Red Bull Racing



Infiniti Red Bull Racing is a Formula One racing team based in Milton Keynes, England which currently holds an Austrian licence. It is, along with Scuderia Toro Rosso, one of two teams owned by beverage company Red Bull GmbH. The team has won three Constructors' Championship titles, in, , and , becoming the first Austrian licensed team to win the title. The team also produced the triple world champion driver of 2010, 2011, and 2012, Sebastian Vettel. The team is managed by Christian Horner, boss of the Arden International GP2 Series team. The team has used Renault engines since 2007, and has a contract to do so until 2016. In November 2012, it was announced that Infiniti would become the team's title sponsor from the season onwards, with the team to be known as Infiniti Red Bull Racing.
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Origins
The current Red Bull team can trace its origins back to the Stewart Grand Prix outfit that made its debut in. Jackie Stewart sold his team to the Ford Motor Company late in 1999, and Ford made the decision to rebrand the team Jaguar Racing, with little subsequent success over the next five years.



The Jaguar Racing Formula One constructor and racing team was put up for sale in September 2004 when its owner, the Ford Motor Company, decided it could "no longer make a compelling business case for any of its brands to compete in F1." Red Bull, an energy drinks company, agreed its purchase of Jaguar Racing on the final day of the sale, 15 November 2004. BBC Sport reported that Ford asked bidders for a symbolic US$1 in return for a commitment to invest US$400 million in the team over three grand prix seasons. The team continued to have access to the Cosworth engine developed for their 2005 chassis, and the operation continued under the new title. Christian Horner was installed as the new Team boss and lined up David Coulthard and Christian Klien to drive for the team.

Red Bull Racing was not the start of Red Bull's involvement in open-wheel racing. Setting up a Formula One team of its own meant that Red Bull had to end its long-term partnership with the Sauber Formula One team. The drinks company also runs a young drivers programme, Red Bull Junior Team, whereby Red Bull sponsors promising young drivers. High-profile drivers who have received this backing include Enrique Bernoldi, Christian Klien, Patrick Friesacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed. Red Bull also sponsors many drivers and teams competing in the GP2 Series, Formula One's "feeder" series.

2005 season


Red Bull's owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, reportedly tried to recruit former Formula One driver and BMW Motorsport chief (and fellow Austrian) Gerhard Berger to help guide the team through its debut season. However, this was never realised. For 2005, the chassis was christened the RB1. Red Bull Racing used Cosworth engines in its maiden year due to the ease of continuing with the engine Jaguar Racing used.

Former McLaren driver David Coulthard led the team. Coulthard was chosen for his experience, considered ideal to help lead the fledgling team. For the second car, Red Bull shared the drive between two of its young sponsored drivers: Christian Klien, who had driven for Jaguar in 2004 and 2004 F3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi. At first it was announced that Klien and Liuzzi would swap driving duty every four races, but by the end of the season Liuzzi had appeared only four times.

Red Bull's first year in Formula One was a massive success compared to their predecessors, Jaguar Racing. They were 6th in the Constructors Championship for most of the season, only beaten by the fast-improving BAR Hondas at the end of the season. In a single season they amassed more points than Jaguar had in 2003 and 2004. Coulthard, after a poor 2003 and 2004 with McLaren, was a revelation for the team while Klien showed that he had vastly improved from 2004. Overall they scored 34 points; 24 for Coulthard, 9 for Klien and 1 for Liuzzi. Red Bull was a consistent points and occasional podium challenger for most of their debut season.

American driver Scott Speed, who rose through the ranks in the American equivalent of Red Bull Junior Team, Red Bull Driver Search, was Red Bull Racing's third driver in 2005 for the Canadian and US Grands Prix. Speed was attractive to Red Bull because of his American nationality, which would raise the profile of both Red Bull and Formula One in America, a market where the sport has traditionally struggled to make an impact.

