F1 End of Season Report: Rate the Team - Red Bull Racing

[Paul Jeffrey]

Although the hoped for title fight failed to materialise in 2017, the year gone was still a very impressive season for the Red Bull Racing outfit.

With wins in the bag for both Ricciardo and Verstappen, plenty of eye catching performances and third overall in the constructors championship, 2017 was far from a failure for the Milton Keynes based former World Championship winning team.

Lumbered with a less than ideal Renault motor, the Austrian owned outfit still managed to achieve plenty over the course of the year thanks to some outstanding drives for both Ricciardo and Verstappen and canny work on the Red Bull pit wall, however yet another season without offering a serious championship challenge will no doubt hurt the team when they reflect back on the year just gone.

The question is, how do you think Red Bull performed over the course of 2017?

Vote now to tell us how you rate 2017 Formula One season for Red Bull Racing, and leave a comment below!

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[Stnry]

8. They did reasonably well, not always equal to merc als Ferrari but most of the Time a Team that kept the "fast 4" out of their Comfort Zone. The chassis is performing really well.
Had to many technical issues this Season. I'm looking forward to their Performance Next seasons. These guys ar Beasts when it comes to entertaining in certain situations. (e.g. Dani at monza)

 

[boomn]

They looked good the second half of the year or so, which is relieving because they started the year so much worse than expected, even considering the Renault engine in the back. I know they claimed correlation issues with the wind tunnel, but that correlation must have been really bad to convince them to go down a wrong path with aero design and then change course mid year

The drivers, on the other hand, were great!

 

[snyperal]

I got tired of seeing vettel disappear into the distance in the red bull. Now they are a bit of an underdog with the talents of verstappen and Danny Ric I quite enjoy watching them slug it out with an underperforming car / engine. They punch above their weight and got into some pretty good battles with both ferrari and merc.

I also enjoy christian horners interviews and in race commentary, top bloke.

9/10 for me, they did very well pinching some victories, their reliability was an issue and hopefully this will be something that's rectified for 2018.

 

[capndorkus00]

RB13 with 13 retirements.

Gave them an 8. They did a solid season but not up to expectations (more wins, title conteder) and has not proved since 2013 of championship material yet. With that TAG (Renault) power unit they maxed it out and at races like Malaysia and Mexico only then did they manage to pace Ferrari and Mercedes.

Overall, pretty dismal (given their budget, crew size, 4-time World Champion status) but you have to give big credits to Daniel and Max for proving their worth as potential future champs

 

[Frietpan]

I still think its sorta weird, a energydrink company racing with aston martin stickers and a renault engine wich is branded tag heuer a clock maker.

the coolest guys around tho. a 9. im looking forward to see them battle with mc laren. (see if the chassis really is the best as they say)

 

[Esploratore]

Gave them 8 too, obviously you can't compare force india and red bull performance this year, even initially, when red bull was getting 1 minute gap from ferrari and mercedes, other teams still had no chance to keep up with them, but force india had a lot smaller budget.

So I hold against red bull the early season where like said they were off the pace of ferrari and mercedes and the reliability, since we're evaluating the whole team here.

Drivers were awesome, and so was the car in exceptional races, like malaysia, where hamilton simply couldn't keep verstappen behind and he isn't one to just let someone pass, he avoided risks, but hamilton 10 sec behind verstappen says a lot about red bull in that race, even if I like verstappen, and also mexico, where I think he'd have won even if it weren't for the collision with hamilton and vettel, but it was also still off the pace, assuming mainly due to engine, in the last 2 races.

Hopefully they can get a better engine next year and be competitive from the start, verstappen and ricciardo are absolutely championship contenders if the car matches the performance of their rivals.

 

[Michel Forest]

9. They did very well, had a terrific car and, with a better engine, could have finished ahead of Ferrari in the constructors championship. Too bad they had so many retirements. They have the best duo of drivers in the paddock. Looking forward to 2018 to see if they can challenge Mercedes.

 

[mopro]

Start watching F1 when Senna in Lotus, I think the last time I really enjoyed following F1 races is the Schumacher's Ferrari era. Starting from there, I only watched the tv live race coverage occasionally. Hamilton is obviously a fantastic driver, but I just don't find him interesting to watch. Bottas, Max and Ricciardo are the future stars imo.

 

[LeSunTzu]

RedBull had to fight with a massively underperforming and extremely unreliable power unit. Their drivers were systematically and unfairly penalized by inconsistent stewart decisions. As always the team put admirable resistance against the Mercedes-Ferrari evil axis that pulls the strings behind the curtain.

Thanks to Christian Horner the bad guys have been exposed. So we know that with another engine, other stewarts and different regulations they would have won it hands down.

 

[XCalinX]

Best chassis and aero on the grid, but they're held back by the Renault engine

 

[Jan Larsen]

Again a poll that should be seperated. Redbull a solid 8, Renault an under-performing 4.
The Redbull chassis has been the best chassis for years, but both Merc and Ferrari have caught up. They still have the technological knowhow to produce a good chassis, provided they get the aero to work from race 1. Also, put a decent engine (Merc or Ferrari) in it and it'll be right up there, consistently.
The Renault engine on the other hand; they really need to sort out reliability and gain performance at the same time, otherwise they'll never be championship contenders. They may be good in one race as was seen in Mexico, but then fail miserably as was seen in Brazil. Having to scale back performance in order to finish just wont cut it when the other big two dont have to and just motors away. That means work to do, and Renault have their work cut out.

 

[wombat999]

I rated RBR a 9 for being the 'best of the rest' with two first rate drivers and arguably the very best designer in Adrian Newey.
Early season problems certainly held RBR back, but they came good in the second half.
Consistency was a problem, not always attributed to the Renault drive train.
Management appeared to be bad, Horner seems to have been working under the supervision of the execrable Helmuth Marko, a person who has no place in an F1 team of any standing.
Great chassis and aero can't make up for a lack of grunt and crap management.
Maybe next season.

 

[DrSmile]

Too many Driver Errors and technical failures cost too much Points. Too slow on high Speed tracks. But when it all worked together they gave ferrari and merc a hard time and are very cool to watch cause sparks everywhere

 

[Rodent]

I would give them a 7 or even an 8, but the way they've been trash talking Renault I can't help but think they've dug themselves a hole where their only choice will be to go Honda no matter what and unless Honda recovers massively this year, that'll come back bite'em hard.

So a 6 though no shadow on their drivers, both have the potential to be future WDCs.