Red Bull

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Wolfie
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Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 08 Apr 2010, 19:09

Jukka Mildh is YLE's F1-expert who works inside F1 and is a reporter. His articles are usually pure gold.

This article was very interesting claiming that Red Bull is about to become the new mighty in F1. What do you think?

THE NEW F1-MIGHTY

5.4.2010
Jukka Mildh

Image

Red Bull's double victory in Malaysia is a clear sign. The new motorsport mighty is rising. It has been almost impossible to break the traditional teams that are built on stone. Especially for a long time. Now this is happening.

Red Bull isn't yet leading the championship serie but you can still say that it's the leading F1-team at the moment. The team is a unity that works best and it has brilliant drivers. It has a car that has been superior when it comes to speed. The car has been designed carefully. Even so carefully that the team had the guts to skip several testing days before the season started. They have found a technical solution to the car which makes it superior to other cars when it comes to drivability and setups. The solution isn't as overwhelming as last year's double diffuser but the team has found something to the suspension. Something that they keep very well hidden.

****

In order to explain the reasons why Red Bull is the new F1-mighty, let's review the matter by painting a bigger picture.

Red Bull was built on the ruins of Jaguar. In practice the team has been developed with determination, in their own way and with a long-term plan from day one. Into their own direction.

Surprisingly they chose the former racer Christian Horner to run the team. I have to admit that at that time, five years ago, I didn't appreaciate Horner as a leader. He was leading Arden's GP-team and starting the F1-activity at the same time. Heikki Kovalainen drove back then for Arden in GP2 and the team made some weird decisions that for example suffocated the car's developmentwork. They were good in the beginning of the season and Kovalainen was leading the serie. Then all of a sudden everything stopped and Kovalainen's dreams of championship vanished at the same time.

Was this because of Horner's busy schedule or his way to act? Partly.

But I have to acknowledge today that the youngest team manager in F1 has done a good job. He has used the race budget well and got the right people to work for him in the right way. The most crucial choice of personnel was technical manager Adrian Newey who came to Red Bull from McLaren at the end of 2005.

Mark Webber declared after the race in front of the media in Malaysia that there is a good spirit inside the team. It's a significant thing in sporting and in companies. Also in F1 where these are one and the same.

You could sense the good spirit years ago. The feeling is lifted by the energy drink -company's attitude and modern grip to things. They do their jobs properly but quickly. Without forgetting the spark in the eye.

****

Drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel are like day and night as persons. It was clearly seen from their faces after Malaysia GP. Whereas Vettel had the strenght to smile after a tough race Webber again was serious almost the whole time.

There are different kinds of attitudes but in the long run taking things too seriously might turn against you. Webber is a stonehard sportsman and a fast driver but he shows too easily his disappointments and shows in this way to his team mate and to the outside world his weaknesses. Vettel calls Webber a poker face but the Australian can't necessarily keep his cards close enough to his chest.

Webber got frustrated back in the times in Williams. He thought he went as a king to a winning team only to find himself in the team's strong falling trend. Webber thought that his chances to win the championship were vanishing. That's why Red Bull's contract came as a gift from God. He got into an ambitious project which had enough money to use. There was more or less only one sponsor and that's why he had less PR-work. This enabled him to concentrate only on the most important; to drive and perform. This is rare in most F1-teams where the driver's calendar is filled outside the races.

Webber is now sitting in a winning car but he has got to put more than everything into the game. He didn't get the first driver's place and he has to fight against Sebastian Vettel who is 11 years younger than him.

The race between the drivers is extremely tough but it's taking the team forward. Of all the driver pairings at the moment Webber and Vettel are the most harmonic even though they are opposites to each other.

****

Red Bull has chosen most of their drivers to their F1-program outside their own junior program. Helmut Marko, former F3-manager with a long line in motorsport and a debated person, often seen on the F1-paddock, he is in charge of the junior program's budget. His words is strong when it comes to choosing drivers to lower series but on F1-level decisions are made using different criterias. They include the team manager, the technical manager and of course the one who gives the blessing, the owner Dietrich Mateschitz.

One secret to success has been these wise driver choices. In the beginning they assumed that Red Bull would use especially their juniors since they have pumped millions of euros into them. F1 is yet a sport where youthful talent and eagerness isn't enough. The choices have to be made damn carefully and everything has to be taken into consideration.

You can now see the wisdom in hiring experienced drivers like David Coulthard and Mark Webber.

The wholeness is perfect. On top of Red Bull getting into the winners circle they also get to cash in the fruits which seamen they have planted with a big hand all over the world. Sebastian Vettel has practically raced during his whole racing career with Red Bull's money. In the meantime he has become a diamond. Vettel is only 22-years old and he is without doubt the fastest driver in F1 at the moment.

One shouldn't forget that he was 2nd in the championship serie last year!

****

Red Bull has existed for only six years. And it's already as mighty as Ferrari who has been in F1 ever since the 50's. You see rarely a development curve like this, very rarely.

Teams come and go. They rise and fall down. Many try to create a similar success story but only very few new entrepreneurs succeed in it.

Owners, sponsors and partners should be committed to at least five years, even ten years at a time. In practice you don't have quarters like that these days. You also have to get a committed personnel and make them give their everything for a certain cause. The whole team has to be made attractive to the best possible drivers and top engineers.

You have to find the optimal solution.

What is it then?

Let's review Ferrari's pattern. Racing belongs to the car factory's culture. During good and bad financial times the participation to F1 wasn't even questioned. Never.

The team has significant partners but all the decisions are made in Maranello and only in Maranello. Other teams feel the draft coming from many directions. You start giving too much power to significant partners so that they will stay with you.

Ferrari is one of the world's leading and most known brands. It attracts partners and strenghtens more than before Ferrari management's power to run the team's racing activity freely. Partners need Ferrari more than Ferrari needs them.

Ferrari's bosses have always been worshipped persons. Ferrari's culture is so mighty that the team's victories even get the church bells ringing. The Black Stallion is the symbol of victory and success.

Red Bull has as a company aswell as a team a short history and a young culture compared to Ferrari. But the pattern is similar.

I don't think it's a sacrilege to compare Enzo Ferrari and Dieter Mateschitz. Each success story requires a strong, initiative and idealistic person.

A Finnish top boss told me once about his experience when meeting Dieter Mateschitz for the first time in Red Bull headquarters in Austria. "When he stepped into the room through high doors made of oak his charisma filled the whole room."

Enzo Ferrari had the same affect on people.

Everybody wants to be dealing with Red Bull and Mateschitz. Red Bull is a tough brand and Mateschitz is a great boss, success personified. On top of that he has one significant limitating factor compared to other team owners. Mateschitz's own economy is in no way depending on the success of his F1-team.

Red Bull's quality is top class, no matter what the company does. It has conquered their own markets and F1-tracks quickly but convincingly. Soon we can even start talking about permanence.

I have made my own conclusions of a success pattern. The solution is in all it's simplicity that the main sponsor and the owner have to be the one and the same. You have to swear to only one name.

The Black Stallion has been the genre's leading figure throughout it's whole history.

And now it has got a threat on it's premises.

The Red Bull.
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Re: Red Bull

Post by iceman1 » 08 Apr 2010, 20:07

Hi Wolfie, welcome to F1zone.net :)

Toyota, Honda and BMW invested in F1 in an attempt to boost their car sales figures, and a specific of funds is allocated to a department specialised in maintaining this particular team's operations. Red Bull's policies are different, it has a more different policy, Red Bull GmBH is involved in almost every sports, from F1 to football. Red Bull has a division, a semi-independent one, Red Bull Technology.

