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It was only natural that in trying to sell his 'young' and 'vibrant' product to the world, Red Bull boss, Dietrich Mateschitz would make use of sport, and Formula One, the most vibrant and glamorous of sports - not to mention global - was the obvious choice for the Austrian.
Originally the company sponsored drivers, most notably fellow-Austrians, Gerhard Berger and Karl Wendlinger.
Then in 1995, Mateschitz bought a majority shareholding in Sauber, whilst also moving into other areas of motorsport, including Formula 3000, German Formula 3 and BMW Formula ADAC.
The relationship between Mateschitz and Sauber came to a messy end, when the Austrian opposed the Swiss team boss' signing of a youngster who had taken part in just 23 single-seater races... Kimi Raikkonen. To be fair, Mateschitz wasn't the only sceptic, indeed, FIA President, Max Mosley, insisted that the young Finn be given a provisional licence, such was the feeling in F1 that Raikkonen was too inexperienced to be racing at such a level.
Mateschitz sold his shares in Sauber and almost immediately began looking for his own team, taking time out to get involved in the IRL, courtesy of Eddie Cheever's race team.
When, in late 2004, Ford announced that it was pulling out of F1, it seemed obvious that Red Bull would snap up the British team, but Mateschitz opted to play 'hard ball', leaving the purchase until the last possible moment.
On Monday November 15, just days before the 2005 entry deadline, Ford confirmed that Red Bull had bought Jaguar Racing, while Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe, co-owners of the Champ Car World Series and heads of the PKV and Forsythe Championship Racing Champ Car teams, respectively, had bought Cosworth.
It wasn't long before the new Austrian owner was making his presence felt at Milton Keynes, with Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth being dumped in favour of Arden International boss Christian Horner, just days after the Christmas Party.
David Coulthard had already been recruited as number one driver, but the team seemed unable to decide on who should support him. Mateschitz favoured, fellow-Austrian, Christian Klien, however, F3000 Champion, Tonio Liuzzi, who had won his title with Arden, courtesy of Red Bull sponsorship, was also in the frame. Throw into the mix Scott Speed, a product of the (over?) ambitious Red Bull Driver Search Programme, designed to discover American F1 talent, and it was soon a case of too many drivers for too few seats. But more of that later.
Red Bull would have you believe that it is all about fun, fun, fun, but the reality is that like any other business it is out to make money, and part of that process is world domination, at least as far as its particular product is concerned.
Red Bull has targeted a particular consumer group, and for the time being, Formula One, along with other adventure sports, is the best way to attract that group's attention.
Anyone who has any doubts as to how ruthless Red Bull can be when it comes to business only has to look at the way Purnell and Pitchforth were dumped, much of this down to Dietrich Mateschitz' 'personal rottweiler', Helmut Marko.
Make no mistake, at a time when Max Mosley et al are questioning the motives of the manufacturers, Red Bull is only in F1 for as long as it suits it, for as long as the sport can help it sell its product to new markets. After that it will be a case of 'auf wiedersehen', for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Mateschitz is a good friend of both Mosley and Ecclestone, it suits all of them - for now - that Red Bull is in F1.
As for 2005, it all began well enough, as the Milton Keynes based outfit benefited from the Jaguar Racing inheritance. However, as the season progressed, the team didn't.
The choice of David Coulthard was inspired, though Pitchforth and Purnell had already done much of the groundwork before their firing - indeed Mateschitz had previously said that the Scot was "not an option". As it happened however, DC was given a new lease of life, and responded in style.
The situation on the other side of the garage however, was, frankly, ludicrous, with the team unable to decide on Christian Klien or Tonio Liuzzi, the end result being that nobody benefited, not least the 'hot shot' Italian.
Ahead of the 2006 season, Red Bull stunned the paddock with two major signings, design guru Adrian Newey leaving McLaren for the Austrian owned team, followed, shortly afterwards, by the Woking team's chief aerodynamicist, Peter Prodromou.
Neither would have any input in the RBR2, the team's first self-penned car, other than a few tweaks as the season developed. That said, just weeks before the start of the season Pitpass heard that all was not well within the team and that Newey might have to introduce the RBR3 earlier than planned.
Although the season got off to a good start, by the end of the year it was going through the motions, desperate for the new year, which meant new (Renault) engines and a Newey chassis.
Red Bull's lack of form wasn't helped by the fact that the team had punched well above its weight the previous season, helped by some stirring performances from Coulthard.
In addition to the RB2 not working well with the Ferrari V8 - when has any team other that Ferrari enjoyed success with Ferrari engines? - the Milton Keynes outfit fell victim to a problem of its own creation, having sided with the Italian team regarding the reintroduction of in-race tyre stops, a move which really only suited one team.
Although locked in to a two-year deal with Maranello, Red Bull was already looking at an alternative, and in much the same way as it sees fit to juggle drivers, chose to negotiate a deal which would see the Italian powerplants dumped on Toro Rosso, while Newey's RB3 would be fitted with the championship winning Renault unit.
For Red Bull, 2006 was about limiting the damage and trying to get through the season as best it could, in the firm hope that - thanks to Newey and Renault - salvation was at hand in 2007.
