At what moment did you first realize Red Bull has become a winning team?
The road to glory never did run smooth and for Team Red Bull, it was rougher than most. By the end of 2004, the failed Ford-backed outfit Jaguar Racing was on the market for a utter throw-away value of just $1. With a commitment to invest $400 million over three-seasons, such was the birth of Red Bull from the ashes of Jaguar and its uncompetitive Cosworth engines.
Formula 3000 driver and team manager Christian Horner was moved up the ranks to lead the new Red Bull team with veteran David Coulthard and young former-Jaguar driver Christian Klein to pilot the new RB1. Still using old Jaguar architecture, the new Red Bull team set very humble goals for its maiden season, aiming to conquer a ninth place finish, the best result the old Ford-backed Jaguar team had ever produced. An incredible triumph, the new Red Bull team managed to tackle the challenge in its very first race. What's more, Red Bull displayed the consistency necessary to finish seventh in championship points.
In 2006, Christian Horner managed to enlist Adrian Newey and his genius from team McLaren to join Red Bull Racing. A brilliant race car designer, Newey was dealing with a new Red Bull RB2 that is now powered by Ferrari. The RB2 chassis had already been complete before Newey's arrival so the team still had a lot of work to do before Red Bull could unlock the team's full potential. That said, Red Bull stunned the grid when the team managed to snatch a podium at Monaco. Upon understanding the achievement, Christian Horner completely lost his mind, jumping into a Monaco swimming pool naked. Once again, Red Bull completed its second season finishing seventh in the Constructor's championship.
By 2007, Christian Klein departed to make way for another Formula 1 veteran, Mark Webber. Together, Webber and Coulthard became the two oldest drivers on the grid. What's more, Red Bull also made the all important change to a Renault powerplant that year. Red Bull continues to use Renault engines today. As the very first car with an Adrian Newey design, the new RB3 finished 5th in Constructors points.
In 2009, David Coulthard's retirement from Formula 1 gave way to a contract for a young racing driver from the sister Toro Rosso team. An incredible display of overnight superstardom, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber took the team to a stunning second place finish in Constructor's.
Then, from 2010 onwards, Red Bull never looked back, locking down both Constructor and Driver championship titles for three years in a row.
How did Red Bull Racing go from this pathetic $1 team to become the latest dominating dynasty over McLaren, Renault, and Scuderia Ferrari? Remarkably, magically, and majestically. Watch the inspirational documentary below:
