2019 F1 Red Bull Racing Team – Drivers, Engines and Stats

Red Bull Racing is one of two Formula One teams owned by beverage maker Red Bull with Scuderia Toro Rosso the other.

The Red Bull team can trace its roots back to the Stewart Grand Prix team that debuted in 1997. Jackie Stewart sold his team to Ford Motor Company in 1999 and Ford rebranded the team by renaming it Jaguar Racing in the next five years. In September 2004, Ford put up Jaguar Racing for sale and it was bought by energy drink giant Red Bull on November 15, 2004.

After buying their own team, Red Bull ended its sponsorship with Sauber Motors which had gone from 1995-2004. Red Bull reached its peak from 2010-2013 when Sebastian Vettel won four straight World Championship titles for the beverage maker. Here is the current schedule and drivers for the 2019 F1 season.

Drivers

For the 2019 Formula One Season, Red Bull Racing has tapped Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly to wear the colors for the Beverage Company. Verstappen started racing for Red Bull in 2017 after having raced the previous three seasons for its sister company Scuderia Toro Rosso. Meanwhile, Gasly began racing with Red Bull only this season after starting for Toro Rosso in the previous two seasons.

The 21-year old Verstappen is the youngest driver to compete in Formula One at 17 years and 166 days old during the 2015 Australian Grand Prix. A year later, he became the youngest driver to win a Grand Prix when he won the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix at age 18. At the same time, Verstappen became the first Grand Prix winner to race under the Dutch flag.

The son of former Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen, Max would begin his racing career in karting before moving on to Formula racing testing. Verstappen first raced at the 2014 Florida Winter Series before finishing third in the 2014 FIA European Formula 3  Championships. After joining the Red Bull junior team, he was called to race for Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso as the youngest F1 driver in history.

Gasly is the new guy in Red Bull, having only joined the team this season. The 23-year old Frenchman also began his career in karting before transitioning to GP2 series where he won the 2016 GP Series championship. The native of Rouen in France made his F1 debut at the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Unlike his decorated teammate Verstappen, Pierre Gasly has never won a Formula One race so far and has never stood at the podium or taken pole position in a total of 29 starts. Gasly’s  best finish ever in Formula One is a 4th place finish at the 2018 Bahrain Grand Prix.

Engines

Red Bull started using Renault engines in 2007 and their partnership came to its peak when Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive Driver’s Championship titles from 2010-2013. But after a new set of engine regulations were introduced in 2014, the Renault turbo-hybrid underperformed.

In 2018, Red Bull boss Christian Horner claimed that Renault was behind schedule in its development of the V6 turbo hybrid engine because it “started too late” in working on it. Horner added that he found it strange why Renault got left behind when they were the ones who pushed very hard for the change in regulation.

So after 12 years, 57 grand prix wins and four World Championships later, Red Bull announced midway the 2018 season that they would be dropping Renault as engine provider in favor of Honda Motors. According to Horner, the move was aimed at giving the team to compete for titles again.

The choice of Honda came after Red Bull was closely monitoring the development of Honda’s F1 engine which is being used by its sister team Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso will continue to run with Honda engines as well, giving the Japanese engine maker two F1 teams this season.

Last month, Red Bull returned to the podium at the first race of the season when Max Verstappen finished third in the 2019 Australian Grand Prix. The win was the first for Honda since returning to the F1 scene in 2015. For Red Bull, it was vindication that they made the right move to change engine suppliers during the offseason.

Stats

As of the latest Formula One Driver’s Standings, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is ranked third overall  behind the two Silver Arrows. Verstappen finished third in the Australian Grand Prix and fourth in both the Bahrain Grand Prix and Shanghai Grand Prix for a total of 39 points. Verstappen finished 4th in the Driver’s Standings in 2018, the highest of his Formula 1 career. In 84 career starts in Formula One, Verstappen has five wins, 23 podiums and 709 career points earned. He has recorded the fastest lap on four instances during his F1 career.

Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly is currently 6th in the Driver’s Standings with 13 points with the two Ferrari drivers in between him and Verstappen at #3. Gasly has finished 11th in Melbourne, 8th in Bahrain and 6th in Shanghai for a total of 13 points in the 2019 Driver’s Standings.

Gasly finished in 15th place last season with a total of 29 points after not having a podium finish during the entire season. In 29 career starts, Gasly hasn’t won a race yet nor has won pole position. However, he has posted the fastest lap once and has accumulated a total of 42 points during his Formula One career.

As far as Formula One betting is concerned, the Red Bull drivers are far from favorites. In the next race this coming April 28th, Verstappen is 5th in the list of favorites at +2500 while Gasly is next at a longshot price of +10000. When it comes to winning the 2019 Driver’s Championship title, Verstappen and Gasly also come in at 5th and 6th in the futures betting at +3300 and +100000, respectively according to Bovada as of 4/15/19. Red Bull Racing ranks third in the oddsboard for Constructor’s Championship at +4000 according to Bovada as of 4/15/19.