Red Bull Racing

Red Bull is one of the loyalist sponsors of motor racing over the past decade. Since the drink’s creation and huge success, the business has entered new areas of interest, most notably, perhaps, in motorsport. Throughout the lower level ranks of single seater racing, the famous logo has been prominent on lots of different cars, helping the stars of tomorrow, including a certain Sebastian Vettel, up the dizzying ranks of the sport.

It’s only recently though, that the bull has started flexing its muscles, seeing the red, tasting the champagne and feeling the glory. 12 poles out of 14 races is a great record for the team this year, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Red Bull has been a front runner in Formula One, the pinnacle of motorsport, all its life. In fact, that’s very far from the truth.

Red Bull began their Formula One career as nothing more than a title sponsor, for Swiss team, Sauber. They were the team’s main sponsor for an impressive nine years, and rumours had it that one day the extremely wealthy Dietrich Mateschitz would eventually but the team out right. But, they were beaten to that by German car manufacturer BMW. Many thought that this would be the end of Red Bull being adorned on the side of Formula One racing cars.

Formula One Red Bull Racing Team

Far from it. In September 2004, Ford announced that it was selling perennially mid fielders, Jaguar, announcing that they no longer thought that Formula One suited any of their brands they own. It was only a month and a half later that Red Bull had announced they were taking over the Milton-Keynes based outfit. But, due to the re-structuring process the team had to go through, they had little input on the already well designed next year’s car and were essentially stuck with a Jaguar car in Red Bull colours.

The team enlisted out-of-contract David Coulthard to help them along in their debut year, whilst the second car was shared between ex Jaguar driver Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi. You’d imagine that in their first year, with no experience of operating as a race team, they’d struggle. Again, far from it. The team proved a revelation, scoring more points in that one season than Jaguar had managed to score in the previous two seasons. By the end of the season, they’d finished 6th in the constructor’s championship, a massive achievement. Many tipped Red Bull to do even better in 2006.

2006 was nowhere near as good as 2005, unfortunately, as, as David Coulthard reports, the car struggled with a “fundamental design fault”. That was a cooling issue that plague the team, even in the year’s coolest races. Hence, reliability proved to be a big issue for the team, but the highlight of the year came at the jewel in the Formula One calendar, Monaco.

Already though, as well as the unreliability trait Red Bull had become famous for, they’d become famous for a better, more positive trait. The fun factor. In this highly competitive sport, Red Bull proved to be a breath of fresh air, never failing to laugh at even their own misfortune sometimes. At Monaco in 2005, the team helped promote the new Star Wars film, and enlisted the help of a number of Stormtroopers and Darth Vader during the weekend. They follow that up at the same event in 2006, where this time they promoted the new Superman film, painting a red cape on both cars.
It must have been a good omen. For at his “home” race, Coulthard managed to get the RB2 onto the third step of the podium, adorned in a Superman cape. It came at a cost for team principle, Christian Horner though, as before the race he had promised to jump into the Red Bull pool on top of their motor home, naked if Coulthard managed to get onto the podium.

The rest of the year passed by without too many stand out performances and they finished 7th in the constructor’s championship, a spot down on where they finished the previous season.

The car was generally more competitive in 2007, but once again plagued by reliability issues, which forced new driver, Mark Webber to announce that it was “a good job” that Red Bull didn’t make aeroplanes. Coulthard and Webber both put in some great performances when their car allowed for it though, especially in wet conditions. Webber and Coulthard finished 3rd and 5th at a highly chaotic European Grand Prix that year, whilst later in the season Webber came very close to taking his and Red Bull’s first victory in the soaking wet of Fuji, until he was crashed into the back of by Sebastian Vettel under one of numerous safety car conditions. It was cruelly ironic for two reasons. One, that Vettel drove for Red Bull’s junior F1 team, Toro Rosso, and two that they’d eventually become team mates two seasons later. Despite the various issues though, Red Bull finished higher up in the constructor’s standings than they had previously, placing 5th.

2008 again proved to be a trying year for the combination. After a slow start to the season, Red Bull scored yet another podium, courtesy of David Coulthard, taking third place in the Canadian Grand Prix, a race that once again, proved to be very chaotic. However, disappointments followed for the rest of the season, as they suffered the embarrassment of Toro Rosso not only outscoring them in the constructor’s title, but also taking the first “Red Bull” through Sebastian Vettel at the wet Italian Grand Prix. It was a result that would see him promoted to the big team once stalwart, David Coultard, announced his retirement. It was a disappointing last race for Coulthard, who ended up being taken out at the first turn of the Brazilian Grand Prix, his race over in just a few hundred metres.

2009 was the year you could argue Red Bull came of age, although they did miss a trick at the start of the year by not implementing a double diffuser, an item title rival’s Brawn were using to devastating effect through the first part of the year. They were the only team to end Brawn’s early season domination, as the team took a memorable one-two, with Vettel leading Webber home in the Chinese Grand Prix. It was doubly memorable for the fact that the wrong national anthem was played for the constructor’s theme. It seemed the FIA had forgotten that this team was indeed Austrian, despite being based in Milton Keynes. More wins would come in Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi as the team came achingly close to taking both titles, as they ended up 2nd in the constructor’s championship and 2nd and 4th with Vettel and Webber respectively in the driver’s title.

2010 has been an even better year for who, at some races, have been completely dominant by margins not seen in Grand Prix racing for many years. It hasn’t been without its fair share of animosity though. Wins were robbed from Sebastian Vettel in Bahrain and Australia through reliability issues, whilst the team mates clashing in Turkey, Mark Webber’s massive crash in the European Grand Prix and the front wing row at Silverstone won’t be forgotten for a long time. Many see that Red Bull are desperately close from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, that both titles should have easily been clinched by now in what is widely regarded as the best all round package. However, don’t forget the success the team has enjoyed so far this year. 12 poles from 14 races, 4 wins for Webber, including a memorable win at Monaco, 2 wins for Vettel. They lead the constructor’s title and driver’s titles currently, and looking ahead, the tracks should suit Red Bull’s car.

This is the best chance potentially in a long time Red Bull will get to win both titles. Nothing but success will do this time around. The cracks and strains of this still new team are beginning to show, as they are now in unfamiliar territory, but the way they have kept up with the giants of Ferrari and McLaren has been magnificent.

No pressure on winning the titles then?