Red Bull Junior Team
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Red Bull Junior Team and Red Bull Driver Search are two programs run by the energy drink company, Red Bull, in an attempt to identify potential future racing stars.
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[edit] Red Bull Junior Team
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Red Bull Junior Team is Red Bull's European driver programme. Red Bull offers funding and support for promising young drivers. The company also sponsors several racing teams and drivers, particularly in the GP2 Series, the Formula One "feeder series".
The scheme has been successful, with several of the drivers backed by Red Bull making it into Formula One:
- Enrique Bernoldi — raced for Arrows and was briefly a test driver for British American Racing.
- Robert Doornbos - raced for Minardi and Red Bull Racing.
- Patrick Friesacher — raced for Minardi.
- Narain Karthikeyan — raced for Jordan and is now a test driver for Williams.
- Christian Klien — raced for Jaguar Racing and Red Bull Racing, and is now a test driver for BMW.
- Vitantonio Liuzzi — raced for Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso and previously attracted the attention of Ferrari after dominant performances in Formula 3000.
- Sebastian Vettel - currently races for Scuderia Toro Rosso, replacing Scott Speed. Previously was a test driver for BMW Sauber, and raced for Carlin Motorsport in the World Series by Renault in 2007.
- Scott Speed - raced for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2006 and 2007. Now races for a Red Bull-sponsored ARCA team in the USA.
As well as these, Red Bull supports many up-and-coming young drivers:
- Mikhail Aleshin - currently racing in the World Series by Renault with Carlin Motorsport.
- Michael Ammermüller - raced in the GP2 Series with ART.
- Sébastien Buemi - currently racing in the GP2 Series Asia and GP2 Series for Trust Team Arden and in A1 Grand Prix with A1 Team Switzerland, as back-up to fellow Red Bull Junior Team driver Jani.
- Brendon Hartley - Won the 2007 Formula Renault Europe at 17 and in 2008 races British Formula Three with Carlin Motorsport.
- Colin Fleming - raced in the World Series by Renault with Carlin Motorsport.
- Neel Jani - a test driver for Sauber, Red Bull Racing, and now Toro Rosso, whilst also representing Switzerland in A1 Grand Prix.
- Adrian Zaugg - raced in World Series by Renault for Carlin Motorsport for a part-season and is currently racing in A1 Grand Prix for South Africa.
In 2004 Red Bull bought Jaguar Racing and renamed the team Red Bull Racing for the 2005 Formula One season. This offered an easy way in to Formula One for Red Bull Junior Team's drivers.
[edit] Red Bull Driver Search
Red Bull Driver Search was an American scheme run in parallel with Red Bull Junior Team. Its aim was "Searching for the future American F1 Champion". Another goal was to create "the first ever All-American Formula 1 team."
There has been one clear star of Red Bull Driver Search: Scott Speed. After winning Red Bull's Driver Search in 2002, Speed went on to compete in British Formula 3, before winning the German and Eurocup Formula Renault Championships. In 2005, Speed impressed onlookers with his performances in the GP2 Series and, after a short stint in A1 Grand Prix for A1 Team USA, Speed drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Red Bull Driver Search formally concluded on 17 October 2005.[1]
[edit] A victim of its own success?
Many talented drivers have risen through the ranks of Red Bull's driver programmes — so many, in fact, that Red Bull did not have the space to bring all of their best drivers into Formula One. In the 2005 Formula One season the second Red Bull Racing seat was shared between Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the drivers swapping between races. To further complicate matters, Scott Speed was vying for a place in Formula One but had to make due with being a third driver.
If it becomes clear that drivers that are part of Red Bull's driver programmes will simply get held in a queue to join Red Bull Racing they will inevitably break their ties with Red Bull in an attempt to make their own way into another Formula One team.[citation needed] There had been suggestions[citation needed] that Red Bull may pay smaller teams such as Midland F1 to race their drivers in an attempt to stop their talented drivers from leaving.
To solve this problem, in late 2005, Red Bull instead purchased the Minardi Formula One team to help promote more of its drivers.[2] Red Bull described the new outfit as a "Rookie Team", and renamed it as Scuderia Toro Rosso, Italian simply for "Team Red Bull". Liuzzi and Speed drove the cars for the first season, and will do so again for 2007. Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais will drive for Toro Rosso in 2008.
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