They have the best combination of Engineers (Adrian Newey) and Drivers (Vettel & Webber). It's a Perfect team

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 08 Apr 2010, 21:47

Hi Iceman and thank you :)

Please tell me if I post something in the wrong place. This place looks great ;)

I'm only learning about Red Bull and phew... they really are spread out all over the world and making their brand known and famous. So far it has been nothing but positive!

Adrian Newey is a wizard, they say that he refuses to use a computer. He still draws his designs on paper. But he can make fast cars and is a genious!

Here's more news about Red Bull:

ONLY NEWEY ISN'T RUSHING WITH COPYING McLAREN
Turun Sanomat 6.4 2010 20:50:32

Last year the F1-world was shaken by the double diffuser which changed the interpretation of regulations about what the word 'hole' can mean.

This spring the F1-thrillers are wondering over an even worse word-monster, F-Duct, which comes from English and isn't easily translated into any other language.

In Finnish it means a channel that directs more air to the backwing. McLaren's idea named by Autosport is F-Duct meaning Flow Duct which is a 'flow-piping' that is in front of the cockpit where the driver directs and controls it with his left knee.

They believe this system gives a clear advantage. Maybe not as big as Brawn's double diffuser last season but it can be counted as an advantage of tenth seconds.

Red Bull has though been the fastest car - just like last season although Adrian Newey didn't rush with copying the diffuser then either.

On Malaysia GP- paddock Newey as a matter of fact reminded that copying McLaren's airchannel is hard work.

– I have examined the system and noted the advantages it brings. But examining and understanding is a completely different story than getting it into another car so it works fully. It's a difficult process because McLaren has built the whole chassis around that system.

– The regulations say that you can't interfer with the chassis. Every novelty you bring during the season has to be brought to the structure that the car has been built upon.

Yet Newey is designing his own version of McLaren's F-Duct but it will be put in RB6-car only after it has proved definitely that it works.

Ferrari's head designer Nikolas Tombazis has according to the Italian media promised that they get their own additional air-channel system to their car in May. They will also get a new suspension geometry to the F10.

– We will go ahead completely according to our program and after a few races we have the best car, Fernando Alonso assured after Malaysia GP.

Sauber already had McLaren's system in their car in Australia but the team has so many other troubles that they haven't yet figured out how it works. Pedro de la Rosa says that Hinwil factory's Albert II -computer confirms the advantage the system gives and that's why Sauber is investing in it's development work.

They also say Mercedes has gone far in internalizing the McLaren-idea and it should be in the W01-car's big update package in Barcelona.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

http://www.ts.fi/f1/uutiset/122838.html

*
Red Bull is pondering about their drivers - Webber's continuance is on stake

According to the Swiss Blick-magazine three drivers racing for Red Bull and Toro Rosso in F1 would have their continuance in the team on stake.

Dietrich Mateschitz who owns the teams is pondering about Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buem, Jaime Alguersuari and Red Bull's Mark Webber and their continuance in a meeting that is going to be held later this season.

They have brought up Kimi Räikkönen in the rumours as Sebastian Vettel's team mate in Red Bull next season but the team hasn't yet officially confirmed that they would be negotiating for a deal with Räikkönen.

Buemi gets Toro Rosso team manager Franz Tost's firm trust. Alguersuari who drives the other car has also improved but according to Blick neither one of the drivers are seen as self-evident. Alguersuari is trusting that he will continue.

- I still have a lot to give. I expect a lot from the endseason, Alguersuari said.

They are bringing up Red Bull's test driver Daniel Ricciardo as one of Toro Rosso's potential option in the rumours.

- Alguersuari is from three to five tenths slower than Buemi but the majority of the tracks are still new to him. Yet we can see him closing up on Buemi little by little, Tost commented to Auto Motor und Sport.

(MTV3)

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.s ... 04/1096300
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Re: Red Bull

Post by apple » 09 Apr 2010, 14:06

I have to disagree with Mildh about one thing. Even Ferrari is not safe from economical influence this year. It is claimed Santander is paying Alonsos salary and also they have significant investments in Brazil. If Marlboro is slowly fading away from their sponsorship ,Ferrari needs Santander. But desicions about teams personnel is made in Maranello like always.

