Team Drivers

David Coulthard
Mark Webber

2007 Stats

Red Bull
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Poles: 0
Points: 6 (Coulthard – 4, Webber – 2)

TPL Rating- 5

Team Performance

Overall this season can only be described as a disappointment so far. In pre-season testing they were not that quick but were able to improve their pace quite quickly. However pace hasn't really been the biggest problem. It is been the reliability which has been nothing short of appalling, it has taken them longer to sort out the seamless gearshift box compared to other teams but it is breaking down all the time. In Bahrain Red Bull were on for 3 pts despite but lost all 3 due to reliability. Mark Webber has often been driving in the points only for a problem to ruin his race. Spain was their best race where DC scored a great 5th position and was racing on the pace of the BMWs and even Alonso at times. Mark Webber's only points so far came in Indy.

It is obvious that this team has alot of potential for the future, but it is going to take a while for the newly built talented team to gel and problems at the factory such as an inaccurate wind tunnel to be fixed so that Red Bull don't fall weeks behind development again and Newey can have a better go at builing a decent car. For the moment they have to keep on character building, improving the team and car and try and get as many points to finish as high up the table as possible and concentrate more on reliability. It was always very naive to think that success would come straight away.

Driver performances

David Coulthard- DC still looks as if he has plenty of life and motivation in him and has in general been driving well. His drive from the back in Bahrain and competitive drive in Spain have been the highlights. Those two performances showed that he still has alot to give to F1. However he has had a couple of hairy moments too including a rather optimistic move on Wurz in race 1 and unintentionally blocking Heikki in Monaco qualifying earning him a grid penalty. In comparison with Webber his quali performances aren't as good but even the most avid of DC fans would have expected this however his race pace has been every bit as good as Webber. For the rest of the season DC needs to keep giving 100% and using his experience to push the team furthur towards the front of the grid.

Mark Webber- Like DC Mark has driven very well this season, his quali performances have been strong as usual even when the Red Bull hasn't been that competitive and he has been able to hold his strong quali positions in the race unlike in his early years where he would fall back dramatically. However it is hard to compare his race pace with DC as he has had alot of reliability problems. With one or two less of these he may have more than just 2 world championship points. For the rest of the season Mark just needs to keep on what he has been doing and hope that the pace and reliability can improve in order for him and DC as well to get better results.

I gave them 2, because they have had the best part of the latter half of last season, AND the close season, AND the first half of this season, and they STILL haven't sorted out that bloody seamless-shift gearbox!

(NB: I nearly misspelled "seamless-shift" there to something a little more descriptive)

I don't understand this thing with the seamless shift at all with Red Bull.

Everyone else has perfected it(well apart from Torro Rosso of course)but Red Bull can't. Its all a bit weird.

I'd give them 5, 2 is harsh as plenty of teams have fairly specific problems like that and take ages to solve them too. Struggling with one specific problem is better than just building a slow car like Honda or Toyota, as once Red Bull solve this problem with the gearbox (hopefully soon) they would be regular points contenders, in my opinion.

The drivers have both got on with the job with minimum fuss and done pretty well. Webber's attitude in particular is very refreshing when most drivers will whinge about the car instead. Not naming names here as frankly nearly all of them do it, so fair play to Webber.

The fact that every other team (including Spyker, on a much lower budget) has almost perfected the seamless-shift 'box means that it's not a trivial thing to get wrong. Moreover, if it breaks in nearly every race, it's pretty much worthless having it anyway. As I've said, Red Bull have had nearly a year to get it right now, and they are the only team that haven't. That alone is sufficient reason to lower their rating in what has been a mediocre season anyway.

I did like MB's description of a seamless box:

"They're worth up to half a second a lap, but there's so much energy going on in there that if they go slightly wrong they just blow themselves to pieces!"

Of course, they're not quite seamless shift - because if they were, they'd count as being a CVT, which of course is banned.

They have been off the pace, as I thought they would be. You can't just throw together a load of people and expect them to gel right away. I don't think they will ever be more than regular points scorers. I've given them 3 because their car isn't great. Fast and unreliable is better than slow and unreliable!

Close Norbs, but technically incorrect. A zero shift mechanical transmission is in no way the tech equivalent of a CVT (Constantly Variable Transmission). but it affords the same effects. So, it is in essence the same thing.

Sorry to be an ass, but that's my job.

5/10 must do better - lots of potential though

<think>

Actually the gear-box they're using at the minute they only introduced at Spain. But yes it's still unacceptable.

Well, as Martin Brundle described it, he suggested that if the seamless shift gearbox was able to literally be just that, the FIA would deem it to be a CVT. I agree that a true CVT is a totally different animal to a seven speed box with, in a seamless config, what would basically be an instantaneous gearshift, but supposedly the FIA have already said that in their eyes there *must* be a measureable interruption of power delivery from the engine to the wheels when the ratio is changed. That's how I understand it, anyway.... I agree that a seamless box and CVT are very different animals, but the effect on power transmission is, as far as I am aware, the same - there's no pause in output when the ratio is altered. However, I think the idea of the CVT was to keep the engine revving at a constant rate when on the move?

Pantomime?

Just about every team has potential...that's not enough.

Gave them a 4, the drivers have done a good job but the team has made to many basic errors and the car is incredibly unreliable and its not even particularily fast.

2 months later and still no sign that they can challenge for points on a regular occurrence. At least they aren't breaking down *quite* as much at the moment...

Apparently the gearbox has been failing because of Newey's very tight aero package design.

The gearbox gets too hot due to this causing it to fail.

So that needs changing for next year.

Like at Mclaren...

It's not good if you have an unreliable car which is slow. That's 2 problems they have to solve.