Red Bull Junior Team

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Vettel in a Formula Three Euroseries car in 2006. Note prominent Red Bull sponsorship.

The Red Bull Junior Team is a program run by the energy drink company Red Bull in an attempt to identify potential future racing stars in open wheel racing. The similar Red Bull Driver Search, now ended, was an American spinoff of the same idea; Scott Speed is a protege of that scheme.

Members of the Junior Team are financed and often also sponsored by Red Bull in lower racing formulae.

The driver development program has been successful in bringing a selection of drivers into Formula One. However, only one of them (Sebastian Vettel) has won a Formula One race. Many others have third driver testing positions in the series with various teams.

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[edit] Red Bull Junior Team

Red Bull Junior Team is Red Bull's European driver programme. Red Bull offers funding and support for promising young drivers. The company also sponsors several racing teams and drivers, particularly in the GP2 Series, the Formula One "feeder series".

The scheme has been successful, with several of the drivers backed by Red Bull making it into Formula One:

As well as these, Red Bull supports many up-and-coming young drivers:

In 2004 Red Bull bought Jaguar Racing and renamed the team Red Bull Racing for the 2005 Formula One season. This offered an easy way in to Formula One for Red Bull Junior Team's drivers.

[edit] Red Bull Driver Search

Red Bull Driver Search was an American scheme run from 2002 to 2005 in parallel with the Red Bull Junior Team. Its aim was "Searching for the future American F1 Champion".[1] Another goal was to create "the first ever All-American Formula 1 team."

There has been one clear star of Red Bull Driver Search: Scott Speed. After being one of four winners of the 2002 Red Bull Driver Search[2], Speed went on to compete in British Formula 3, before winning the German and Eurocup Formula Renault Championships. In 2005, Speed impressed onlookers with his performances in the GP2 Series and, after a short stint in A1 Grand Prix for A1 Team USA, Speed drove for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One in the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

Red Bull Driver Search formally concluded on 17 October 2005.[3] Part of the reason it concluded is because Scott Speed, a Driver Search participant, successfully made it to Formula One.[4]

[edit] A victim of its own success?

Many talented drivers have risen through the ranks of Red Bull's driver programmes — so many, in fact, that Red Bull did not have the space to bring all of their best drivers into Formula One. In the 2005 Formula One season the second Red Bull Racing seat was shared between Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi, with the drivers swapping between races. To further complicate matters, Scott Speed was vying for a place in Formula One but had to make due with being a non-racing third driver.

If it becomes clear that drivers that are part of Red Bull's driver programmes will simply get held in a queue to join Red Bull Racing they will inevitably break their ties with Red Bull in an attempt to make their own way into another Formula One team.[citation needed] There had been suggestions[citation needed] that Red Bull may pay smaller teams such as Midland F1 to race their drivers in an attempt to stop their talented drivers from leaving.

To solve this problem, in late 2005, Red Bull instead purchased the Minardi Formula One team to help promote more of its drivers.[5] Red Bull described the new outfit as a "Rookie Team", and renamed it as Scuderia Toro Rosso, Italian simply for "Team Red Bull". Liuzzi and Speed drove the cars for the 2006 and 2007 Formula One seasons. Sebastian Vettel replaced Speed permanently at Toro Rosso 3/4ths of the way through the 2007 season.[6]

Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais were the drivers for Toro Rosso in 2008.

In 2009, Vettel moved to Red Bull's "'A' Team," Red Bull Racing.[7] He was succeeded at Scuderia Toro Rosso by Swiss driver Sebastian Buemi.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.redbulldriversearch.com/assets/pdf/2002_RBDS2_%2007June.pdf
  2. ^ Red Bull Driver Search (official website), 2002 History. http://www.redbulldriversearch.com/history.php?view=2002
  3. ^ Red Bull Driver Search
  4. ^ Red Bull Racing Driver Search, Program Explanation, http://www.redbulldriversearch.com/program.php
  5. ^ BBC SPORT - Red Bull swoop for Minardi deal
  6. ^ "U.S. driver Scott Speed dropped by Toro Rosso, replaced by Sebastian Vettel". Associated Press. 31 July 2007. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/31/sports/EU-SPT-CAR-F1-Speed-Dropped.php. Retrieved on 2008-07-21. 
  7. ^ 18 July 2008, Formula1.com (Official Formula One series website), "Exclusive interview - Red Bull-bound Sebastian Vettel" http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2008/7/8102.html

[edit] External links

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