2006 season
On 23 April 2005, the team announced a deal to use Ferrari engines in 2006. This coincided with a rule change mandating the use of V8 engines, making it likely that both Red Bull Racing and Ferrari would use the same specification engine. Red Bull Racing continued to use Michelin tyres, rather than the Bridgestones used by Ferrari.



On 8 November 2005, Red Bull Racing poached Adrian Newey, the highly successful McLaren technical director.

On 15 December 2005, the team's second car, the Red Bull RB2, hit the track for the first time. David Coulthard completed a handful of laps of the Silverstone circuit in England, and declared the new car was a "sexy looking thing". In early testing Red Bull was plagued with cooling problems and overheating of car components.

At the opening race of the 2006 season in Bahrain, Christian Klien qualified eighth (ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault and both BMWs). Coulthard had problems when he flat spotted a tyre fighting with Nick Heidfeld, and finished 10th; the cooling problems returned when his Ferrari engine expired on the slowing down lap, forcing a grid penalty for the following race. In Malaysia, Coulthard made up several places from back of the grid but was forced to retire with hydraulic problems, while Klien had an opening lap incident with Kimi Räikkönen and after pitting for repairs also retired with hydraulic failure. Coulthard got a point in Australia after Scott Speed was penalised for passing him under the yellow flags. The following races were marred with retirements and lowly finishes.

Coulthard finished 3rd at Monaco, the team's first podium finish. Team boss Christian Horner said before the race that if one of his cars were to finish on the podium, he would jump in to a swimming pool at the track naked. He ended up jumping into the pool wearing only a red cape. Coincidentally both Stewart Grand Prix and Jaguar Racing, the team's predecessors, also scored their maiden podiums at that race.



Coulthard scored a point at Montreal, passing Jenson Button in the closing stages of the race despite starting in last place due to an engine change that warranted a grid penalty. Klien also fared well, driving the second RB2 to 11th position. At the US Grand Prix Klien retired along with eight other cars including Toro Rosso driver Scott Speed on the first lap after a series of first corner incidents. Coulthard finished 7th.

The team finished 7th in the FIA Constructors Championship, with 16 points, five points ahead of the struggling Williams team. David Coulthard (14pts) finished in 13th place in the drivers' standings, the departed Klien (2pts) classified in 18th position. Klien's replacement, Robert Doornbos, failed to score any points.

2007 season
2007 saw the debut of the Adrian Newey designed RB3. After lengthy discussions over Red Bull Racing's obligation to continue to use Ferrari engines for 2007, the team announced on 31 August 2006 they would use Renault engines for the 2007 season, the Ferrari contract being passed to Scuderia Toro Rosso.

The team announced on 7 August 2006 that it had signed Mark Webber to drive alongside David Coulthard for the 2007 season, replacing Christian Klien who ended his association with the team. Klien was replaced by Robert Doornbos for the last three races of 2006. Doornbos became the team's non-racing third driver for 2007.

Despite qualifying in 7th place for his home race in Melbourne, Mark Webber finished down in 13th due to a persistent problem with a fuel flap that closed as the pit mechanics went to put the fuel in and when it was opened it remained open until the next pit stop greatly increasing drag and decreasing airflow over the rear wing. It was worse for David Coulthard however, who crashed heavily with Williams's Alexander Wurz in the late stages of the race. Malaysia was more of the same for Webber, while Coulthard retired with brake problems. However in Bahrain the team showed improving pace and Coulthard and Webber were running 7th (with Coulthard starting from the back) and 8th respectively before reliability problems put both out of the race in quick succession. However in testing at Barcelona Coulthard has set the fastest lap in the new configuration of the circuit (since superseded by Felipe Massa). Coulthard secured the team's first points by scoring a gritty 5th with a faulty gearbox on his closing laps in Spain, while Webber was dogged with hydraulic problems all weekend, eventually retiring from the race after failing to set a competitive lap in qualifying. The performance hike the team experienced at the Catalonian track left both drivers and team optimistic about their future results, with reliability troubles being as much a focus as the increase of their already competitive pace.

