Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing Limited, currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing and also known simply as Red Bull or RBR, is a Formula One racing team, competing under an Austrian racing licence and based in England. It is one of two Formula One teams owned by conglomerate Red Bull GmbH, the other being Racing Bulls. The Red Bull Racing team was managed by Christian Horner from its formation in 2005 until 2025, when he departed the team and was replaced by Laurent Mekies.
Red Bull had Cosworth engines in and Ferrari engines in. The team used engines supplied by Renault between and . During this partnership, they won four successive Drivers' and Constructors' Championship titles in, 2011, 2012, and, led by Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, and becoming the first Austrian team to win the title.
The team began using Honda engines in. The works Honda partnership culminated in, following Red Bull driver Max Verstappen's World Drivers' Championship victory, with Verstappen also winning the championship in,, and. Red Bull also won two Constructors' Championship titles in 2022 and 2023, but lost out in 2021 to Mercedes and in 2024 to McLaren. Honda left the sport officially after 2021 but is set to continue to supply complete engines from Japan to the team partly under Red Bull Powertrains branding until the end of. Red Bull have a new wind tunnel due to be operational by 2026.
History
Origins
The current Red Bull team traces 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 who rebranded the team Jaguar Racing. It had little success over the next five years.Jaguar Racing 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 in Formula One." 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. The team operated under a British racing licence from to.
Red Bull Racing was not the start of Red Bull's involvement in Formula One, as they sponsored Sauber from 1995 to 2004 and Gerhard Berger before that, beginning in 1989. After buying a Formula One team of its own, Red Bull ended its long-term partnership with the Swiss team.
Cosworth engines (2005)
2005 season
Red Bull's owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, reportedly tried to recruit former Formula One driver and BMW Motorsport chief Gerhard Berger to help guide the team through its debut season. However, this was never realised. For, 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, 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 its 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 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 Racing was a consistent point and occasional podium challenger for most of their debut season.
American driver Scott Speed, who rose through the ranks in the American equivalent of the 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 Racing 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.
Ferrari engines (2006)
2006 season
On 23 April 2005, the team announced a deal to utilise customer Ferrari engines in. 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.File:Formel1 Rennwagen 'RedBul-Racing' Hockenheim 2006 001.JPG|thumb|Coulthard driving the RB2 at the 2006 German Grand Prix
On 8 November 2005, Red Bull Racing hired Adrian Newey, the highly successful McLaren technical director, as well as Rob Marshall.
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. 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 the 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 third 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 into 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 Monaco.
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 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. Coulthard finished in 13th place in the drivers' standings, the departed Klien was classified in 18th position. Klien's replacement, Robert Doornbos, failed to score any points.
Renault engines (2007–2018)
Customer era (2007–2010)
2007 season
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 customer 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 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.
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 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 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. 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 Catalan 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 seemed on course for at least a podium 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 achieved 5th on the grid, along with Webber in 9th.