Tag: Red Bull

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Sebastian Vettel wins 2010 World Drivers Championship

2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel is the 2010 Formula One World Champion. He is the youngest man to reach the summit of motorsport’s highest peak. Vettel claimed his crown by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was Vettel’s fifth race win of the year and he had never led the Championship until this race.

While his nearest rivals, Red Bull Racing team-mate Mark Webber (8th) and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso (7th) faltered due to poor pit strategy, Vettel drove a masterful race. Simply, the least experienced driver in the hunt for the title was the most controlled diver all weekend.

Red Bull Racing won the Constructors’ Championship last weekend in Brazil, and Vettel’s success has capped off a phenomenal year for the team.

Post-race press conference and image gallery from Abu Dhabi to follow later today.

[Pics: via OneHD]

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Ferrari Formula 1 McLaren Red Bull Racing

2010 Abu Dhabi GP – Pre-race press conference

2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

There’s not long to go now. The first Free Practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix begins in under 12 hours. This is the first time in Formula One history that four drivers have still been in the hunt for the Drivers’ title going into the last race.

There are numerous permutations that could lead to any one of those guys in the picture above being crowned World Champion after the race; the pressure on Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Mark Webber, in particular, is huge. Check out the pre-race presser after the break to see how they’re coping so far.

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber drives virtual lap of Yas Marina

Red Bull Racing

There’s just four sleeps to go until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Just four sleeps until we learn the ultimate outcome of the 2010 Formula One season. Until then one of the main players, Mark Webber, is talking about the hot, new and clean Yas Marina track. With three ideal spots for overtaking, let’s hope this race is exciting and as close as the entire season has been to date. And, of course, that Mark wins and Alonso finishes third, or lower.

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Ferrari Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

2010 Brazilian GP – Post-race press conference

2010 Brazilian Grand Prix

So it was another Red Bull Racing one-two in Brazil this morning, with the young German Sebastian Vettel taking the win to keep his title hopes well and truly alive. Australia’s Mark Webber came home second and is still the closest man to Ferrari’s Fernando, some eight points behind. Alonso, third, simply needs to finish second or better at next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to become the youngest man to be crowned a triple World Champion.

The Constructors’ Championship was decided in Sao Paulo with the maximum points haul for Red Bull enough for the Milton Keynes based outfit to deny the chances of McLaren. Cast your mind back to the bits and pieces that were left over from the old Jaguar team at the end of 2004 and consider their reincarnation as Red Bull Racing is now the best team in F1; very impressive given the resources and history of their closest opponents. As Team Principal it is fair and reasonable that Christian Horner was on the podium to claim the team’s trophy, perhaps, though, it should have been Adrian Newey; without him the RB6 may not have been the dominant car in season 2010.

Clearly Fernando Alonso is the odd man out in the picture above, will it be him, or one of the Red Bull men with the broadest smile after the season finale?

You can gauge the thoughts of all three contenders with the full transcript from the post-race press conference below.

[Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber: “It’s crunch time”

Mark Webber

It’s no surprise that the pressure on Mark Webber will be huge this weekend. But, as a new post on his website testifies, he’s ready and willing for the challenge, “It’s crunch time: we have two races in the space of eight days, at the end of which we’ll know the identity of the 2010 world champion.

“It doesn’t get bigger than this and I feel 110 percent ready for the fight.”

Crucially, and partly on the back of last year’s victory in Brazil, Mark goes into the race full of confidence, “I’ve never been outqualified by a team-mate at Interlagos,” he said.

“I can think of no better time to take another victory than now; you can be sure that I’ll do everything in my power to achieve that.”

[Source: MarkWebber.com | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

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Formula 1

Formula One: 30 years on, will history repeat?

Alan Jones

The official Formula 1 website has an article reminding us 2010 is the 30th anniversary of Alan Jones‘ world championship triumph. When you read the opening paragraph it could easily be re-used for Mark Webber.

“His belligerence was partly a by-product of a long and hard struggle to make it to Formula One racing in the first place. Once there, he was considered little more than a journeyman driver, until he teamed up with the then equally undistinguished Williams Red Bull team.”

See what I mean.

This weekend sees Webber return to Interlagos to defend his Brazilian Grand Prix trophy. A repeat of his 2009 victory would cut Fernando Alonso’s title lead by at least seven points and ensure the final race at Abu Dhabi will decide the winner.

If you were writing the script, the return of an Australian to the summit of Formula One would be a nice fit 30 years after the last Aussie achieved the ultimate prize. It’s worth noting, then, Jones won the last two Grands Prix of his title winning season. A repeat of that stat for Mark Webber would be a wonderful way to cap off his best F1 season to date.

Incidentally, today is Alan Jones’ birthday. So, happy birthday to you AJ, may all your wishes come true. And those of all Australian F1 fans, as well!

[Source: Formula1.com | Pic: AlanJones.com.au]

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Ferrari Formula 1 Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2010 Korean Grand Prix in pictures

2010 Korean Grand Prix

“Our Mark” binned it! Can you believe it. It was a race that promised so much; an opportunity for Webber to really intensify the pressure on his rivals. Instead, on a dramatic and soaking wet afternoon in Yeongam, Mark put it into the wall and he walked away empty handed. Pressure does strange things and amplifies the tiniest of indiscretions. It was a mistake that needn’t have happened. Webber cracked on Sunday.

Worse, it looked like his fiercest rival, Sebastien Vettel, was going to rub his nose in it with a comfortable victory. A win that would have put the young German 11 points ahead of Webber and the shift in power across the garage would likely have been irreversible. For Mark, at least, fate dealt a helping hand when a dominant Vettel was robbed of certain victory after his Renault engine disintegrated with no apparent warning.

Only too happy to watch the imploding Red Bulls ahead of him Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was there to pick up the pieces. He drove solidly and mostly kept himself out of trouble, despite the woeful light conditions towards the end of the race. Amazingly, he now finds himself 11 points ahead of Webber in the drivers’ title race. A few weeks back he was the fifth man in the chasing pack.

With just two more races to go, can Fernando hold off the inevitable challenge from those closest behind? Brazil is next and Webber is the defending race winner. How he would love an encore performance in two weeks time.

For now, though, catch up on all the drama from last weekend with 80 pics from the inaugural Korean Grand Prix.

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2010 Japanese Grand Prix in pictures

2010 Japanese GP

Formula One action was all go on Sunday in Suzuka. Thanks to the rained out qualifying session the day before racegoers got to see a full qualifying session and a race all in the one day. What they saw was an unassailable Sebastian Vettel who topped all three quali sessions and led the race virtually from start to finish.

Our boy Mark Webber maintained his championship lead with a solid second place. The Red Bull duo still can’t shake of a persistent Ferrari challenge from Fernando Alonso, who also finished on the podium. McLaren’s Jenson Button was fourth, able to take advantage of more frustration for Lewis Hamilton; this time in the form of another dodgy gearbox.

However, aside from Sebastian and Mark, this race was all about fighting for the scraps. A couple of brain farts at the start ensured there were a few more scraps too, with Virgin Racing’s Lucas di Grassi reportedly crashing on the warm up lap. Vitaly Petrov made a mess of his Renault at the start—that’s him above, on the grass with half his car missing. And Felipe Massa continued to flounder by barely making it into the first corner. It’s a shame the latter two took some Force India and Williams collateral damage with them, too.

Local lad Kamui Kobayashi in his Sauber went on a late charge and provided plenty of entertainment and loads of heart-in-mouth overtaking moves. He made them all stick, though, and continues to show he has raw pace by the bucketful.

Relive the race for yourself by checking out our gallery below, with thanks to the F1 teams who offer great access to some fantastic photography.

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Ferrari Formula 1 Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

Japanese GP qualifying washed out

2010 Japanese Grand Prix

It would be out of the ordinary for AUSmotive to feature an image gallery on a Grand Prix weekend before the race had been run. It would be out of the ordinary for qualifying to be cancelled due to heavy and persistent rain. But these extraordinary events have happened today, and when you see the pictures, mostly taken during this morning’s Free Practice 3 session, you will see why.

Heavy rain started to fall this morning at the Suzuka circuit and barely abated all day. Despite several delays to allow conditions to improve qualifying was eventually called off and is now scheduled to be run tomorrow morning at 10am Japan time (midday AEDT). The race will go ahead as scheduled at 3pm (5pm AEDT). Weather conditions are expected to improve.

As well as the pics below you can also read the concise and somewhat humourous qualifying report from Lotus Racing.

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Ferrari Formula 1 Lotus McLaren Mercedes-Benz Red Bull Racing Renault

2010 Singapore Grand Prix in pictures

2010 Singapore GP

Fernando added to his Italian Grand Prix win to make it a double with victory in Singapore. By doing so he has put himself right at the pointy end of the driver’s title race; he’s now second. Sebastien set the field alight during practice but faltered during qualifying and played second fiddle to Alonso for the rest of weekend, despite having the faster car. But for a couple of Safety Car periods these guys would have led the field home with a minute to spare, they were streets ahead.

Mark struggled during the weekend and started from fifth, but a pit stop gamble after the first Safety Car period inside five laps saw him claw his way into third place after the lead cars completed their stops. After the second Safety Car period Hamilton, in fourth, made a ballsy move to overtake Mark. It almost came off, too, but there was contact between the two and Webber walked away with the luck, while Hamilton was forced to take an early shower for the second race in a row.

Aside from that, the action was a bit light on, save for a few hit and giggle incidents towards the back of the field. Perhaps the only other aspect of this race worth noting is the ease with which Schumacher gets pushed aside by his peer group these days. It indicates the seven time champion continues to struggle with the pace of current day F1 cars.

Recapture the vibe with over 70 images after the break.

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Mark Webber drives virtual lap of Valencia

Mark Webber

Mark Webber is back to tell us all about the nice weather and the relaxed racegoers he expects to find at the European Grand Prix this weekend. He also manages to find the time to take us on a virtual tour of the Valencia track.

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Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Webber signs with Red Bull Racing for 2011

Mark Webber

Mark Webber has signed a one-year contract extension with Red Bull Racing that will see him stay with the team for the 2011 Formula One season.

According to Webber negotiations were well underway before the Turkish Grand Prix debacle, “It was an easy decision to remain with Red Bull Racing. We began talking very early this year and were in a position to sign by the Barcelona Grand Prix.

“The decision to extend for a further year was a mutual one; it’s widely known that I’m not interested in hanging around in Formula 1 just for the sake of it and at this stage of my career, I’m happy to take one year at a time.”

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