Red Bull

Red Bull Racing is an ex-Formula 1.5 team that competed between 2005 and 2008 as well as the 2015 season. The Red Bull Racing team has been managed by Christian Horner since its formation in 2005.

Red Bull had Cosworth engines in 2005 and Ferrari engines in 2006. The team then opted to run Renault engines from 2007 onwards.

## History

### Origins

The Red Bull team can trace its origins back to the Stewart Grand Prix outfit that made its debut in 1997. 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 1.5 constructor and racing team was put up for sale in September 2004 when Ford decided it could "no longer make a compelling business case for any of its brands to compete". 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 Formula 1.5 , as they sponsored Sauber from 1995 to 2004. After buying a Formula 1.5 team of its own, Red Bull ended its long-term partnership with the Swiss team. Red Bull 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 Formula 2 Championship, Formula 1.5's "feeder" series.

### Cosworth Engines (2005)

#### 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.[*citation needed*]

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 1.5 was a massive success compared to its predecessors, Jaguar Racing. They finished the season in second place, only behind Williams. The team took 2 wins and 14 podiums in the year.

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 United States Grands Prix. Speed was attractive to Red Bull because of his American nationality which would raise the profile of both Red Bull and Formula 1.5 in America, a market where the sport has traditionally struggled to make an impact.

### Ferrari Engines (2006)

#### 2006 Season

On 23 April 2005, the team announced a deal to utilise customer 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 hired 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.

Red Bull struggled in the opening rounds of the season with reliablity, having 3 double retirments within the first 5 races. The only race in the opening 5 race's where both car's got the end was Bahrain (Round 1) where they finished 4th and 5th respectivley. Monaco saw the Red Bull team score their first and only win of the season.

The team finished 4th in the FIA Constructors' Championship, with 81 points. David Coulthard (52 pts) finished in 6th place in the drivers' standings, the departed Klien (24 pts) was classified in 12th position. Klien's replacement, Robert Doornbos, finished 17th with 5 points.

### Renault Engines (2007-2008, 2015)

#### Customer Team (2007-2008)

##### 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. In 2007 Red Bull officially became an Austrian constructor by receiving an Austrian licence, though continued to operate from the same base in Britain.

Once again, Red Bull struggled with reliability in the opening rounds, having at least 1 car retire in each of the opening 7 rounds, including a double retirment in round 3. The team took their first podium with a second place at Spain, followed by a third place a few races later at America. The teams best result of the season was the European Grand Prix, finishing first and third. Their only double podium of the season.

Overall the team finished fourth with 73 points, clear of Toyota in 5th by 14 points and behind Williams in third by 20 points.

##### 2008 Season

Red Bull continued with the same drivers in 2008 and had numbers 9 and 10 on their cars. 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.

The team had a double retirment in the first race of the season, however after this Mark Webber scored 5 consecutive podium finishes including 1 pole poistion. David Coulthard got his first podium of the season at round 7, the Canadian Grand Prix, with the race win. Red Bull had scored 3 wins within the first 7 race's showing clear progress on the previous year's.

The team's results fell off scoring less podiums in the second half of the season, scoring just 1 podium finish in the final 10 races of the season. Red Bull finished the season in third place, ahead of Toro Rosso and behind Toyota.

Red Bull was promoted to F1.0 between 2009 and 2014.

#### Works Team (2015)

##### 2015 Season

2015 saw Red Bull return to F1.5 for one season before going back to F1.0 in 2016.

The team line up had changed since 2008 with Daniel Ricciardo now at the team, and joining him was Daniil Kvyat.

It quickly became apparent that reliability, power, and drivability were all major issues that plagued the team through the season, but this didn't stop them from challenging Williams for the title.

At the opening round in Australia, Daniel Ricciardo finished third to get their first podium of the year whilst Daniil Kvyat failed to start the race due to a gearbox failure. The team brought home two 1-2 finishes during the season at Monaco and Hungary.

Over the season they finished 2nd behind Williams but ahead of Force India.