Red Bull Racing - Four time Formula 1 Constructors' championship winner
Red Bull Racing is a relatively young Formula 1 team owned by Austrian energy drinks company Red Bull. The team was founded in 2005 and entered the competition after purchasing Jaguar F1 team. Red Bull Racing’s headquarter is based in Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom.
From 2013 until the end of the 2015 season, the team competed as Infiniti Red Bull Racing after the name of the title sponsor. That partnership ended after 2015 Formula 1 season and in 2016, the team will compete under the name of Red Bull Racing Formula One Team.
First F1 years weren’t easy
The success that the team achieved in Formula 1 was swift. Red Bull Racing won four consecutive Constructors’ titles in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and Sebastian Vettel was the Drivers’ Champion in the same years.
Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and David Coulthard
However, the first years in Formula 1 were not so easy for Red Bull. In the debut season team took seventh place, just like in 2006 when David Coulthard won the first podium for the team. With the arrival of Adrian Newey in the place of a technical director in 2007, Red Bull started to make a progress. Along with experienced Coulthard, Australian Mark Webber was chosen to drive the second car. The team finished the season in fifth place, but the next year, with the same pair of drivers, the team took seventh place in the Constructors’ championship, just like in the first two seasons.
Vettel’s arrival meant the beginning of the new era in racing
The real progress of the Red Bull team began in 2009 when Sebastian Vettel was paired to drive with Webber. At the Chinese GP Vettel took the first pole position for Red Bull team and next day he clinched a maiden victory for Red Bull while Webber finished second. By the end of the season, Red Bull was the fastest in five more races and finished as a runner-up in the Constructors’ championship. Vettel was also a runner-up that year which was the overture of major successes.
Red Bull Racing RB5 from 2009
The years of pure joy for Red Bull
In a very exciting season of 2010, Vettel and Red Bull won their first Championships, while Webber was third in the Drivers’ championship. Domination of the team continued in the next three years, breaking several Formula 1 records. From 2011 to 2013 Red Bull recorded a total of 32 victories and 29 of them were Vettel’s. His performances were impressive in 2011 when he won as many as 11 races, and in the finish of the following season, he had nine consecutive victories.
Sebastian Vettel four-time champion with Red Bull
Developing talented drivers
But, the decline was inevitable in 2014. Daniel Ricciardo joined Red Bull as a substitute of his compatriot Mark Webber and achieved better results than the reigning champion Vettel. The Australian won three races while Vettel’s best result was just one second place. Nevertheless, Red Bull won the second place in the Constructors’ championship, but far behind the Mercedes. At the end of the season, Vettel left the team and joined Ferrari, so in the 2015 Formula 1 season, Ricciardo’s team-mate became a Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat, one of the outgrowths of the Red Bull Junior Team, a project in which Red Bull sponsors promising young drivers. Some of the drivers who received this backing were Enrique Bernoldi, Christian Klien, Patrick Friesacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed.
Video: Red Bull Racing story 2005 – 2012
New era without Vettel
The season of 2015 was marked mainly by the conflict with the team’s engine supplier Renault. The results were far below the expectations, and Red Bull only managed to take fourth place in the Constructors’ championship while the best result of its drivers was achieved in Hungary where Kvyat was second and Ricciardo third. Same drivers line-up will stay for the 2016 and the team is hoping for better results.
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