The season highlight - in a year of absolute lows - was Coulthard's inspired performance at Monaco, the Scot giving the Austrian team its first podium.
It was to be expected that the team would not get through a whole season without at least one episode of musical chairs, and therefore it came as no surprise when Christian Klien was dumped with three races remaining, Robert Doornbos being promoted from test driver to a full race seat for the second successive season.
For 2007, Coulthard was joined by Mark Webber, giving the 'yoof orientated' outfit one of the oldest line-ups on the grid.
In addition to Coulthard and Webber, Red Bull pulled off a major coup in securing an engine deal with Renault. Therefore, the first all-Adrian Newey car would have the benefit of a championship winning engine, seemingly the perfect combination.
It was on the way back from one of the first major tests of the year that Newey realised there was a calibration problem with the team's windtunnel, a problem that was to set the team back by more than a month. Nonetheless, Newey persisted, being the driving force behind the Milton Keynes outfit throughout the year, pushing his design team and engineers constantly, thinking two or three races ahead.
The key problem for Red Bull in 2007 was reliability, or rather the lack of it. The main problem was the transmission, but there were also retirements due to the brakes, hydraulics, driveshaft and differential. It comes as no surprise that the RB3 was one of the most unreliable cars out there, completing only 74% of the season's race laps.
Newey was both baffled and frustrated by the failures: "We've had a lot of reoccurring problems," he said, "which is always the thing in F1 which is not excusable. Problems do happen, but the golden rule is making sure they don't happen again, and we didn't achieve that. Is it manufacturing, quality control or packaging? Tick all the boxes really".
Whereas the Austrian team should have been capable of mixing it with the midfield group, with Williams and Renault, it struggled, scoring just 6 points in the first 9 races. Both drivers profited from the freak race in Germany, giving the team it's only double points finish, indeed, one of only four double finishes, of the entire season.
There was a late-season improvement following the test at Jerez, which saw points scored in three successive races, but it was too little too late. Coulthard finished the season in tenth place in the Drivers' Championship with 14 points, while Webber finished twelfth on ten. In the Constructors' Championship, the team finished fifth, an improvement on 2006, but, in all honesty, not where the Austrian outfit expected to be and not where it ought to be considering its budget.
For 2008, Red Bull has retained Coulthard and Webber, in addition to luring the highly experienced Alex Wurz out of retirement to take over as test driver. Several key appointments, most notably Newey's former colleague Geoff Willis, should see the team make a serious step forward.
Our sources at Milton Keynes assure us that the team is confident that it has sorted many of its reliability issues, including the gearbox, a particular worry in 2008 considering the new four-race rule. However, we cannot help but feel that the step forward must be significant.
We have always doubted Mateschitz' commitment to F1 and still do. We cannot help but feel that one day he will simply awake and say; 'right, that's enough of that, I'm out of here'. We understand that he (personally) spends around £200m a year keeping his team(s) on the grid - sooner or later he has to ask himself whether there's better ways he could spend his dosh.
Statistics - Prior to 2008 Season
Drivers' Titles: 0
Constructors' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 3
Grand Prix: 53
Wins: 0
Points: 74
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0
Best result in 2007: 3rd - Webber (Europe)
Best qualifying 2007: 5th - Coulthard (China) Webber (Brazil)
Worst qualifying 2007: 21st - Coulthard (Bahrain)
2007 Average grid position: Webber (9.18) Coulthard (13.59)
2007: Webber out-qualified Coulthard 15 times
2007: Coulthard out-qualified Webber 2 times
2007: Completed 1583 out of 2130 laps (74.3%)
2007: Finished 20 times from 34 starts (58.82%)
Management
Team Principal: Christian Horner
Chief Technical Officer: Adrian Newey
Technical Director: Geoff Willis
Head of R&D, Rig Testing and Vehicle Dynamics: Andrew Green
Chief Aerodynamicist: Peter Prodromou
Chief Designer: Rob Marshall
Race Team Manager: Jonathan Wheatley
Head of Race and Test Engineering: Paul Monaghan
Technical Specifications
Red Bull RB4
Chassis: Composite monocoque structure, designed and built in-house, carrying the Renault V8 engine as fully stressed member
Transmission: Seven-speed gearbox, longitudinally mounted with hydraulic system for power shift and clutch operation. AP Racing clutch
Front Suspension: Aluminium alloy uprights, upper and lower carbon wishbones and pushrods, torsion bar springs and anti roll bars, Multimatic dampers
Rear Suspension: Aluminium alloy uprights, upper and lower carbon wishbones and pushrods, torsion bar springs and anti roll bars, Multimatic dampers
Brakes: Brembo calipers / Hitco carbon discs and pads
Wheels: OZ Racing, Front: 12.7in x 13in, Rear: 13.4in x 13in
Tyres: Bridgestone
Electronics: FIA (MESL) standard control unit
Renault RS27-2008 Engine
Number of Cylinders: 8
Number of Valves: 32
Vee angle: 90 degrees
Power Output: Not disclose
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Engine Construction: Cylinder block in cast aluminium
Engine FIA (MESL) standard control unit TAG310B
Ignition System: Magneti Marelli
Weight: 95kg
Fuel: Elf
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