The Best Of The BestTaking a look at the eight best moments from our 299 races.
Threehundredraces.It’saprettyheftymilestoneandoverthepast299raceswe’verackedup63wins,180podiums,62polepositionsandeightchampionships.It’sarollcallofwhichwe’reextremelyproudof,butitdoespresentanalmightyheadachewhenyou’reaskedtopickouttheverybestmomentsfromthose300grandsprix.
We’ve all probably got our own personal favourites and the debates are destined to go on long into the night, so we did what any self-respecting adjudicating panel would do: we chose the first eight that came to mind figuring that the moments most easily recalled were the ones that made the biggest impression.
Our first podium finish. Monaco is always special, but the 2006 race weekend was supercharged by the Team’s partnership with that year’s Superman Returns Hollywood blockbuster. That meant a Man-of-Steel style livery on the RB2 and some steely moments on track from David Coulthard.
The Scot was incensed on Saturday when he qualified ninth after being blocked by Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian was subsequently handed a penalty for the incident and when Michael Schumacher was sent to the back of the grid following a moment of madness at the end of qualifying when he prevented Fernando Alonso from completing a final flyer by stopping at Rascasse,
DC was bumped to seventh for the start. And in the race he toughed it out through a risky one-stop strategy to climb from 12th after his stop to third at the chequered flag. Coulthard’s reward was to clamber out of his RB2 on the grid and take the few short steps to the low podium where he was handed a Superman cape that he proudly wore to collect his trophy.
The cape came in handy a little later as Team boss Christian Horner had promised that if the Team finished on the podium he’d jump naked into the swimming pool on the top deck of the Energy Station. And the team principal was as good as his word, though he did borrow DC’s cape to preserve a semblance of modesty.
Over the course of 299 races to date, we’ve picked up some incredible wins, and in many minds our 50th stands out as one of the finest – mostly due to the fact that Spa-Francorchamps wasn’t a track that should have suited the RB10 in a year when the switch to hybrid power put the Team at a serious disadvantage.
But, at the start of the race Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, involved in an increasingly bitter title fight, collided while tussling for the lead. And who was there to mop up – none other than smiling assassin Daniel Ricciardo.
The Aussie took the race by scruff of the neck and stormed into an unassailable lead as Rosberg battled back to second from the rear of the field. In the closing stages Daniel had to carefully manage his tyres and the gap back to a hard-charging Rosberg but he took the win with style and celebrated with another trademark shoey.
It doesn’t matter whether you think Monaco is over-hyped, vulgar or even consider it to be a racing anachronism; it’s still F1’s biggest grand prix and the race every team and driver wants to win. So, for moment number three we head back to glitter gulch and our first win in the Principality.
Having taken pole at the first five races of the season, the Team went to Monaco, where qualifying has a strong tendency to determine the outcome of the race, as odds-on favourites. It wasn’t easy as Renault’s Robert Kubica was in inspired form. The Pole led the way for half of Q3, before Mark revealed the true pace of the RB6 and took pole position by three-tenths of a second. Kubica had to settle for P2 with Sebastian Vettel in third place on the grid.
On Sunday Mark nailed the start and led through Ste Devote and settled into the lead ahead of Seb who had got past Kubica. His advantage was erased on lap 32 when the second safety car of the race was deployed after Rubens Barrichello suffered a suspension failure.
Mark negotiated the re-start well and began to once again open a gap – only for the safety car to intervene again on lap 42, while marshals took a look at a drain cover where Barrichello had suffered his failure. That was declared safe and racing resumed on lap 45.
Webber again rebuilt his advantage and now began to look comfortable. However, with 10 laps left Mark was suddenly told to back off his pace and baby the car to the flag. His lead began to narrow but thankfully for the Aussie a final safety car for a collision involving Jarno Trulli and Karun Chandhok brought out the safety car for the final laps. The safety car stayed out until the final lap; it pulled in at the end of the last lap, allowing Mark to lead the field over the line to take a famous victory.
5.Max'sFirstPoleInHungaryAndWinInAustria2019
After a shaky start to racing in our backyard at the Red Bull Ring when the Austrian Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2015, we began to make inroads in 2016 when Max Verstappen finished second.
A single taste of bubbly in the Styrian mountains wasn’t quite enough for Max, however, and in 2018 he scored a memorable first home win for the Team.
However, it was his 2019 performance at the Ring that really stands out. On Saturday he claimed a solid third place on the grid, a result he said left him “smiling in the car” as he felt it gave him a good chance in the race.
That chance looked to have evaporated as soon as the lights went on Sunday though. A technical glitch engaged the anti-stall at the start and Max immediately dropped to seventh place.
