The Red ReviewA look back at the year for Milton Keynes’ Formula One superteam

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A look back at Red Bull’s ten seasons in Formula One A year of highs and lows...

Red Bull Racing have become accustomed to winning over the last four seasons, so much so that 2014 could well go down as a disaster for them, despite winning three races and finishing second in the Formula One constructors championship.

Since 2009 the pairing of Mark Webber have taken four drivers titles, four constructors titles and a remarkable 47 race wins.

But with 2014 seeing Mark Webber move onto pastures new in sports car racing, his space on the Milton Keynes team was taken by compatriot Daniel Ricciardo who had previously plied his trade at HRT and Red Bull Racing’s Italian-based sister team, Toro Rosso.

Many expected Austrian-owned Red Bull Racing to be up there challenging for honours again but rewind back to the start of pre-season testing and taking even one win looked like an impossible task with the team’s Renault Turbo engine not only down on power compared to the pacesetting Mercedes engine, but also woefully unreliable.

“It’s been a very difficult test,” team principal Christian Horner said after the first test. “We have had numerous Renault issues as well as chassis cooling issues, which have affected our progress”.

The start of the season in Melbourne, Australia was equally disappointing with Daniel Ricciardo being disqualified from his home race (albeit from a strong second placed finish) and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel retiring with engine failure after just three laps.

The next round in Malaysia proved better for the team with Vettel being classified in third although another technical hitch halted

A NEW HERO: Daniel Ricciardo took his debut win in Canada - Red Bull would go on to win a total of three races in 2014, all courtesy of Ricciardo. Images: Red Bull Content Pool

DECEMBER 2014 - The Red Review

Tilbrook Team’s Ten Seasons...

Ricciardo’s race.A three race run of

double points finishes in Bahrain, China and Spain, plus back-to-back podiums for Ricciardo in Spain and Monte-Carlo looked to set the team back on track but it was the Mercedes team who dominated the early races, winning the first six rounds of the championship.

However, it was the team from Tilbrook who would topple the Brackley-based Mercedes outfit as Daniel Ricciardo took his maiden Formula One victory at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal after the Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg hit trouble.

Hamilton retired on lap 46 with brake issues and energy recovery issues held back Rosberg

“I think the first win is always a bit of a hurdle and to get over that was

a relief,” said the ever-smiling Ricciardo. “I was stuck behind Perez for a long time, the laps were ticking down and I knew that if I couldn’t get past then the race was over for me in terms of a victory. That was hard, it wasn’t easy to pass him because they had amazing straight line speed.”

With the first win of the season firmly secured, Red Bull Racing went into their two home races - Austria and Great Britain - full of confidence.

Retirement hit Vettel for the third time in Austria as Ricciardo took eighth before the pair both took home points in Britain with Ricciardo on the podium again in third and Vettel fifth.

Following the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the team stayed at the local circuit for the final in-season

test of the year. The test seemed to

strike a chord with Vettel who went on to finish ahead of Ricciardo for the first time in 2014 at the following race - his home round in Germany.

Ricciardo was back on top at the next race in Hungary and took his second win of the year while Vettel could only muster seventh.

It was a similar story in Belgium, too.

Both Mercedes entries colliding, Ricciardo powered through to take another win, with Vettel back in fifth. The win was Red Bulls 50th in Formula One, a milestone that thrilled Horner.

“A phenomenal performance today to get our 50th win. Of all the tracks to win at, Spa was one of the ones that we didn’t expect to!” He beamed, “Daniel drove an incredible

DEBUT: Red Bull Racing made their de-but in the 2005 season after the Austrian energy drinks firm bought the Jaguar team

FIRST PODIUM: David Coulthard scored the team’s first podium at the 2006 Mona-co Grand Prix in a Superman liveried car

FIRST WIN: Sebastian Vettel took the team’s first win in China in 2009 with team mate Mark Webber second

CHAMPIONS: Red Bull take their first championship crown in 2010

DOMINATION: Nine consecutive wins in 2013 saw Vettel, and Red Bull take their fourth successive championship crown

STILL WINNING: New engine rules for 2014 don’t stop Red Bull winning

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A year of highs and lows...

