How Red Bull arrived in F1 as a “breath of fresh air” 20 years ago

The 12 months is 2004 and David Coulthard is in his remaining season with McLaren. DC is aware of that his future is not going to be with the Woking-based group and {that a} sure Juan Pablo Montoya is about to take his place. He has to search for different choices and attracts curiosity from Jaguar. The group with the deep-green livery has Mark Webber and Christian Klien as its drivers however considers Coulthard’s expertise as a superb possibility to maneuver the operation ahead.

Along with supervisor Martin Brundle, Coulthard mentioned the professionals and cons of a possible change to Jaguar, however their conclusion is obvious. “I made a decision that I might not signal for Jaguar – I might quite stop Formulation 1 than signal with them,” Coulthard tells Autosport almost 20 years on.

Coulthard had no confidence in Jaguar and the group’s management, though an sudden lifeline comes from Crimson Bull. The vitality drink model had joined forces with a younger Christian Horner, who was making an attempt to make his means into Formulation 1.

“I began my very own group in what’s now Formulation 2 and competed in opposition to Helmut Marko’s group,” Horner recollects on the Speaking Bull podcast. “In 2002, 2003 and 2004, I gained the championship three years in a row and I used to be trying to take that group into Formulation 1.

“Bernie Ecclestone was pushing me, saying: ‘We want new, younger blood in F1. I wish to eliminate this man, Eddie Jordan, he’s driving me mad, so why don’t you purchase his group? I’ll assist you.’ I attempted to place a deal collectively, and on the identical time I used to be working a Crimson Bull junior driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, that Helmut Marko had positioned with me.

“The take care of the Jordan group turned increasingly sophisticated and, within the meantime, Crimson Bull acquired Jaguar in November 2004. Later that month, Helmut rang me up and mentioned: ‘Dietrich wish to see you.’ So I went to Salzburg and Mateschitz instructed me: ‘I wish to change the administration, I’ve bought massive ambitions with this group, and I am prepared to take an opportunity on you.’ I used to be solely 31 years of age and didn’t have to consider it for too lengthy.”

Positive sufficient, Horner took over as group boss and had additionally set his sights on Coulthard. “Christian got here in, however he nonetheless had to determine which door led to which division at Jaguar!” the Scot jokes. “I do not forget that the group needed me to signal earlier than going to the primary check. However I mentioned: ‘No, let me go to the check and let me uncover in regards to the group.’

“I knew a number of the individuals as I labored with them at Paul Stewart Racing, however you want good management, you want funding and also you want folks that make everybody imagine that that is the best course for you. That’s what I felt was missing. I went to the check and mentioned: ‘If I do a superb job, you wish to signal me. And in the event you do a superb job, I wish to be with you.’”

Secret dinner with Adrian Newey

Throughout that day, Coulthard had in depth conversations with Dietrich Mateschitz. “Dietrich got here to the check,” Coulthard recollects. “I sat with him and frolicked to seek out out what his imaginative and prescient for the game was. Clearly I knew that he’d been a part-owner of Sauber and he’d been a visual sponsor of that group for a very long time, so he wasn’t a beginner that all of a sudden arrived and had gone ‘Formulation 1 is the flavour of my month and let’s see what enjoyable we are able to have with this’. There was a long-term technique in place.”

What appealed much more was that Coulthard might get some freedom to form the technique. “You make choices based mostly on relationships and belief, and Dietrich by no means let me down in something he dedicated to,” he says.

“Within the early days I spent plenty of time straight with him in Salzburg on a Monday after a grand prix to debate the place we have been, what we would have liked and what individuals can be finest to serve the group. He didn’t all the time say sure, in fact not, as a result of that’s not the sport. However on the issues that you simply actually believed in, not based mostly on a PowerPoint presentation however based mostly on ardour and the assumption that this individual will change the fortunes of the group, then 9 occasions out of 10 he would go ‘OK, you might be empowered to assist and construct the group’.”

One of many individuals to alter the fortunes of the group goes by the identify of Adrian Newey. The legendary designer was excessive on Horner’s want record, and Coulthard knew him effectively from their time at Williams and McLaren. “David labored even quicker than Tinder these days! The match was there very quickly,” Horner jokes. “He arrange a secret dinner at Bluebird in London with Adrian and his spouse – as a result of, ultimately, ladies make all the selections – and that’s how we bought to know one another.”

