Red Bull Racing

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**Red Bull**

Full name	Red Bull Racing
Base	Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Team principal	Christian Horner
Technical director	Mark Smith
Race drivers	14. David Coulthard 15. Mark Webber
Test drivers	37. Michael Ammermüller
Chassis	RB3
Engine	Renault V8
Tyres	Bridgestone
Debut	2005 Australian Grand Prix
Final race	{{{Final}}}
Races competed	36
Constructors' Championships	none
Drivers' Championships	none
Race victories	none
Pole positions	none
Fastest laps	none
2006 position	7th (16 points)

Formula One Portal

Red Bull Racing is one of two (along with Scuderia Toro Rosso) Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull. The team is managed by Christian Horner, boss of the Arden International GP2 Series team.

1 History
2 Debut Season - 2005
3 Second Season - 2006
4 Image and Marketing
5 Complete Formula One Results
6 External links

[edit] History

Red Bull, a large energy drinks company, purchased all assets of the defunct Jaguar Racing, when the team's parent company Ford announced their withdrawal from Formula One at the end of the 2004 season. The deal was announced on 15 November 2004, and the sale price was reputedly as high as $110 million (although some reports suggest Ford gave the team away for free in order to avoid costly obligations in the Concorde Agreement, which imposes fines on companies that fail to field two cars). The team continued to have access to the Cosworth engine developed for their 2005 chassis, and the operation continued under the new title.

Red Bull Racing was not the start of Red Bull's involvement in motorsport. 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.

Red Bull Racing is now seen as politically close to Ferrari (much like Sauber used to be). It was one of only four teams (the others being Ferrari, Midland F1 and WilliamsF1) to have signed the Concorde Agreement starting in 2008, guaranteeing its long-term involvement in Formula One. However, more recently further teams have submitted entries securing the future of Formula One.

[edit] Debut Season - 2005

Klien Machine: Red Bull's Christian Klien in qualifying at the 2005 United States Grand Prix

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. 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 would naturally select a driver from its own driver programme. But there was a problem — which one? Christian Klien already had his foot in the door, as he drove for Jaguar in 2004. But Red Bull wanted to promote its other drivers as well, so Klien had to share his car with 2004 F3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi. At first it was announced that Klien and Liuzzi would swap about every few races, but in reality Klien was given far more time in the car than Liuzzi. In line with this trend, Red Bull announced in the off-season that Klien would retain the second race seat for 2006, while Liuzzi will drive for Scuderia Toro Rosso(see below)

Red Bull's first year in Formula 1 was a massive success compared to their predecessors Jaguar Racing. They were 6th in the Constructors Championship for most of the time, only beaten by the fast-improving BAR Honda's at the end of the season. In a single season they amassed more points than Jaguar did in 2003 and 2004. Coulthard, after a poor 2003 and 2004 with McLaren proved to be a revelation for the team while Klien showed that he has vastly improved from 2004. In all they collected 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.

Another driver that Red Bull wants to promote is the aptly-named Scott Speed, who rose through the ranks in the American equivalent of Red Bull Junior Team, Red Bull Driver Search. The promising American driver has impressed onlookers with his performances in GP2 (although he is yet to win a race). Speed is also attractive to Red Bull because he is an American, which could increase the profile of both Red Bull and Formula One in America, a market where the sport has struggled to make an impact. Speed was Red Bull Racing's third driver in 2005 for the Canadian and United States Grand Prix, and has also been confirmed as Liuzzi's partner at Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006.

[edit] Second Season - 2006

On 23 April 2005, the team announced a deal to use Ferrari engines in 2006. This coincides with a rule change mandating the use of V8 engines, making it likely that both Red Bull Racing and Ferrari will be using the same specification engine. Red Bull Racing will continue to use Michelin tyres.

In the autumn of 2005, Red Bull announced that they had purchased the Minardi Formula One team, and it shall be known as Scuderia Toro Rosso (Italian for Team Red Bull) from 2006 onwards. Scuderia Toro Rosso will operate as a separate team, using a chassis based upon last year's Red Bull Racing RB1 Chassis, limited V10 Cosworth engine and Michelin Tyres. The team is expected to be used as a 'B' team, so that Red Bull is able to work with and develop more drivers than is possible for Red Bull Racing alone.

Arguably Red Bull Racing's most significant move since the team's inception was the November 8, 2005 poaching of highly successful technical director Adrian Newey from McLaren.

Coulthard testing the RB2 at Silverstone.

On December 15, 2005 the team's second car, the Red Bull Racing 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 thing." In early testing Red Bull was plagued with cooling problems and overheating of car components, but it has appeared on recent tests that those problems have been done away with.

At the opening race of the 2006 season in Bahrain the team returned with a strong showing. Unlike 2005, it was Christian Klien who outshone Coulthard. Qualifying an impressive eighth (ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault and both BMWs), he ran seventh for much of the race but was passed in the closing stages by Nico Rosberg. 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 an impressive start from the back of the grid but was forced to retire with hydraulic problems, while Klien had an opening lap incident with Kimi Raikkonen, forcing both of them to retire.Coulthard got a point in the Australian Grand Prix after Scott Speed was penalised for passing him under the yellow flags.The following races were marred with retirements and lowly finishes.