A NEW HERO: Daniel Ricciardo took his debut win in Canada - Red Bull would go on to win a total of three races in 2014, all courtesy of Ricciardo. Images: Red Bull Content Pool

Vettel was once again paired with an Aussie...

...But the German was rarely ahead this time

The Red Review - DECEMBER 2014

race and had good pace throughout”.

Mercedes were back to the fore in Italy as the Red Bull Racing cars of Ricciardo and Vettel crossed the line fifth and sixth respectively.

At the next round in Singapore, Vettel once again showed flashes of his former championship winning self with a fine drive to second, beating Ricciardo who finished third as the pair recorded their second double podium finish of the year.

“A tremendous performance by both drivers” said Horner afterwards, “second and third is a great team performance”

Vettel got another podium in the wet Japanese Grand Prix, once again beating Ricciardo to the line. He finished fourth.

It was at the Japanese Grand Prix that Red

Bull announced that Sebastian Vettel will leave the team after the conclusion of the 2014 season. The German, who was later confirmed to be moving to Ferrari to replace Fernando Alonso as Kimi Raikkonen’s team mate will himself be replaced by Daniil Kvyat.

The decision to replace Vettel with the 20-year-old Russian, who currently races for Toro Rosso, came as a surprise to many, with the more experienced Red Bull youngster Jean Eric Vergne thought to be a more likely candidate.

With that shock news out in the open, Red Bull Racing went into the inaugural Russian Grand Prix looking to add to their podium haul but they ultimately missed out on two more top three finishes.

The team scored a double points finish,

but seventh and eighth was well below the top results that the team has come to expect.

A the next race int the USA, Ricciardo got another third placed finish, despite a bad start. He was once again ahead of Vettel who finished in seventh position.

Vettel had started the race from the pit lane and endured a touch first part of the race.

Retirement hit Ricciardo once again in Brazil early on as suspension issues struck the young Aussie. Vettel finished fifth, despite dropping back in the opening lap.

The team ended the season with another double points finish in day/night event in Abu Dhabi. Sebastian Vettel finished eighth while Daniel Ricciardo took a remarkable fourth, despite starting from the pit lane.

“It wasn’t boring out there, so it was pretty much what I asked for,” the Australian told reporters after the race. “One spot better would have been nice, but fourth is really cool from the pit lane”

The 2014 season in the end was dominated by the Mercedes team who won 16 out of 19 races. Red Bull Racing were the only other team who managed to claim victory.

While the team failed to replicate the massive success of previous years, they did well to recover from a dismal start to pre season testing to challenge for wins and give themselves a good platform to build on for next season. As Christmas draws nearer the men and women at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base will be working flat out to ensure the team will be back fighting for wins each week in 2015.

Factory theft mars end of season

As if miss-ing out on winning a championship for the first time in four seasons wasn’t bad enough for Red Bull, their factory was ram-raided earlier this month with thieves making off with over 60 trophies.

“We are obvious-ly devastated by this serious factory break in” said team principle Christian Horner in a Red Bull team statement

“The break-in caused significant damage and was very upsetting for

BREAK IN: Thiefs took over 60 trophies

our night officers who were on duty at the time. The offenders took items that not only did not be-long to them, but which represented the efforts of a group of dedicated, hard-working individ-uals”.

The robbery means that the Tilbrook site may be inaccessible to visitors in the future, which is bad news for the area which welcomes hundreds of visitors annually who go to Red Bull’s factory to view the team’s many trophies and display car.

