Buckinghamshire, England. Adjacent to the original Jaguar Racing facility. Adrian Newey's former office has become a site of technical pilgrimage.
From Stewart to Jaguar to Red Bull — the long road to dominance.
1997–1999
Stewart Grand Prix
Founded by three-time world champion Jackie Stewart and his son Paul. Entered with Ford engine support. Rubens Barrichello led their debut race at Monaco 1997 before retiring. Johnny Herbert won their only Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1999. Ford acquired the team outright at the end of the season.
2000–2004
Jaguar Racing
Ford rebranded the team under the Jaguar marque. Five seasons of significant investment, occasional mid-grid competitiveness, and zero wins. Mark Webber qualified fifth on his debut at Melbourne 2002. The team spent more on hospitality than results warranted. Ford sold to Red Bull in November 2004 for an estimated $1.
2005–present
Red Bull Racing
Red Bull GmbH purchased the Jaguar operation in 2004. Adrian Newey joined from McLaren in 2006. Four consecutive championships followed from 2010. Verstappen's 2023 season — 21 wins from 22 races — rewrote the record books. Currently competing with the RB20B and Ford power unit.
The team that proved a drinks company could own Formula One for four years at a time.
1997–1999: Stewart Grand Prix
Jackie Stewart — three-time world champion, immaculate in everything — entered Formula One as a constructor in 1997 with Ford backing and a team built from scratch at Milton Keynes. The cars were competitive for a small team: Barrichello's results were consistently strong, and Johnny Herbert's win at the 1999 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring was the culmination of a genuine if modest campaign. Ford acquired the team in 1999, paid Jackie Stewart an appropriate sum, and rebranded it as Jaguar Racing for 2000. Stewart went from Grand Prix winner to team owner to eight-figure recipient in three seasons. Not bad.
2000–2004: Jaguar — Expensive, Occasionally Competitive
Jaguar Racing became one of the most prominent examples of what happens when a car manufacturer invests in Formula One without having a coherent sporting philosophy. The hospitality was exceptional. The results were not. Mark Webber qualified fifth at Melbourne 2002 on his debut and was visibly faster than the car around him. Eddie Irvine, brought in as lead driver, spent four seasons failing to produce results that matched either his reputation or the budget. Ford decided to exit. They sold the team to Red Bull GmbH for a reported $1 in November 2004. The Milton Keynes factory, the staff, the equipment — all transferred for the price of a can.
2005–2009: Building the Monster
Red Bull's first seasons were spirited — fast enough to score points, not yet fast enough to threaten championships. The critical move was hiring Adrian Newey from McLaren in 2006. Newey is the most successful designer in Formula One history: cars he has designed have won more races than any other individual's work. His first Red Bull car was the RB3 in 2007. By 2009, with blown diffusers banned mid-season, the RBR was already the fastest car in the field. Sebastian Vettel won the final race of 2009. It was a preview of what was coming.
2010–2013: Vettel and the Consecutive Four
Four consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. Vettel became the youngest four-time world champion in Formula One history. The cars — RB6 through RB9 — were aerodynamically complex in ways that the regulations hadn't anticipated. Exhaust blowing. Flexible wings. A downforce level that had rivals redesigning their own philosophy from scratch. The 2013 season was the closest thing to a Formula One coronation since Schumacher at Ferrari: 13 wins from 19 races, Vettel winning the final nine in succession. Then came 2014, the hybrid era, and Mercedes.
2014–2018: Mercedes' Era, Red Bull's Frustration
The 2014 power unit regulations were badly set up for Red Bull's Renault partnership. The engine was down on power by an amount that no aerodynamic advantage could overcome at high-speed circuits. The relationship with Renault deteriorated publicly — Helmut Marko's comments about engine unreliability were answered by Renault's comments about Red Bull's development demands. They switched to TAG Heuer-badged Renault engines, then to Honda from 2019. Ricciardo won seven races between 2014 and 2017 in a car that was often the second or third fastest on the grid.
2019–2023: Honda, Verstappen, and the RB19
Honda returned as Red Bull's engine supplier in 2019. Verstappen won his first Grand Prix in Spain 2016 on his Red Bull debut — the youngest F1 race winner in history at 18. His 2021 championship — taken from Hamilton at Abu Dhabi in the most controversial finish in the sport's modern era — launched a new dominant era. The 2023 RB19 won 21 of 22 races. It is the most dominant single-season car in Formula One history, surpassing the 1988 McLaren MP4/4's 15 from 16.
2024–: The Post-Newey Era
Adrian Newey announced his departure from Red Bull in April 2024, citing the organisational disruption following Horner's controversy. The 2024 RB20 remained competitive but lost its commanding lead as Ferrari and McLaren caught up. The 2026 regulations — with new Ford power units, restructured ERS rules, and a car concept that rewards harvesting efficiency — represent a reset that Red Bull have not yet dominated. Verstappen is still exceptionally fast. The car he's driving in 2026 is not yet what the RB19 was.