Red Bull Racing further strengthened their technical department by hiring Geoff Willis as Technical Director on 17 July 2007.

After this, the drivers seemed to have a stroke of good luck during the unpredictable and exciting 2007 European Grand Prix in which Webber finished 3rd, his second career podium. Coulthard backed it up with a strong 5th which was made all the more impressive by the fact he started 20th on the grid after the team mistakenly kept him in the pits too long resulting in him not being able to complete another qualifying lap.

Red Bull had a strong end to the season. Webber came close to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, but he was involved in a crash with Sebastian Vettel. During the same race, Coulthard again demonstrated his wet-weather ability and finished 4th.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull had a competitive qualifying session. Coulthard achieving 5th on the grid, along with Webber in 9th.

2008 season


Red Bull continued with the same drivers in 2008 and had numbers 9 and 10 on their cars after finishing 5th in the 2007 constructors championship. Red Bull presented the RB4 at the Jerez circuit on 16 January and announced that Sébastien Buemi would be their test and reserve driver for 2008 combining it with his GP2 drive with the Arden International GP2 team.

After Webber retired from the opening round he went on to score 5 consecutive points finishes. David Coulthard had a tougher start to the 2008 campaign due to poor qualifying, but a 3rd place at Canada gave Red Bull their first podium since the 2007 European Grand Prix. At the half-way mark, the team had notched up 24 points (the same as their total for the 2007 season) and were locked in a fierce battle with Toyota and Renault for 4th in the constructors championship. The team had also resolved the reliability problems that had dogged them the previous year.

However, as the season progressed, Red Bull failed to keep up with their competitors. Red Bull scored just 5 points in the last 10 races, and Toro Rosso (the Red Bull 'B team') had overhauled their total by the season's end and won the rain-affected Italian Grand Prix, becoming the first Red Bull-owned team to win a race. This fact led many to claim that the Renault engine powering the Red Bull was lacking in horsepower compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes engines. For the 2009 season, Renault were allowed to equalise the difference in engine power compared to their competitors after the single year freeze in engine development from 2007.

Webber notched up his 50th top ten grid position in 107 Grands Prix at the Spanish Grand Prix. Coulthard announced his retirement from F1 at the British Grand Prix and, despite hopes for a strong final home Grand Prix, was forced to retire on the first lap, which also occurred at his final grand prix in Brazil where he retired at the second corner.

2009: Rise and runner-up to Brawn GP
For 2009, Red Bull Racing launched their new RB5 chassis virtually on 8 February by means of a 3D computer generated video narrated by Sebastian Vettel. The physical launch of the car was held the next day. The team secured their first pole position at the with Sebastian Vettel, posting the fastest time with just a single qualifying lap in Q3. Mark Webber qualified in third on the grid. The next day, Vettel won, with Webber second. Vettel's victory, in rain-soaked conditions, marked Red Bull Racing's first-ever win (although the team's predecessor, Stewart GP, had won the 1999 European GP).

In the next race at Bahrain after qualifying 3rd, Vettel finished second behind Jenson Button and collected another eight world championship points. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Webber and Vettel finished third and fourth respectively, after having qualified fifth and second. In Turkey, Webber and Vettel finished second and third respectively. At the the car had new upgrades and Sebastian Vettel won after qualifying on pole position, ending championship leader Jenson Button's run of four straight wins. The team scored another 1–2 at the with Mark Webber (who scored his first win despite being given a drive-through penalty earlier on) leading home Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber also took his second Formula One victory at the. Another 1–2 finish for the team was achieved at the season-ending, this time with Vettel finishing ahead of Webber.

Vettel finished second in the Drivers' Championship with 84 points, 11 behind Jenson Button. Mark Webber finished fourth with 69.5 points. The team also finished second in the Constructors' Championship with 153.5 points, 18.5 points behind Brawn GP.

