Highs And Lows Of Australia

A look back at some of our good, and not so good times at Albert Park

Everybody

loves

the

Australian

Grand

Prix,

the

weather

fantastic,

the

boisterous

crowds

are

there

their

thousands

and

it’s

one

the

classic

races

the

calendar.

The Australian Grand Prix has been part of the World Championship since 1985 and held in Melbourne since 1996. With that heritage the Team has plenty of memories from its first 19 years of racing in Australia, and here are some of the best – and worst moments – from Oracle Red Bull Racing’s history at Albert Park…

Points

Debut

All the way back in mid-November 2004, Red Bull Racing was born. Just three months later, they were lining up on the grid for the first race of the 2005 season.

Nobody gave the ‘Fizzy Drinks Team’ a chance, but they stood up and took notice after sterling drives from David Coulthard and Christian Klien, finishing P4 and P7 respectively, saw the team collected double points in the first ever race for the Team, putting them P3 in the Constructors Championship at that point. Red Bull Racing had arrived!

First

Silverware

The Bulls ended 2010 with back-to-back wins, so when they arrived in Australia for the start of the 2011 season the Team was ready to race and hopeful for the season ahead.

It was a great start to the weekend with Sebastian Vettel qualifying on pole, 0.778s ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P2. He followed this up on Sunday with a great start at lights out and was able to convert this into a 22s lead by the chequered flag, collecting the Team’s first win (and podium) in Australia.

Close,

Yet

Far

2014 saw huge regulations changes in the sport and it also saw a new Bull driving for the Team: Daniel Ricciardo. One fact that haunts Australians is that since the Australian Grand Prix joined the F1 calendar, no Aussie driver has stood on the podium at their home race.

Mark Webber came close in 2012 finishing P4, and it seemed as if the curse was lifted when Danny Ric finished P2 in his debut for the Team. However, in Parc Fermé the FIA inspected Daniel’s RB10 and deemed that under the new regulations it had an illegal fuel flow, giving the car too much power. The organisers then stripped Daniel of his silverware and disqualified him. The Australians are still waiting for their first home race hero.

The

Race

That

Never

Was

The 2020 season was due to start on March 15 and all the teams arrived in Australia ready to compete. But there was a slight problem, you may have heard of it, it was COVID-19.

The World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic three days before the race and then on Friday morning, just before the cars were ready to go on track for FP1 organisations cancelled the race and teams were sent home.

Despite this, the 2020 season still went ahead, albeit starting in July and being reduced. Much to everyone’s delight, the Australian Grand Prix returned in 2022.

Good

And

Bad

Talking of 2022, the team experienced the highs and lows of racing in one day. Qualifying had gone well with Max in P2 and Checo just behind in P3. Unfortunately, in the race on lap 39 Max suffered a fuel issue which caused a small fire in his RB18 forcing him to retire. However, Checo suffered no such issue and finished the race in P2, giving him his first podium of the season. After that retirement, Max never finished lower than P7 for the rest of the season.

Max

Top

We all know how dominant the Team were last year. And Max took pole position and the race win, however it was Checo’s race that made people realise what a beast the RB19 was.

In Q1 his car locked up due to a technical issue and sent him into the gravel. Meaning he had to start the 58-lap race from the pitlane. By lap eight, when the red flags were waved, Checo was already up to P14. He dropped back to P16 at the restart, but then he went on the charge and there was no stopping him. At the chequered flag he had climbed 15 places to finish in P5, proving that he truly believes in his mantra written on his helmet – never give up!

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Max On The Charge

Simply lovely

Max With The Spoils