Quick Changes In F1 & Red Bull Racing

"Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor racing,” said an adamantly defensive Christian Horner when asked the point of spending millions on wind tunnel testing to develop exhaust blown diffusers. “We’re not a manufacturer team and it makes no sense for us to make technology relevant to road cars.”

This was during the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2011. Fast forward to 2013 and exhaust blown diffusers have been outlawed in F1 and Horner is posing for photographs in a Nissan Evalia with an executive from the company standing by.

And Red Bull Racing is now called Infiniti Red Bull Racing. Oh, how the times change.

The change in identity of F1’s current super-team started even before Sebastian Vettel won his first title in 2010.

In a sit-down with autoX, the global director of Infiniti Formula One, Andres Sigl, explained how the Japanese company hitched its star with F1’s dominant force

“All of the premium brands have some sort of motor sport involvement,” said Sigl. “We felt it was the elephant in the room in terms of increasing our brand awareness and we should look into it.

“The obvious choice in terms of having a global reach was F1.”

Since F1 was the obvious choice, Sigl explained the equally obvious choice for a team to partner with was the team that dominated the second half of 2009 and won both drivers and constructors crowns in 2010.

And now Infiniti’s deep pockets aid Red Bull in maintaining their edge. Such as a climate chamber 15 minutes from the team factory where pit stop equipment was exposed to a climate chamber to simulate the heat of Abu Dhabi and improve their reliability.

In return Infiniti gets to place its engineers within Red Bull for training purposes as well as fresh recruits from universities.

Too much of a stretch to imagine the team being sold entirely to Infiniti one day? Wonder what Horner would have to say to that.