From the bull pen to the stable

PROMOTED: Kvyat

INTO THE RED: Vettel will move to Ferrari in 2015

DECEMBER 2014 - The Red Review

After 38 wins and four championships, Sebastian Vettel leaves Red Bull Racing for Scuderia Ferrari

He’s been a part of the Red Bull fraternity since the age of 11, but in 2015 the motorsport world will witness some-thing not seen since 1998 - Sebastian Vettel not in Red Bull colours.

After 16 years with the Austrian energy drink manufacturer, six racing for their Milton Keynes-based Formu-la One team, Vettel is moving to the legendary Ferrari team.

In doing so, Vettel will follow in the footsteps of Michael Schumacher. The young German has made no secret of his admiration of his com-patriot and now looks to mirror the great’s success in red from next season.

Speaking of his deci-sion to leave, Vettel said that the attraction of a new challenge was what made him move on.

“The attraction of doing something new was bigger than [it was] to stay.” He said. “It is not the first time that the opportunity for a change has come up. Right now it felt like the right time. The time that I had with Red Bull is something very, very special”

The 2014 season was the first since his debut year of 2007 that Vettel failed to win a race, with some onlookers blaming this as the reason for Vettel’s departure. The 27-year-old however, insists that this is not the case.

“[That is] not the way I see it. I am not leav-ing because I don’t like the situation. I am not running away from any-thing.” He said. “As I just said: it felt like the right time. There was that hunger to do something new.”

Vettel leaves behind an impressive legacy at Tilbrook.

Since moving from

sister team Toro Rosso for the 2009 season, Vet-tel has taken 38 wins and 44 pole positions (plus a win and a pole with Toro Rosso in ‘08), scoring a remarkable 1,477 points and never finishing outside of the top-five in the championship - only once missing out on the top-two.

With that impressive track record came four consecutive world cham-pionship titles and 13 broken records broken, including those for most points, most podiums, pole positions, laps led and wins in a season.

Speaking at a goodbye party for Vettel at Red Bull Racing’s factory,

chief technical officer and the designer of Vettel’s all conquering cars Adrian Newey paid tribute to the driver. “Whenever Sebastian’s been in the car he’s been carrying all of our hopes, our ambitions,” he said.

“But we’ve always known that he’s putting everything of himself into it as well. It’s been a real privilege.”

Attention now turns to Vettel’s replacement at Red Bull Racing, 20-year-old Daniil Kvyat.

Like Vettel, the Rus-sian is a product of Red Bulls successful young driver scheme and made his Formula One debut

this year with Toro Rosso.

Despite admitting he was initially surprised to be moving to Red Bull Racing for 2015, the young Russian was quick to prove he is up to the challenge of racing for one of the top teams in Formula One.

“I’m ready, I’m looking forward to it and I’ll do my best as always.”Kvyat said in an official Red Bull me-dia release. “I’m very honoured. Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s record in Formula One over their short history speaks for itself. Of course I’ll be pushing as hard as possible, doing my best to get us in the highest position possible.”

Despite his youth and lack of experience, Kvyat isn’t worried about filling the seat of his legendary predecessor.

“There are always great expectations com-ing from outside but you have to focus on doing your own job as well as possible.”He added.

“My approach won’t change: like I said when I entered F1, I will do my best. There are no miracles, you have to rely on your own abili-ties.”

Kvyat’s track record prior to F1 is strong, especially compared to Vettel.

The young Russian has two junior titles to his name in Formula Renault Alps and GP3 whereas Vettel moved up to F1 with only a For-mula BMW title to his name. One luxury Vettel had that Kyvat didn’t however is a wealth of Formula One testing experience, with Kvyat make do with minimal track time before his debut in Australia this year.

Despite this, he still managed to score eight points, finishing just two positions behind his experienced team mate Jean Eric Vergne in the final standings.

Teaming up alongside another Red Bull Young Driver, Daniel Ricciardo, Kvyat will form part of one of the youngest but most promising lineups on the grid when the lights go out in Mel-bourne.