave in a more boring manner. If someone really crosses the line they'll be dealt with accordingly – if they live around that line they're at least providing interest, whether you would have them round for tea or not.
 
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A perfect example was Interlagos last year when Verstappen thought he owned the whole track and was remonstrating with Hamilton about Ocon hitting him. The response Hamilton made and Verstappen's reaction after the race was a lesson in maturity/ immaturity as Max was left speechless.
 
A perfect example was Interlagos last year when Verstappen thought he owned the whole track and was remonstrating with Hamilton about Ocon hitting him. The response Hamilton made and Verstappen's reaction after the race was a lesson in maturity/ immaturity as Max was left speechless.

Exactly, a perfect example of Verstappen providing great interest.
 
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