2015 was by no stretch of the imagination a decent year for Red Bull Racing. The first post-Vettel year for the team was one hampered by a woeful Renault power unit (in terms of power, reliability, driveability and the list goes on) and a pretty sub-par chassis by Red Bull standards. Regardless, the team was still able to deliver three podiums. Despite publicly slamming Renault throughout the year and despite rumours of numerous possible power unit suppliers coming in – Honda, Lamborghini, Audi, Ferrari to name a few, the Red Bull F1 2016 car will remain with Renault power – albeit rebadged to Tag Heuer, who replaces Infiniti as primary sponsor.
The Drivers
Daniel Ricciardo
2011: HRT
2012-2013: Toro Rosso
2014-: Red Bull
2014 F1 third placed driver
Daniel Ricciardo was beaten by his team mate for the first time since 2012 last year in terms of points, but the Australian arguably had a better season than his less experienced team mate. He was somewhat critical of his team at multiple times last year and the rumours that he will be joining Mercedes for 2017 will not go away. Should Renault get their act together, we should arguably see a feistier Ricciardo than we saw last year. Perhaps we could see him perform at the standard he did in 2014, where he was picking up podiums and race wins.
Daniil Kvyat
2014: Toro Rosso
2015-: Red Bull
2013 GP3 series champion
Daniil Kvyat’s first season with Red Bull racing was very solid. The young Russian took his first podium at Hungary and troubled Daniel Ricciardo very frequently. It will be interesting to see whether he maintains that momentum into 2016, or whether the balance will swing in Ricciardo’s favour. This intra-team battle turned out to be one of the closer ones last year, so it will definitely be worth watching again this year.
Testing
Despite the fairly late non-switch to Renault power, Red Bull completed a solid amount of distance in testing. The car appears more reliable than it was this time last year, but the uncertainty about the power unit supplier will almost certainly have hurt them. Their times were nothing to shout about, notably those on the new Ultra Soft tyre, but there is every chance that Red Bull could have been holding something back.
Prediction
This could be an even tougher year for Red Bull than the last. The likes of Williams and Force India have made a clear step forward and Renault’s power unit seems to be still lagging behind what Mercedes and Ferrari produced last year. Their chassis should propel them to some strong results but their trips to the rostrum could become even less frequent than they were in 2015. It would be surprising if Red Bull managed to finish higher than fifth.
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