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 last season with McLaren. DC is aware of that his future won’t be with the Woking-based staff and {that a} sure Juan Pablo Montoya is ready to take his place. He has to search for different choices and attracts curiosity from Jaguar. The staff with the deep-green livery has Mark Webber and Christian Klien as its drivers however considers Coulthard’s expertise as choice 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 evident. “I made a decision that I might not signal for Jaguar – I might relatively stop System 1 than signal with them,” Coulthard tells Autosport almost 20 years on.

Coulthard had no confidence in Jaguar and the staff’s management, though an sudden lifeline comes from Pink Bull. The power drink model had joined forces with a younger Christian Horner, who was attempting to make his approach into System 1.

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

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

“The take care of the Jordan staff grew to become increasingly more difficult and, within the meantime, Pink Bull acquired Jaguar in November 2004. Later that month, Helmut rang me up and stated: ‘Dietrich want to see you.’ So I went to Salzburg and Mateschitz informed me: ‘I need to change the administration, I’ve obtained massive ambitions with this staff, and I am keen 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.”

Certain sufficient, Horner took over as staff 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 staff wished me to signal earlier than going to the primary take a look at. However I stated: ‘No, let me go to the take a look at and let me uncover in regards to the staff.’

“I knew among the folks 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 appropriate course for you. That’s what I felt was missing. I went to the take a look at and stated: ‘If I do job, you need to signal me. And when you do job, I need 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 take a look at,” Coulthard recollects. “I sat with him and hung out 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 staff for a very long time, so he wasn’t a beginner that immediately arrived and had gone ‘System 1 is the flavour of my month and let’s see what enjoyable we will have with this’. There was a long-term technique in place.”

What appealed much more was that Coulthard may get some freedom to form the technique. “You make selections primarily based 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 quite a lot of time instantly 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 folks can be greatest to serve the staff. He didn’t at all times say sure, in fact not, as a result of that’s not the sport. However on the issues that you just actually believed in, not primarily based on a PowerPoint presentation however primarily based on ardour and the idea that this individual will change the fortunes of the staff, then 9 occasions out of 10 he would go ‘OK, you’re empowered to assist and construct the staff’.”

One of many folks to vary the fortunes of the staff goes by the title of Adrian Newey. The legendary designer was excessive on Horner’s want listing, and Coulthard knew him properly 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 choices – and that’s how we obtained to know one another.”

Coulthard’s current relationship with Newey helped appeal to the designer to Pink Bull

Photograph by: DaimlerChrysler

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

The magazines that have been banned by Ron Dennis

Particularly in its debut 12 months, Pink 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. Pink Bull has needed to tighten entry over time however, to start with it was an open home, with lunches for media and so forth.

“After a time frame it grew to become clear that different groups introduced in lower-level companions that they couldn’t cater for and ended up bringing them to Pink Bull!” Horner too appears to be like again on these early days with a smile: “We have been just about the one staff the place you didn’t want 200 passes simply to get by means of the entrance door!”

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

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

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

Photograph by: Pink Bull GmbH and GEPA photos GmbH

“It could be sometimes Ron, however I’m positive he was studying them. In his workplace – I used to be there for 9 years – he stated ‘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 folks, regardless of how they might seem on the outside. The identical utilized to Pink Bull. The outside was the advertising and marketing facet of the staff, however the inside was what we have been attempting to do, which was enhancing the staff.”

In line with Horner, each issues go hand in hand. “Once we first entered System 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 completely different, and due to that, folks thought: ‘These guys aren’t critical. They’re not right here to win; they’re simply right here to have time.’

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

From occasion staff to championship contender

Although the quantity of the music hasn’t modified, the outcomes have. In its first 12 months, Pink Bull scored 34 factors, whereas the staff has now secured eight drivers’ titles and 6 constructors’ championships. “For that first 12 months, Mateschitz informed me: ‘I’m not going to pay you a large number, however for each level you rating, I’ll provide you with 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 top 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 appears to be like very completely different now, and the bar is ready a lot greater, however Coulthard noticed the seeds for Pink Bull’s current 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 getting into the sequence because the paddock’s final occasion staff, Horner smiles: “Once you have a look at the whole lot we’ve achieved to date, then you need to say it isn’t too dangerous for an power drink firm…”

Pink Bull has now come a good distance from its 2005 origins

Photograph by: Pink Bull Racing