The Milton-Keynes based team helped Max Verstappen win the driver's championship in 2021, ending the Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton dominance.
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The 2022 United States Grand Prix, in all likeliness, will see Red Bull Racing win their first constructor’s championship title in almost a decade. The Milton-Keynes based team helped Max Verstappen win the driver’s championship last season, ending the Mercedes-Lewis Hamilton dominance that gripped Formula One for the better part of the 2010s. The Dutchman retained his crown in 2022 at the Singapore GP and with a 165-point advantage going into the Circuit of the Americas, there practically isn’t anything that could deny Christian Horner something he has been craving for nine long years. The team’s last constructor’s victory came in 2013 which saw Sebastian Vettel win his fourth and final world championship title. Without further ado, here is a deep dive into Red Bull Racing’s last title-winning season.
Following the announcement that premium car company Infiniti had become the team’s Title Partner and Vehicle Performance Partner, the team was renamed Infiniti Red Bull Racing for the 2013 season. For the fifth consecutive season, Infiniti Red Bull retained drivers Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. Webber was signed on a one-year contract, as he was in 2012, while Vettel kept his current multi-year deal.
In Australia, the opening race of the season, Vettel won the pole position with the new RB9 but finished third behind 2012 title rivals Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso, with teammate Webber finishing sixth. In Malaysia, the team performed better, with Vettel once again putting the RB9 on pole, but unlike in Australia, winning the race, albeit under severe scrutiny. Vettel won the race after defying team directives, therefore despite the 1-2 finish, Vettel’s antics overshadowed the victory.
Vettel qualified ninth in China, the season’s third race, while Webber qualified 14th after a fuel pick-up issue forced him to stop the car on the course. Infiniti Red Bull failed to provide the FIA with a 1-litre fuel sample, relegating Webber to the rear of the field. The decline of his performance was matched when he did not finish the race due to an accident and subsequently a dislodged wheel nut. Vettel finished fourth, maintaining his World Championship lead. Vettel qualified second in Bahrain, the fourth race of the season, behind Nico Rosberg.
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Webber qualified fifth but started seventh due to a three-place grid penalty. Webber finished 7th in the race, failing to improve on his qualifying position, as his teammate won in dominant fashion. Infiniti Red Bull finished the first round of flyaway races winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships after the fourth race of the season. Despite interest from Ferrari and Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel extended his contract with Infiniti Red Bull Racing until the end of 2015. Mark Webber announced his retirement from Formula One at the British Grand Prix, having accepted a deal with Porsche in the FIA World Endurance Championship for 2014.
Before the Italian Grand Prix, it was announced that Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo would replace Webber for the 2014 season, putting an end to speculation over Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen taking Webber’s seat. Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix for the team’s 50th pole position and 40th Grand Prix victory. Vettel won the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship for Infiniti Red Bull Racing for the fourth straight year at the Indian Grand Prix.
The 2013 racing programme included the following nineteen races. Bernie Ecclestone, the commercial rights holder for Formula One through his Formula One Management and Formula One Administration organisations, has previously stated that he believes twenty races are the most feasible. The Concorde Agreement, a contract between teams, the FIA, and Formula One Management, governs the number of races on the Formula One season.
The then-current Concorde Agreement was slated to expire at the end of the 2012 season, at the time of Ecclestone’s comments about the length of the series schedule. If the teams agreed, twenty to twenty-five races may be held. Ecclestone declared at the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix that the 2013 calendar would have twenty races and would be generally similar to the 2012 season. The preliminary calendar was unveiled at the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix and ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council on September 28, 2012.
The Grand Prix of America, a new event to be held on the streets of New Jersey on June 16 as part of a 1-week North American “double-header,” was initially scheduled to be included on the calendar. Following its omission from the calendar, the schedule was cut to nineteen races until the FIA World Motor Sport Council declared that a twentieth round would be added at a European circuit, subject to the conclusion of negotiations between Bernie Ecclestone and event organisers. Ecclestone declared in February 2013 that no substitute venue had been identified, leaving the calendar with nineteen Grands Prix.
The defending World Champion, Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel, maintained the Drivers’ Championship after nineteen races. He accomplished this by winning in India and establishing an unassailable 115-point lead with only three races remaining. With nine wins in a row, he broke the record for most consecutive wins in a single season. He also tied Alberto Ascari’s 1952-1953 record for consecutive wins, and Michael Schumacher’s 2004 record for total wins in a single season with 13.
His record 13 victories included a contentious triumph in the Malaysian Grand Prix, when he disregarded team orders and overtook colleague Mark Webber late in the race to secure victory. After the race, Vettel apologised to the crew, but he later refused to apologise for winning. Vettel also won in Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil.
The four-time world champion scored 397 points, which was also a record until Lewis Hamilton scored 408 points in 2018. Webber finished third in his last Formula One season with 199 points. It was the first time the Australian had failed to win a race since 2008. Their combined results enabled Red Bull to win the 2013 Constructors’ Championship in India by establishing a 157-point lead with only 129 points remaining. The team scored 596 points in total.
Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished second with 242 points. The Spaniard won two races, in China and Spain, and finished fifth in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Italy, and Singapore to maintain his championship lead throughout the season. However, a retirement in Malaysia, as well as relatively mediocre results in Bahrain, Monaco, Korea, and India, caused him to fall behind Vettel in the points race. The deficit narrowed slightly after the German’s gearbox problem at the British Grand Prix, but the defending world champion clinched the title with eleven consecutive podium finishes, including ten wins, following his solitary retirement of the season. Felipe Massa, Alonso’s teammate, finished seventh in the standings, accumulating 112 points with a solitary podium result in Spain.
Mercedes finished second in the Constructors’ Championship, just 6 points ahead of Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton, who won in Hungary and had four third-place finishes and five pole positions with Mercedes AMG in 2013, ended fourth in the drivers’ standings with 189 points. His podium finish at the Malaysian Grand Prix was marred by controversy, as team orders were used to keep him in third place. After the race, Hamilton stated that his teammate Nico Rosberg deserved to be on the podium.
Hamilton failed to make it to Q3 for the third time since the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2010. As a result, the Briton’s run of 66 consecutive Q3 appearances came to an end. Hamilton also retired for the first time this season in Japan due to damage caused by a puncture caused by a collision with Vettel. Rosberg finished sixth despite winning the Monaco and British Grands Prix, with retirements in Australia, China, and Hungary, as well as a series of bad luck preventing him from enjoying clean races, lowering his point count. Mercedes finished second in the Constructors’ Championship to Red Bull, with 360 points.