Coulthard’s current relationship with Newey helped entice the designer to Crimson Bull

Picture by: DaimlerChrysler

That dinner led to a gathering with Mateschitz, and through that dialog, Newey was satisfied to affix the younger however formidable undertaking. On 8 November 2005, each events announce that probably the most sought-after males within the paddock was making the transfer to Red Bull Racing. “That was a vital second for us,” says Horner. “Earlier than that, individuals didn’t actually take us significantly, and one of many predominant targets of a race weekend was to get into one of many Crimson Bull events. However when Adrian joined our group, that modified, and folks stopped seeing us as a celebration group.”

The magazines that have been banned by Ron Dennis

Particularly in its debut 12 months, Crimson Bull was identified for its events, one thing Coulthard jokingly takes credit score for: “That was primarily due to me! However it was only a breath of recent air within the paddock. The paddock is a a lot friendlier place now than it was once. Crimson Bull has needed to tighten entry over time however, at first it was an open home, with lunches for media and so forth.

“After a time period it turned clear that different groups introduced in lower-level companions that they couldn’t cater for and ended up bringing them to Crimson Bull!” Horner too seems to be again on these early days with a smile: “We have been just about the one group the place you didn’t want 200 passes simply to get via the entrance door!”

It was all very totally different to what Coulthard had beforehand been used to: “On the within, McLaren was a pleasant and open place as effectively. However on the outside it was form of boundaries down and that was the best way Ron preferred to manage info out of the group. I respect that as he was the boss, he was the proprietor. However the lasting legacy is that Crimson Bull did issues in a different way.”

This distinction is mirrored in an amusing anecdote about magazines that Crimson Bull revealed, and nonetheless publishes, in the course of the Austrian Grand Prix. “They got here up with the Crimson Bulletin, {a magazine} for the paddock,” says Coulthard. “I do know that Ron form of banned the McLaren mechanics from taking it into the hospitality.

Vettel reads the Crimson Bulletin, however Dennis was not so open

Picture by: Crimson Bull GmbH and GEPA photos GmbH

“It could be usually Ron, however I’m certain he was studying them. In his workplace – I used to be there for 9 years – he mentioned ‘I don’t learn any magazines’ after which he’d open his high drawer and also you’d see all of the magazines! It’s notion versus actuality. These are simply individuals, regardless of how they could seem on the outside. The identical utilized to Crimson Bull. The outside was the advertising and marketing facet of the group, however the inside was what we have been making an attempt to do, which was bettering the group.”

In line with Horner, each issues go hand in hand. “After we first entered Formulation 1, we performed loud music within the garages and launched a hospitality that we referred to as the Vitality Station,” he explains. “Issues have been totally different, and due to that, individuals thought: ‘These guys aren’t severe. They’re not right here to win; they’re simply right here to have a superb time.’

“However that was completely not the case. We have been simply as decided to win as another group. We simply weren’t afraid to have some enjoyable alongside the best way and to specific ourselves in a different way. That hasn’t modified through the years. We’re nonetheless the group with the loudest music and I really feel sorry for whoever is subsequent to us, particularly since a few of our mechanics have a fairly doubtful music style these days…”

From celebration group to championship contender

Although the amount of the music hasn’t modified, the outcomes have. In its first 12 months, Crimson Bull scored 34 factors, whereas the group has now secured eight drivers’ titles and 6 constructors’ championships. “For that first 12 months, Mateschitz instructed me: ‘I’m not going to pay you a large number, however for each level you rating, I’ll offer you a wholesome bonus’,” says Horner. “Jaguar had scored 9 factors the 12 months earlier than, so 10 or 11 factors would already be successful. However in our first race, we scored 9 factors and by the tip of the 12 months we had 34. Thank God, in any other case I wouldn’t have been in a position to pay my mortgage!”

The world seems to be very totally different now, and the bar is about a lot larger, however Coulthard noticed the seeds for Crimson Bull’s latest success being planted proper from the beginning: “100%, and belief me: if I hadn’t seen that, I wouldn’t have signed for them again then.”

Twenty years after signing Coulthard and coming into the sequence because the paddock’s final celebration group, Horner smiles: “Whenever you take a look at every part we’ve achieved to date, then you need to say it is not too dangerous for an vitality drink firm…”

Crimson Bull has now come a great distance from its 2005 origins

Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing