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Red Bull Racing is a Formula One team owned by Austrian drinks company Red Bull. Red Bull purchased Jaguar Racing, when the team's parent company Ford announced their withdrawl from Formula 1 at the end of the 2004 season, for an amount reputedly as high as $110 million.
The origins of the team go back to Jackie Stewart's Stewart Formula One team, which first raced in 1997. Stewart's operation was purchased by Ford and renamed Jaguar for the 2000 season. Despite the team's relative youth in comparison to other Formula One constructors such as Ferrari and McLaren, it was considered at the time to be a relatively sucessful outfit, with one grand prix victory achieved in 1999. But despite countless management and technical changes, including the hiring and sacking of high-profile staff such as Niki Lauda and Bobby Rahal, and an abortive attempt to lure Adrian Newey away from McLaren, the team never repeated the sucesses of the Stewart era. Eventully, losing patience with Jaguar's total lack of results, the Ford management opted to pull the plug on the entire operation.
On November 15 2004, Red Bull confirmed that they had acquired the Jaguar team from Ford. The team will continue to race with Cosworth engines in the 2005 season.
Red Bull's billionaire owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, is trying to bring former Formula 1 driver and BMW Motorsport chief (and fellow-Austrian) Gerhard Berger on board to help guide the team through its debut season.
The first chassis will be called the RB1. David Coulthard has been confirmed as a driver for the 2005 season. The Red Bull-backed drivers Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi have both signed to Red Bull Racing with identical contracts. It is thought that this allows either driver to be the second driver or test driver. Liuzzi is at an advantage, however, as Klien is not eligible to be a third driver. It is not yet known which driver will be the second driver for the opening race of the 2005 Formula One season.
On January 7, 2005, Red Bull announced that team managers Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth would be replaced by highly regarded F3000 team Arden International boss Christian Horner.
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