FORMULA ONE is a sport with many complexities. From different components that make up the cars, most with names and abbreviations, that let’s be honest, no one truly understands, to hundreds of regulations that teams and drivers need to adhere to.
But before we throw you in at the deep end, we are going to walk you through the different teams.
So far, we’ve spoken about Alpine, Aston Martin, Audi, Cadillac, Ferrari, Haas, McLaren, Mercedes and Racing Bulls. So next up is…
Red Bull
Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula 1 Team, based in Milton Keynes, UK, became a team in Formula One from 2005 when they took over Jaguar.
Previously, Red Bull sponsored Sauber from 1995.
Cast your minds back to Aston Martin and their team principal.
One of the most successful and well-respected people in F1, Adrian Newey, joined the team in 2006 when Red Bull moved to Ferrari engines.
The team got their first podium in the sport at the Monaco GP; however, the team could only manage 7th in the constructors’ championship.
After one season, Red Bull changed their engines to Renault, which they used until 2018.
The Australian Mark Webber joined the Brit David Coulthard for two seasons before Coulthard announced his retirement from the sport.
In 2009, this made way for young talent Sebastian Vettel, and so the era of Red Bull dominance began.
The German picked up the team’s first-ever win, not only that, but he also finished 2nd in the driver standings, and Red Bull finished 2nd in the constructor standings, their highest finish in the sport.
From 2010 to 2013, Vettel won four championships and, with Webber’s help, led the team to four constructors.
2014 saw Mark Webber leave Red Bull and the sport altogether. Replacing him was fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo is widely regarded as one of the best talents to have never won a championship.
Due to Mercedes’ dominance, the era of Red Bull winning championships was over.
Vettel left to join Ferrari in 2015 and was replaced by Daniil Kvyat.
Halfway through the 2016 season, the Russian was replaced by Max Verstappen.
Red Bull decided to partner up with Honda for the 2019 season after a few seasons of finishing 2nd and 3rdwith Renault.
Riccardo left to join Renault and was replaced by Pierre Gasly, who Alex Albon replaced in August for the remaining races.
Sergio Perez replaced the Thai driver for 2021, and in 2022 and 2023, the team won 2 championships.
Who makes up the Red Bull team?
The Team Principal is Laurent Mekies.
The French principal was promoted in July 2025 after the sacking of Christian Horner.
Horner had been the team principal since its inception in 2005.
From 2001, he worked for Minardi, and when they were taken over by Red Bull in 2006 and rebranded to Toro Rosso, Red Bull’s sister team, he continued his work.
2014 to 2018, he worked for the FIA as safety director and was involved in the creation of the halo system.
At the start of 2017, he was made deputy Formula One race director.
In 2019, he became the sporting director at Ferrari and then the racing director from 2021.
Mekies left his role at Ferrari in 2023 and joined Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s sister team, as team principal in 2024.
Then in 2025, he was appointed CEO and team principal of Red Bull.
His job is to oversee all the technical, operational and personnel aspects to ensure the team is moving in the right direction.
Ultimately, he has final say over key strategic decisions and represents the team publicly in the media.
Like every F1 team, there are two drivers.
Max Verstappen is Red Bull’s number one driver and has been at the team since 2016.
The Dutchman raced for Toro Rosso from 2015, where he became the youngest driver to start a world championship race.
In May of 2016, he was promoted to Red Bull.
With the Honda engine, Verstappen finished third in the driver’s championship in 2019 and 2020.
This all led up to 2021, when he finally had a chance to become world champion.
Throughout the season, he and Lewis Hamilton battled it out at the top, with the pair coming to blows many times.
However, the most contentious decision came in 2021 when he went toe-to-toe with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
All season, both drivers had been going back and forth in the championship, which led to the final day of the season.
Hamilton was ahead with both drivers needing a win to clinch the title.
With a virtual safety car called, Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres. A crash from Nicholas Latifi is what changed everything.
5 laps were all that was left, safety car was out, surely Hamilton had his 8th in the bag.
However, instead of allowing all the lapped cars to unlap themselves, the FIA decided to let the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen go, leading to a one-lap sprint to the finish.
Verstappen, with fresh tyres, got the move on the Brit to claim his first title.
This first title got the ball rolling for him to win four in a row, narrowly missing out on his fifth in 2025.
After a poor start to the season, it looked like the Red Bull would not allow the Dutchman to fight the McLaren drivers.
With the papaya team making a few mistakes, and Verstappen outperforming in a non-competitive car, he finished just two points behind Lando Norris.
Isack Hadjar is the second driver after being promoted from Racing Bulls.
The Frenchman has been on Red Bull’s books since 2022, when he joined Formula Three.
He raced in Formula Two from 2023 and finished runner-up in 2024.
For 2025, he moved to F1, racing for Racing Bulls.
He finished 12th in the championship, outperforming his teammate Liam Lawson and Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda.
This ultimately got him the promotion to Red Bull.
Their current test/reserve driver is Yuki Tsunoda from Japan
Red Bulls’ constructor championship-winning seasons:
(2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022, 2023)
Drivers’ Championship Winners:
(Vettel 2010, 11, 12, 13. Verstappen 2021, 22, 23, 24)
With the new regulations now at play, these first few races could determine what direction the teams go in for the rest of the season.
The final team to talk about is Williams.
