20 years, 2 World Champions, eight World Driver Championships, six Constructors Championships, 122 wins, 282 podiums and 13 drivers of varying success.
As Red Bull reach 20 years in Formula 1 the team has already a storied history, featuring unlikely victories, a mass of controversy and two world champions who managed to dominate and battle with rivals for impressive victories during some crucial on track events.
Entry: Taking over the assets of Jaguar who put their team up for sale own 2004, Red Bull acted quick to install a team principal - Christian Horner - who became F1’s youngest ever Team Principal at the age of 31.
For their first season, the team announced experienced British driver and multiple F1 race winner David Coulthard and Austrian driver Christian Klein, who ‘bit-part’ shared his 2005 race seat with Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Cosworth V10 engine powered RB1 car.
Debut: The team debuted in the 2005 Australian Grand Prix, qualifying with Coulthard fifth and Klein sixth. The pair ended the race weekend fourth and seventh respectively - a promising start. As the season progressed, results were steady, and Red Bull ended the season seventh overall.
Major footnote: Red Bull recruit legendary technical director and established car designer Adrian Newey after the 2005 season.
First podium: Monaco 2006. David Coulthard comes home third to take the team’s first podium with a Ferrari engine.
First win: For 2009, Red Bull signs Sebastian Vettel, already a Grand Prix winner with sister team Toro Rosso in 2008 - three races into his Red Bull career, the German win at the Chinese Grand Prix, leading a team one-two finish with Mark Webber(signed 2008).
First World Drivers and Constructors Championships: Sebastian Vettel wins the 2010 World Drivers Championship, completing a Drivers and Constructors double - the first of four consecutive drivers and constructors titles.
2014-2020: The dominance of Mercedes, coupled with the departure of Sebastian Vettel at the end of 2013 to Ferrari saw Red Bull settle into being a consistent outfit. Wins came at a premium with Daniel Ricciardo(signed 2014) and new star in the form of Max Verstappen(signed 2016).
Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon each sat next to the aforementioned, before the decade was out, and Red Bull took another step forward.
2021: In one of F1’s most exciting seasons for some years, Verstappen eventually, and controversially, took the Drivers Championship back to Red Bull, seeing off Lewis Hamilton in one of the tensest battles F1 has ever seen.
2022-24: Max Verstappen continued his excellent form, winning his second, third and fourth world titles - two of which were relatively straightforward, before a downturn in performance for the team saw McLaren draw close and soon usurp Red Bull for Constructors Championship glory, ending Red Bull’s two year hold on the honour.
2025 - ?: The team is now going through a transformation, with Adrian Newey and other key members of the team leaving at the end of 2024 for pastures new.
Checo Perez’s departure means Red Bull have added Liam Lawson to the top team, and many other additions to the ‘backroom’ of the Milton Keynes team means an important time of transition, requiring full focus.
📸 Image credits: Red Bull Content Pool, Sky Sports, Formula Motorsport Limited.
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