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 09 Apr 2010, 14:18

apple wrote:I have to disagree with Mildh about one thing. Even Ferrari is not safe from economical influence this year. It is claimed Santander is paying Alonsos salary and also they have significant investments in Brazil. If Marlboro is slowly fading away from their sponsorship ,Ferrari needs Santander. But desicions about teams personnel is made in Maranello like always.
I was thinking about the same thing too, Apple :O

To be a fly on the wall during those meetings.... :lol:
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Re: Red Bull

Post by andrebires » 09 Apr 2010, 14:35

apple wrote:I have to disagree with Mildh about one thing. Even Ferrari is not safe from economical influence this year. It is claimed Santander is paying Alonsos salary and also they have significant investments in Brazil. If Marlboro is slowly fading away from their sponsorship ,Ferrari needs Santander. But desicions about teams personnel is made in Maranello like always.
And there is Fiat, the group that own most part of Ferrari. Fiat is the leader car seller in Brazil and this unity is the most profitable in the world, even more than Italy. Maybe this can explain why there's always a brazillian driver on Ferrari since 2000.

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 09 Apr 2010, 16:02

You are right, andrebires! Funny you mentioned year 2000 since that's the year when Santander bought the Brazilian big bank Banespan.
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Re: Red Bull

Post by phillyred79 » 09 Apr 2010, 22:46

Red Bull's success is owed to primarily Adrian Newey and Vettel... When Newey leaves, Red Bull might go down slowly.. It's all about the car.. We all know how tough and talented a driver like Alonso is and thus we have his "poor performance" at Renault in 08-09... Just sayin!

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Re: Red Bull

Post by apple » 10 Apr 2010, 07:05

phillyred79 wrote:Red Bull's success is owed to primarily Adrian Newey and Vettel... When Newey leaves, Red Bull might go down slowly.. It's all about the car.. We all know how tough and talented a driver like Alonso is and thus we have his "poor performance" at Renault in 08-09... Just sayin!
Yep, Newey is a wizard and Vettel their star driver but Red Bull has money to buy efficient people. Sometimes they do go to wrong direction as we saw last year but I would think they have engineers there to learn from Newey.

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 10 Apr 2010, 10:47

apple wrote:
phillyred79 wrote:Red Bull's success is owed to primarily Adrian Newey and Vettel... When Newey leaves, Red Bull might go down slowly.. It's all about the car.. We all know how tough and talented a driver like Alonso is and thus we have his "poor performance" at Renault in 08-09... Just sayin!
Yep, Newey is a wizard and Vettel their star driver but Red Bull has money to buy efficient people. Sometimes they do go to wrong direction as we saw last year but I would think they have engineers there to learn from Newey.
Phillyred, do you know the longest time Newey has stayed in a team? Seems like he is constantly looking for challenges and it's difficult to believe that he is in a team just for the money or am I wrong here?

Apple, Mildh did say in another article that in McLaren they know exactly who Newey thinks so hopefully the engineers in Red Bull get enough of time to learn from Adrian if he leaves the team :pray:

The guy is a wizard :shhh:
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Re: Red Bull

Post by critical » 21 Apr 2010, 13:36

A correction is in order here! Jukka Mildh does NOT work inside F1 and he can hardly be described as a reporter. He used to work as gofer for Mika Salo and Nico Rosberg, but stopped over a year ago. Instead, he is now being portrayed as an "expert" by Finland's Yle broadcasting company, which is causing mirth among the cognoscenti. Mildh's comments and blogs are rather feeble ramblings, which serve no purpose whatsoever. He plain simply is not knowledgeable, analytical, perceptive nor even funny.
The sole purpose of this thread appears to be a blatant attempt to prop Mildh as someone whose views should be taken seriously. It certainly looks like this may have been started by the very same person who goofed to recruit Mildh to Yle in the first place!