2010: The championship year
For the 2010 season, the team retained both Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, with Renault remaining the engine supplier. The RB6 chassis proved to be the best handling car on the grid, as it did and continued to do in 2009 and 2011 respectively, having a noticeable advantage over that of McLaren and Ferrari.

At the opening round, the, Vettel took pole position while Webber qualified sixth. Vettel led the race until he slowed due to his spark-plug failure, while the two Ferraris and Lewis Hamilton overtook Vettel. Vettel finished fourth, and Webber finished eighth.

In Australia, Vettel again took pole, with Webber in second position. Vettel led the race and again looked set to take the race, but he reported a vibration of one of the front wheels on his car. The problem seemed to subside, and the decision was made to keep him on the track rather than pit him. A few corners later, the problem struck again, and Vettel ran off the track and subsequently retired, due to brake failure. Webber got wheelspin off the line, and gave up one position on the run to the first right-handed corner. Subsequent errors led to him dropping a few more places, and near the end of the race he crashed with Hamilton, destroying his front wing. He pitted to get a new one, and finished ninth, scoring two points.

In Malaysia, Webber took pole with Vettel in third position. Vettel managed to pass both Nico Rosberg and Webber before the first corner, leading for all bar two laps en route to his and the team's first victory of the year. Webber led the other two laps and eventually finished second, with the team moving up into third in the constructors championship.

The team once again scored pole position at in China, when Vettel managed to set a faster time than Webber, who completed the front row. Webber overtook Vettel at the start, but both were overtaken by Fernando Alonso, who was later given a penalty for a false start. The race was then hit by rain and Jenson Button made the best strategy call and won the race, Vettel finished sixth whilst Webber was eighth. This left Vettel and Webber fifth and seventh in the drivers' championship respectively, and the team in third in the constructors' championship.

At the the two drivers were the other way around, with Webber on pole position and Vettel second on the grid. Webber won the race without too much trouble. Vettel, however, suffered brake problems and dropped to fourth – this became third when Hamilton had a puncture and crashed from second on the penultimate lap.

Webber took pole position again at the ; Vettel qualified third behind Renault's Robert Kubica, but overtook him at the start. Webber won the race and Vettel finished in second place. After the race, Webber was leading the championship after being in seventh after China, with Vettel in second place (this was only by countback though because both drivers were on 78 points). The team was leading the constructors' championship.

At the, Webber again took pole position, taking the team's run of pole positions to seven consecutive races, with Vettel third on the grid. Following the pit stops, Webber and Vettel were running first and second until lap 40, when Vettel attempted to overtake Webber, leading to a collision between the two. Webber finished third, while Vettel was forced to retire. Neither driver took 100% of responsibility while senior members of the team alluded to the thought that Webber had not provided "enough room" for Vettel, although media sources have claimed that Vettel turned into Webber to get a better run at the apex.

In Canada, Hamilton took pole position – the first non-Red Bull pole of the year. Webber and Vettel were second and third respectively in qualifying before the pair finished fourth and fifth in the race. The team admitted that it was a track that the car struggled with.

At the in Valencia, Spain, Vettel won from pole position, leading every lap of the race. Webber collided with the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen, flipping his Red Bull car into a somersault before landing and crashing into a tyre barrier.

At the at Silverstone, Vettel took pole position but after a bad start he got a puncture and subsequently dropped to the back of the field, eventually finishing seventh. Webber, who started from second, won the race after leading for the entire race.

Vettel qualified in pole position in front of the two Ferraris in Germany, but finished his home race behind the pair in third place. Webber qualified in fourth, but finished in sixth behind both the McLaren cars. During the race Felipe Massa controversially let Fernando Alonso past into the lead to win the race after a message from the team. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: "That was the most blatant team order ever". He also criticised Ferrari for not letting their drivers race each other. Proof that Red Bull, his team, did was shown in the Turkish Grand Prix earlier in 2010 when a lack of team orders culminated in a crash.