Newey built the most aerodynamically sophisticated cars of the regulations era. Not everyone was happy about it.
2009
Blown Diffuser Exploitation
Red Bull maximised the performance available from exhaust gases directed through or around the rear diffuser, increasing downforce at corner exit. Other teams had similar ideas; Red Bull's implementation — allied to Newey's overall downforce philosophy — was ahead of the competition. The FIA banned the most aggressive versions mid-season. Red Bull's advantage in the second half of 2009 came from the efficiency of their conventional aerodynamic package rather than the diffuser alone.
2010
Flexible Front Wing
The RB6's front wing passed the FIA's static load tests but deflected at racing speed, reducing drag on the straight without compromising downforce in corners. Rivals protested. The FIA modified the load tests. Red Bull modified the wing slightly. The teams were not satisfied. The FIA increased tests again. Each iteration was legal under the test at the time. The principle of exploiting a gap between static testing and dynamic performance became a recurring theme of Red Bull's technical approach.
2013
RB9 — The Downforce Record
The RB9 generated more downforce relative to drag than any Formula One car in the pre-2022 regulations. Newey's ability to manage airflow across the entire car — floor, bargeboards, diffuser, rear wing — as an integrated system rather than independent components was the expression of 30 years of aerodynamic refinement. Vettel won nine consecutive races to end the season. The car wasn't just fast; it was stable in conditions that made other cars difficult to drive.
2023
RB19 — Ground Effect Mastery
The 2022 ground effect regulations were supposed to equalise performance. Red Bull treated them as a blank canvas. The RB19 was, according to post-season analysis by competitors, generating floor-derived downforce at a level that others hadn't reached. 21 wins from 22 races — the one exception being a race Verstappen chose not to follow team instructions in. The car was so dominant that discussions began about whether the FIA needed to intervene. They did, adjusting some technical regulations for 2024.
Winning at this level always comes with questions attached.
2013
Malaysia: Multi-21 and the Driver Who Didn't
The pre-race code was Multi-21: hold position, both cars maintain order. Vettel was behind Webber. Vettel passed him anyway. Webber responded on the radio with a short, pointed summary of his feelings. The team told Vettel not to do it. Vettel did it. He won the race. Webber finished second. The team meeting afterwards was, by all accounts, not warm. Barry thinks Webber should have raced. Gary thinks the code existed for a reason. Kat thinks the whole episode revealed something about who had the institutional support.
2021
Abu Dhabi: The Win That Remains Contested
Verstappen won the 2021 championship in the final lap of the final race after race director Michael Masi selectively unlapped cars between him and Hamilton, allowing Verstappen to start the final lap on fresh soft tyres directly behind Hamilton. Hamilton had been on old mediums, leading by eight seconds. He was passed immediately. The decision was legal by certain interpretations of the regulations, contrary to others. Masi was replaced as race director. The sporting outcome was not reversed. Red Bull won the championship. The argument has not ended.
2023
Cost Cap Breach: The Accounting Incident
The FIA found Red Bull had breached the 2021 cost cap by £1.86 million — a 'minor' breach but a breach nonetheless. The team were fined £7 million and given a 10% reduction in aerodynamic testing time for 2023. The championship was not affected. The penalty was considered lenient by most rivals, three of whom issued a joint statement saying so. Red Bull contested the characterisation as a breach. The penalty was applied regardless.
2024
The Horner Situation
A female Red Bull employee made allegations of inappropriate behaviour against team principal Christian Horner in early 2024. Red Bull conducted an internal investigation and cleared Horner. The employee appealed. The appeal was not upheld. A series of documents alleged to relate to the case appeared on social media during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. Horner denied their authenticity. Newey announced his departure months later. Whether the two events were connected was denied by Red Bull and speculated upon by everyone else.
The Paddock Breakdown
Barry · Gary · KatGary Finch
The RB19's 95.5% win rate is the highest single-season number in the dataset. Nothing comes close.
I've modelled every dominance period in Formula One. By every metric — win percentage, points percentage, fastest lap rate, DNF-adjusted performance — the 2023 Red Bull was the most statistically dominant racing car in the sport's history. The McLaren MP4/4 wins 93.75% of races. The RB19 wins 95.45%. Verstappen's average qualifying gap to P2 in 2023 was 0.34 seconds. That is not a car slightly better than the competition. That is a car in a different mathematical category. The 2026 model has them at 15-18% championship probability. That is what a team looks like when it's merely very good.
Kat Moreno
Newey understood aerodynamics as a system. That's what everyone else is still trying to catch up with.
What made the Newey Red Bulls so difficult to respond to was that the aerodynamic philosophy treated the car as a unified flow management system rather than a collection of individual components. The floor, the beam wing, the diffuser exit, the rear suspension geometry — all interacting. When you tune one element for performance, you change the interaction with three others. Newey understood those interdependencies at a level that others were still learning to model computationally. The RB19 is the fullest expression of that — a car where the individual components are less impressive than the way they work together. The 2026 RB20B hasn't found that coherence yet.