Red Bull has won every race this season. Photo: Getty Images/Mark Thompson
When Red Bull entered F1 in 2005 with the purchase of the old Jaguar team (formerly the Stewart Grand Prix), they were brash young upstarts. With a self-proclaimed mission to «disrupt the status quo» and armed with a hefty marketing budget, they made a splash both on and off the track. Christian Horner, appointed the youngest team principal in the sport's history, at just 31 years old, jumped naked — save for Superman's cape — into the pool on the upper deck of the Red Bull floating power plant in Monaco harbor after the team's first podium in 2007. , to viral marketing stunts, the Milton Keynes team competed fiercely and had even more fun.
How long those days seem now. As they get closer to their 100th race win, a milestone they could reach this weekend if Max Verstappen or teammate Sergio Pérez wins in Montreal (which, considering they've won every second race this year seems like a safe bet). another suggestion. They still have a marketing budget and a mission to «do things differently». They still focus on image and brand. But they have become a very clever winning machine; among the most professional and ruthless the sport has ever known.
Red Bull's 100th win, whether here in Canada or at their home race in Austria two weeks later or later on the track, will put them in fifth place overall behind Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams . And with a better win rate than any of them except Mercedes. This is a phenomenal achievement and the people behind it deserve applause.
Horner, who is currently the network's oldest team principal (and still the second oldest), has shown himself to be a skilled politician as well as team principal, forging alliances first with Bernie Ecclestone and now with Stefano Domenicali. how he built a hippopotamus.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull's grumpy motorsports consultant, brought in talented young riders from the junior program to the team.
Christian Horner and Dr. Helmut Marko instilled a winning culture at Red Bull. Photo: Getty Images/Mark Thompson
Two of them account for the vast majority of their 99 wins. Sebastian Vettel, who won the team's first race in China in 2009 after already winning one for sister team Toro Rosso last year, had a total of 38 Red Bull race wins before leaving for Ferrari in 2015, helping the team pick between 2010 and 2013 he won four pilot and constructor titles. And now Verstappen, the two-time world champion who has surpassed Vettel and equals Ayrton Senna in 41 race wins if he wins at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday.
Perhaps most importantly, Red Bull signed and retained Adrian Newey, the preeminent F1 designer of the era, whose blown diffuser concept was responsible for their first era of success, and whose design team, after eight seasons in the Mercedes shadow, managed to create a car for this latest set of rules that blew the rest of the field out of the water.
With no major rule changes until 2026, Red Bull will likely pass Williams and Mercedes and move into third place overall before then constructors.
Not bad for an energy drink company, as Lewis Hamilton once described to Red Bull Racing, for which he later apologized. «I didn't mean anything bad,» Hamilton said last year. “I think years ago I said something about them being in the beverage industry or something like that. And it really just emphasized that you would be betting on the car manufacturer to a greater extent. But they proved me wrong, that's all. And they did a great job.”
It looks like the future of Red Bull is predetermined
There is no reason to assume that this will end anytime soon. The death last year of Red Bull co-founder and spiritual leader Dietrich Mateschitz could have been a game-changer. Questions have been asked about whether the money will flow indefinitely; whether his son and heir Mark Mateschitz will be as committed to Formula 1, whether the Thai partners of Red Bull will have other ideas. These doubts were soon dispelled. Red Bull appointed a new board of directors last fall to oversee their business empire, and F1 is now run by former RB Leipzig chairman Oliver Mintzlaff, who seems to be of the opinion that the team is profitable and winning and just let them crack on.
More adjustments are possible. AlphaTauri has certainly had cosmetic surgery and Marco certainly can't last long into his 80s (Vettel as a possible replacement?). But with Horner committed for the foreseeable future, Newey revamped again and Red Bull now building its own powertrain division, the future seems certain.
Whether or not it's 100th this weekend, the Red Bull dynasty looks like it still has some way to go.
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