At the in Budapest, Vettel again took pole position and was leading until the safety car came out. He was second behind Webber, who started second, and was then given a drive through penalty for exceeding the ten car maximum distance between himself and the safety car. This cost him second place and he finished third. Webber won the race after using his super-soft tyres for over half the race to build up a lead to keep him ahead after his stop. Webber won with Fernando Alonso ten seconds behind in second place.

The saw Webber claim pole position, despite McLaren and Ferrari having a straight-line speed advantage. At the start, the anti-stall device on Webber's car came on, dropping the Australian to 5th. Vettel meanwhile in 3rd (after starting 4th) was chasing Jenson Button for 2nd place when he collided with the Brit at the Bus Stop. After sensing an inside passing opportunity, Vettel attempted to quickly change direction while under braking, causing the car to spear into the side of Button's McLaren. Button retired from the race, while Vettel was able to pit for repairs. He subsequently received a drive-through penalty for his action, and suffered a rear tyre puncture while attempting to overtake Vitantonio Liuzzi, finishing 15th. Webber was able to capitalise on the DNF of Button and Alonso, as well as a mistake by Renault's Robert Kubica during his pit stop, and finish 2nd, behind race winner Hamilton.

At the in Monza, Webber had a bad start and was 9th from 4th place on the grid after the first lap. Vettel had brake binding problems for a short period, around lap 20, and he too dropped back a place but was then back on the pace. Webber was held back by Nico Hülkenberg in the latter part of the race, until he passed, and finished 6th. Vettel stayed out on soft tyres until the penultimate lap, doing better lap times than Webber and overtaking Mark when he pitted, to finish fourth.

At the in Yeongam, Vettel gave the team its 19th pole position, while Webber started second, making it a Red Bull front row. On lap 18, Webber spun and hit the wall, and hit the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, causing both drivers to retire. Worse was to come for the team when Vettel's engine failed just 10 laps from the finish, while he was in the lead, and the German retired and handed his lead to Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. Red Bull had suffered their first double retirement since the 2008 Australian Grand Prix and as a result, Webber lost his championship lead and Vettel's engine failure prevented him from leading the championship for the first time in 2010, but the team still led the Constructors' Championship.

At the in São Paulo, Red Bull Racing became Constructors Champions for the first time after Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber finished 1–2 in the race, enough to finish ahead of McLaren and Ferrari. In doing so Red Bull became the first Austrian team to win the Formula One constructors championship. Team boss Christian Horner stated that the main goal had been achieved and that now his remaining aim was to win the drivers championship and put the icing on the cake of Red Bull's year. In some other teams the drivers would have been told to change positions, with the purpose of improving better placed Mark Webber's chances to win the driver's title in the last race, but the team insisted that the faster driver should win the race, and kept being reluctant to give any orders of the kind "let your teammate pass" to their drivers.

In the final race at Abu Dhabi, Sebastian Vettel won the race and the Formula 1 Drivers Championship. Red Bull finished the year with a total of 9 Grand Prix victories with five going to Sebastian Vettel and four going to Mark Webber. Red Bull claimed a total of 15 pole positions with 10 going to Vettel and five going to Webber. The team scored six fastest laps three scored by Vettel and three scored by Webber. Horner also praised the sportsmanship of both drivers stating that they conducted themselves in a well orderly and mannered fashion.

2011 season
Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were retained by the team for the 2011 Formula One season, as were engine supplier Renault. Vettel defended his world title – becoming the ninth driver to do so – after winning eleven of the season's races, and also achieved 15 pole positions during the season, breaking Nigel Mansell's record from the season. Webber finished the season in third place in the championship, taking one victory, in the final race of the season in Brazil. The team also defended their respective title, as they finished the season with 650 points in the Constructors' Championship, 153 points ahead of the next closest team, McLaren. Premium automotive brand Infiniti joined Red Bull Racing as an official partner for the 2011 and 2012 seasons which saw Infiniti logos appear on the race car, drivers overalls and team kit.