Monaco proved to be a much better race for the team as Coulthard scored a brilliant 3rd place, driving a thematic 'Superman Movie' livery, (the teams' key sponsor to that grand prix weekend). Coulthard amusingly also donned a Superman cape on the post-race podium celebration. 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. Christian ended up jumping into the pool wearing only a red cape. This was the first podium for Red Bull Racing. An interesting aside to this result was that occurred at the same track, that both Stewart Grand Prix and Jaguar, the teams two predecessors had score their maiden podiums.

Robert Doornbos replaced Klien for the last three races of the 2006 season.

The British Grand Prix was a disappointing one for David Coulthard. At his home race he qualified 14th, and only managed to improve on his grid position by two places, finishing 12th. Christian Klien similarily qualified 15th, but struggled for race pace, finishing 14th.

Montreal provided a championship point for the team courtesy of Coulthard, who passed fellow Brit Jenson Button in the closing stages of the race. Klien also fared well, driving the second RB2 to 11th position.

U.S Grand Prix was held on 2nd July 2006. All of the drivers and teams were willing to put the fiasco of 2005 (where the six Bridgestone runners were the only cars to start the race after Michelin tyres were deemed unsafe) behind them. There were mixed emotions in the Red Bull garage - Klien was eliminated from the running along with eight other cars including both McLarens, and Torro Rosso driver Scott Speed (running at his home Grand Prix) on lap 1 in a series of first corner incidents that saw Nick Heidfeld's BMW-Sauber spectacularly roll over three times!

Coulthard was able to achieve 7th place, and Vitantonio Liuzzi passed Williams driver Nico Rosberg in the closing stages to finish eighth, picking up Scuderia Toro Rosso's first championship point of the season.

The team finished 7th in the FIA Constructors Championship, on 16 points, five points ahead of the Williams team. David Coulthard (13pts) 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. [1]

2007 should be a large step up for the team. Adrian Newey is amongst the ranks, and is designing the RB3. It will likely be a more competitive car, although Newey's recent McLaren designs have fallen short of the competition. Newey was pushing for the team to use Renault engines for 2007, although it was thought that due to contract obligations they would stay with the Ferrari until 2008. However, the team announced on 31 August 2006 that Red Bull Racing would indeed be running with Renault engines for the 2007 season [2], the Ferrari contract being passed to Scuderia Toro Rosso.

The team announced on August 7th 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. He was replaced by Robert Doornbos for the last three races of 2006.[3].

[edit] Image and Marketing

A distinctive RBR helmet-shaped stand.

Red Bull have 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 at Jordan for nine years[4]. Jordan were once considered to be an exciting brand, although in recent years they had fallen behind on that front. 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 innovations, after the "Star Wars: Episode III" frenzy of 2005, and predecessors Jaguar Racing's sponsorship of "Ocean's Twelve" in 2004, when Steinmetz diamonds were placed in the new specially-designed nosecones of both cars (predictably, Klien lost his nosecone, and the diamond disappeared). When Coulthard finished third in the race, he donned a Superman cape for his appearance on the podium.

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Points	WCC
2005	Red Bull RB1	Cosworth V10	M		AUS	MAL	BAH	SAN	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	BRA	JPN	CHN	34	7th
				David Coulthard	4	6	8	11	8	Ret	4	7	DNS	10	13	7	Ret	7	15	Ret	Ret	6	9
				Christian Klien	7	8	Ret					8	DNS	Ret	15	9	Ret	8	13	9	9	9	5
				Vitantonio Liuzzi				8	Ret	Ret	9
2006	Red Bull RB2	Ferrari V8	M		BAH	MAL	AUS	SAN	EUR	ESP	MON	GBR	CAN	USA	FRA	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	CHN	JPN	BRA		16	7th
				David Coulthard	10	Ret	8	Ret	Ret	14	3	12	8	7	9	11	5	15	12	9	Ret	Ret
				Christian Klien	8	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	13	Ret	14	11	Ret	12	8	Ret	11	11
				Robert Doornbos																12	13	12

[edit] External links

	Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Red Bull Racing

Constructors and drivers competing in the 2007 Formula One championship
McLaren	Renault	Ferrari	Honda	BMW	Toyota
1 Alonso 2 Hamilton	3 Fisichella 4 Kovalainen	5 Massa 6 Räikkönen	7 Button 8 Barrichello	9 Heidfeld 10 Kubica	11 Schumacher 12 Trulli
Red Bull	Williams	Toro Rosso	Spyker	Super Aguri
14 Coulthard 15 Webber	16 Rosberg 17 Wurz	18 Liuzzi 19 Speed	20 Albers 21 ?	22 Sato 23 Davidson