The fight back though was a sight to behold. With pace in abundance, the Dutchman simply scythed through the pack and in the closing stages he closed in on race leader Charles Leclerc.
What followed was one of the season’s great wheel-banging battles, a dogfight that ended when Max made a decisive move down the inside as the pair went into turn three. They clashed and Leclerc ran wide but the move was good and Max powered to a memorable second win on home soil.
4.OurFirstF1PoleAndVictory
Technical failures, one-lap wonders, torrential rain, an unexpected one-two – everything about the Team’s first win and first pole at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix was pretty remarkable.
The drama started on Saturday when a failing half shaft on Seb’s RB5 led to some hasty and hopeful repairs. The good news was that the problem was rectified. The bad news was that it was only enough to afford the rising German star a single run in Q3 to do his best. No one delivered in quali quite like Seb in those days though and on his sole run he delivered a scorching lap of simply outrageous commitment and pace to secure a remarkable pole position.
That should have been the hardest work of the weekend but on Sunday the heavens opened and victory looked as intangible as ever. The weather was so bad that a safety car start was ordered, a move that forced short-fuelled Fernando Alonso to pit early after starting from P2. That allowed Vettel and Mark Webber to settle into one-two formation.
Mark would briefly lose P2 to Jenson Button, twice, but on lap 29 he powered past the Brawn GP man to once again sit in second place and with Seb once again demonstrating the wet weather prowess he’d displayed in Monza the year before the Team streamed to its first win and first one-two finish.
In 2016 Max went into his sophomore-year with Toro Rosso in fine form, scoring point finishes in each of the opening three rounds. Meanwhile, at Red Bull Racing, Daniil Kvyat’s fortunes were headed in the opposite direction. The Russian was struggling for form and after early-season on-track clashes with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in China and Russia, it was clear something had to give.
The solution was an intriguing driver swap. Kvyat returned to Toro Rosso, while Max was suddenly elevated to the senior team. There was just one problem – the 18-year-old Dutchman had just 10 days to get used to the team and the RB12 before competing for the Team for the first time at the Spanish Grand Prix.
But true to form, Max simply ignored whatever odds were stacked against him and made F1 history. The Dutch ace capitalised on a first-lap clash between the Mercedes drivers to take up P2 behind teammate Daniel Ricciardo and when a three-stop strategy disadvantaged the Australian, Max swept into the lead.
In the closing stages he had to heroically defend against a hard-charging Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari but eventually he crossed the line to become F1’s youngest winner at the age of 18 years, 7 months and 16 days.
2.FirstConstructorsAndDriversChampionships
The 2010 season was undoubtedly one of the most exciting and unpredictable in recent memory, with no team or driver fully in control of their respective championships until the closing stages.
In the Constructors’ battle, Ferrari led the way after three races, only to be eclipsed by McLaren, who then led until round six where a one-two in Monaco vaulted us to the top of the chart. McLaren were back in the ascendant after the next round, however, and the pattern continued right up to round 12 when first and third for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel put the Team back in control.
Even ahead of round 18, though, there were just 27 points between us and McLaren and the title could have gone either way. A fabulous one-two in Interlagos sealed the deal, however, and the Team took the first of four consecutive Constructor’s titles.
That win in Brazil, allied to victory in Japan the month before, put Sebastian Vettel into contention for the Drivers’ title too. However, going to the final round in Abu Dhabi the German was 15 points behind title leader and two-time champion Fernando Alonso. And as the youngest among a four-strong pack of contenders that also included Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, Vettel was the rank outsider.
Seb hadn’t read that script however and after securing pole on Saturday he simply powered into the distance at the race start. Ferrari then opted to cover main title rival Webber during the pit stops and when the Spaniard emerged stuck behind Renault’s Vitaly Petrov, Seb’s path to glory was assured. He became F1’s youngest ever champion and began a remarkable journey to three more titles over the following three seasons.
1.FourthConstructorsandDriversChampionship
After becoming a force to be reckoned with in 2009, the Team quickly became an unstoppable juggernaut and in 2013 the Team’s ability to dominate its rivals through development was taken to another level when, after a rocky start to the season, Sebastian Vettel won every single race following the summer break, establishing a new record of nine consecutive wins.
The apogee of his and the Team’s achievement came a little over halfway through that run with a Drivers’ title-winning victory at the Indian Grand Prix. So comprehensive was his win that took the chequered flag almost 30 seconds clear of P2 man Nico Rosberg of Mercedes.
And when he came back to pit straight after his slow down lap Seb celebrated in style, pirouetting his RB9 through a series of tyre-smoking donuts before climbing out of his car and bowing down before the all-conquering machine.