2012 season
For the 2012 season, Red Bull retained the duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber from the previous three years. Webber was signed on a one year contract extension while Vettel continued under his current multi-year agreement, ending at the end of 2014. Vettel won the Drivers Championship for a third consecutive time in 2012 making him the youngest triple World Champion, surpassing Ayrton Senna.

2013 season
For the 2013 season, Red Bull will continue with drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber for the fifth consecutive season. As with 2012, Webber was signed on a single year contract while Vettel continues to honour his current multi-year agreement. The team has also been renamed Infiniti Red Bull Racing following the announcement that premium automotive brand Infiniti has become Title Partner and Vehicle Performance Partner of the team.

Image and marketing
Red Bull had in previous years been very vocal about wanting to make F1 'fun' again. One way in which they went about doing that was by employing Mark Gallagher, who was head of marketing for nine years at Jordan, itself an exciting brand in the late 1990s. Red Bull also started The Red Bulletin, a satirical magazine that is released four times per race weekend and distributed to the paddock and to members of the public from behind the main grandstand at each track.

In the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, they supported the movie Superman Returns, which continues the line of marketing events begun by the Star Wars: Episode III promotion of 2005 (in the 2005 race, the pit crew dressed up as clone troopers) and the Ocean's Twelve promotion of 2004 when the team ran under the Jaguar Racing banner. When David Coulthard finished third in the 2006 race, he donned a Superman cape for his appearance on the podium.

However in recent years, as the team progressed, their sense of fun quickly changed into the most secretive and unfriendly team.

Scuderia Toro Rosso
In the autumn of 2005, Red Bull announced that they had purchased the Minardi Formula One team, and it would be known as Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Team Red Bull) from 2006 onwards. Scuderia Toro Rosso (STR) operates as a separate team, but the two share certain technical resources. In 2006 STR used a chassis based on the 2005 Red Bull Racing Red Bull RB1 chassis, originally designed by Jaguar Racing, and Minardi's contracted supply of rev-limited V10 Cosworth engines. It was widely speculated that the 2007 chassis for both teams would be essentially the same Adrian Newey design, although Red Bull were careful to announce that the "STR2 will be built by Red Bull Technologies, and Toro Rosso will fully own the intellectual rights of the car." Formula One teams are not allowed to use another team's chassis. STR has been used as a 'B' team for Red Bull Racing, allowing the company to work with more drivers. As of the 2010 season this arrangement was outlawed, and the STR5 is the first Toro Rosso car designed and built in-house.

In 2005, RBR driver Vitantonio Liuzzi was given a full time seat with Scuderia Toro Rosso alongside another Red Bull sponsored driver, Scott Speed. Liuzzi retained his seat in STR for the 2007 season. Sebastian Vettel replaced Speed in the middle of the 2007 season, and Sébastien Bourdais replaced Liuzzi at STR for the 2008 Formula One season. Against expectation, Toro Rosso performed well during the 2008 season and Sebastian Vettel won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. This meant that Toro Rosso actually took their first win before Red Bull Racing, and helped to secure Vettel a drive with Red Bull Racing for 2009, when he also took that team's first win.

Fictional racing car
The Red Bull X2010 '10 (originally named Red Bull X1) is a fictional prototype car featured in Gran Turismo 5. The prototype vehicle was made to answer Kazunori Yamauchi's question: "If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform, and how would it feel to drive?". The Prototype was designed by Adrian Newey and in conjunction with Kazunori Yamauchi. It features enclosed wheels, and a “fan element” to increase low and medium-speed downforce (much like a Chaparral 2J).

Complete Formula One results
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

† Half points awarded as less than 75% of race distance was completed. The beginning of the 2010 season saw the introduction of a new points system in F1.