Team History

After unsuccessful attempts to purchase the Sauber and Arrows teams, Austrian energy drink magnate Dietrich Mateschitz finally was able to obtain his own F1 team in the form of the Jaguar operation at the end of the 2004 season, following the total withdrawal of parent company Ford from the sport. Almost all of the Jaguar staff stayed on to form the basis of the new team, which continued to make use of the Cosworth engine. The team signed the experienced David Coulthard as #1 driver but took the unusual step of splitting seat time between Red Bull Junior drivers Christian Klien (who drove for Jaguar in 2004) and 2004 F3000 Champion Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the drivers alternating every 3 or 4 races. Klien's early performances outshone Liuzzi however and the Italian only got one spell of four GP in the race car (San Marino, Spain, Monaco and Europe). American GP2 entrant Scott Speed was given the chance to run the third car in practice at the Canadian and US GP with Liuzzi running the rest of the season. Coulthard surprised many with a strong debut in Australia and was regularly in the points throughout the season with Klien also putting together some strong performances as the season went on.

Toward the end of the 2005 season, the team announced it had signed a deal to run Ferrari V8 engines in 2006 replacing Sauber as Maranello's customer team. With Coulthard, Klein, Liuzzi and Speed all under contract for '06,  Mateschitz purchased the Minardi team from Paul Stoddard creating a Scuderia Toro Rosso ("Team Red Bull" in Italian) in order to have a place for the other drivers to race.

A much bigger development for the team was the signing from McLaren of Adrian Newey to serve as Technical Director in November 2005. He immediately set to work on the 2007 RB3 design but did not like the idea of using a Ferrari engine and began lobbying for the adoption of Renault power. Meanwhile for the 2006 season the team ran a development of the car from '05, the RB2. The RB2-Ferrari was to be plagued by cooling problems throughout the season and the team struggled to finish, let alone score points. The only bright spot was David Coulthard's third-place at Monaco and for the last three races Klein was replaced by test driver Robert Doornbos.

The cooling problems caused by the Ferrari installation proved Newey's argument and the engine contract was passed down to Toro Rosso for 2007 with RBR adopting Renault power. The team signed experienced Australian Mark Webber to partner Coulthard and the teams' pass improved immediately. Unfortunately the reliability did not match the RB3's pace and the team finished the season with just one podium once again - this time Webber finishing 3rd at the European GP - but the seeds for success had been sown.

The team contested the 2008 season with an unchanged line-up and opened strongly, equaling the previous year's point total at the halfway mark. Things fell apart in the second half of the season however and they scored just 5 more points though even more embarrassing was that they were out-performed by the Red Bull junior team, Toro Rosso. At the Italian GP Sebastian Vettel took the win for Toro Rosso and booked himself a place with RBR for 2009.

It took just three races for Vettel and Webber to take the RB5-Renault to the front with a 1-2 finish in China, the first win for the team. The two fought all year with the Brawn's of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello, taking six wins (Vettel 4 and Webber 2) and 16 podiums, eventually finishing second in both Driver's (Vettel) and Constructor's championships.

Team Record

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