Brilliant first race for RBR

By John Sharpe
March 6 2005

Since 1954, there has not been a new team to start a Formula One season with both of their cars in the points in their first race. Red Bull Racing shattered that today with a brilliant drive by both David Coulthard and Christian Klien.

Both drivers started from fifth and sixth on the grid and once the lights went out, RBR made a huge statement to the rest of the field. Check your mirrors, there may be a Bull charging behind you!

For 131 days, I have been waiting for this season to begin. The minute that Red Bull purchased Jaguar and hired DC I became an instant fan. I have always championed the strong possibility that RBR would score a top ten finish in their first race. Now not to toot my own horn but really, let’s think about it. The RBR package looks awesome. Even with a heavy fuel load, DC was quick off the line and disposed of early Jacques Villeneuve and Mark Webber. The car also displayed some serious guts as the Cosworth engine held up wondefully and was strong throughout the race.

Note worthy here is the fact that after Fridays first qualifying session, DC struggled with overseer and balance issues. The new technical team did a superb job to get him on the grid in fourth with Klien in fifth. Throughout the race, DC was charging and set fastest lap on lap 17 with a 1m 26.853. At one point, Giancarlo Fisichella’s engineers tell him over the radio on lap 28 that “Coulthard is in second, 10 seconds back and quicker.”

Both of our drivers were involved in some good fights for position but I am especially pleased with young Christian Klien. He had some tough battles with Nick Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya early on for fifth, sixth and seventh. That continued with Christian fighting to keep eighth position from Kimi Raikkonen while trying to chase down Montoya just ahead of him near the end of the race.

Until today, RBR was kind of an unknown factor. Would the Cosworth engine hold up during the race? Would the tires pose an issue early? How was the over all balance of the chassis? Well I think fourth and seventh place just answered that question. DC’s tires looked fine and the car seems to have been set up perfectly. As a whole, I was surprised that most of the tires out their on the grid did not have blistering problems and that degradations was not an issue. My only concern was the constant glow from DC’s brakes towards the finish - Were they going to hold up I kept thinking to myself.

For the first time in a long time, DC looks relaxed, if not comfortable driving again. As I watched his every move, I could not help but think that this was a different driver from all of those years. One that thought he deserved to be the winner today. Forget about the speed and the brilliance of the Renaults. They hit the mark in Melbourne, but DC was a man on a mission and RBR gave him the tools to go out and complete that mission. I must admit that at one point I was looking forward to a second place finish from DC today but hey, fourth is great. Change is proving to be a very good thing for Coulthard. Free of Mclaren and free to be himself, David looks fresh and his times showed it during the race. David made a comment recently regarding his tenure in F1 and that his greatest asset to RBR is the fact that he knows and has worked with many different people. Because of this, he has the ability to attract new technical talent to the team.

Whatever the case may be, this new technical team seems to be hitting their stride and with their feet firmly on the ground. Only good things can come out of this now. We have proven to the F1 community that we may be a dark horse this year but that is not to say that we will not be in the hunt for points all year long and dare I say it, podiums as well? There, I said it.

Congratulations to both DC and Christian Klien and to the entire Red Bull Racing staff - Great job in Melbourne!