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 21 Apr 2010, 14:11

critical wrote:A correction is in order here! Jukka Mildh does NOT work inside F1 and he can hardly be described as a reporter. He used to work as gofer for Mika Salo and Nico Rosberg, but stopped over a year ago. Instead, he is now being portrayed as an "expert" by Finland's Yle broadcasting company, which is causing mirth among the cognoscenti. Mildh's comments and blogs are rather feeble ramblings, which serve no purpose whatsoever. He plain simply is not knowledgeable, analytical, perceptive nor even funny.
The sole purpose of this thread appears to be a blatant attempt to prop Mildh as someone whose views should be taken seriously. It certainly looks like this may have been started by the very same person who goofed to recruit Mildh to Yle in the first place!
I had to check for myself since I heard in a radio interview that Jukka Mildh knows the F1-world since he has worked on both sides of the fence.

He has been Nico Rosberg's manager and personal assistant and he has been a Finnish F1-expert for a long time. He also worked as Mika Salo's personal assistant when Mika Salo drove for Ferrari and he has also done a lot of TV- and marketing jobs around F1.

So I'd say he has some grasp of things and has been inside F1.

But whereas you might find his articles as feeble ramblings I again have enjoyed them a lot since he puts across some good points that give another perspective to things.

With all the F1-reporters in the world you can't say who is to be taken seriously and who isn't.

It's all in the eye of the reader, whereas you might not see anything of value in them I again find them valuable. At least he makes an attempt to explain things instead of reporting some scandals etc.

So calm down :cool:
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Re: Red Bull

Post by critical » 22 Apr 2010, 05:40

Expertise is not a question of taste or opinion. Knowledge on any subject is measurable. Try convincing people in universities that gravity is just an opinion of some chap called Isaac Newton.
It remains a fact that Jukka Mildh's KNOWLEDGE of motor sport in general and F1 in particular is not of the first order and certainly lesser than that of many people who contribute to formus on the web.
And while you may not be able to say which F1 reporters are to be taken seriously, I definitely can. That's what following the sport for long enough and studying the subject does for you.
Oh, and Mildh has NOT been Nico Rosberg's manager - go ask Keke (and duck for his reaction)!

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Moominpappa » 22 Apr 2010, 06:21

It seems that critical is fan of Mustakari and Porttila.
I miss a babysitter

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Re: Red Bull

Post by Wolfie » 22 Apr 2010, 06:57

critical wrote:Expertise is not a question of taste or opinion. Knowledge on any subject is measurable. Try convincing people in universities that gravity is just an opinion of some chap called Isaac Newton.
It remains a fact that Jukka Mildh's KNOWLEDGE of motor sport in general and F1 in particular is not of the first order and certainly lesser than that of many people who contribute to formus on the web.
And while you may not be able to say which F1 reporters are to be taken seriously, I definitely can. That's what following the sport for long enough and studying the subject does for you.
Oh, and Mildh has NOT been Nico Rosberg's manager - go ask Keke (and duck for his reaction)!
Oh boy :roll::

What is your problem?

If you get past the article Jukka Mildh wrote you would also see that it wasn't the only reporter's article. There's also articles from Turun Sanomat and MTV3.

The point was to get a discussion over Red Bull going.

Valuable is not the same thing as being taken seriously. A book that has one sentence that is of value is worth reading IMO. Again: It's all in the reader's eye.

And if you tell who is to be taken seriously and who isn't then sorry, it really makes no difference to me. Whereas I try to learn from the things written by many reporters you again have prejudice and choose to believe or not because of the writer of the article.

Forums are places with a lot of opinions and views. The main thing is to share news, opinions and views.

Members here are probably mostly adults and completely capable of making up their own conclusions. Don't underestimate them and deal with the fact that the world is full of different opinions :wave:
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