Red Bull at 350: the impressive stats behind a modern giant

First thing first: even though Red Bull have now started 350 Formula 1 races - after the 2023 Australian Grand Prix - they have actually entered 351.

A driver posting as DNS is not uncommon, but for a whole team to not start a race, something drastic must have happened - and for the missing race in the Red Bull logbook, we must go to Indianapolis 2005.

The team practiced, qualified and took the formation lap at the Brickyard, but like the other Michelin runners, peeled off into the pits and into retirement on one of F1's sorriest days, despite David Coulthard's protests that he wanted to race.

And so Red Bull Racing will forever have at least one more entry than starts in F1 as they celebrate the landmark of going racing 350 times since their debut at the 2005 Australian Grand Prix.

There's been a lot of success in that time, with the team currently enjoying a renaissance period that would make Michelangelo blush.

Lean years start the journey

At first, Red Bull were scrapping for points finishes as the new team led by Christian Horner and tech genius Adrian Newey bedded things in at the former Jaguar factory in Milton Keynes.

It was not until the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix that the team scored their first podium - third place through Coulthard - and even suffered the ignominy of being beaten by junior squad Toro Rosso in the 2008 Constructors'.

Indeed, the team scored a podium a year between 2006 and 2008, having carved a reputation as a team not afraid to do things differently in the anodyne world of F1.

The overhaul of the 2009 technical regulations would prove key as the team become regular front-runners, finally scoring that first win, a one-two no less, in rotten conditions in China.

Since then, 95 races have fallen to Red Bull as they close in on becoming just the fifth team to clock up a century of wins.

The Vettel pomp

Red Bull's first streak of domination came between 2010 and 2013 in the V8 engine formula as Sebastian Vettel was able to coax performance out of Newey's 'blown diffuser' car designs to crushing effect.

In 2009, their late charge fell agonisingly short of overhauling Jenson Button, but Vettel would soon become untouchable.

He scored 38 victories in his stint with the team, capturing four Drivers' and four Constructors' titles as the fizzy energy drink bloodied the noses of motorsport's elite, including a record-breaking nine straight wins in the second half of 2013.

His sidekick at the time, Mark Webber, scored nine wins in five years...

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The quiet years

As Mercedes swept all before them between 2014 and 2020, Red Bull were left fighting for the scraps, often picking up the wins left on the table as they were hamstrung by poor Renault reliability, before the switch to Honda for 2019.

However, in this period, the team still picked up 17 wins split seven to 10 for Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen as they waited for a chance to topple Mercedes - which finally happened in 2021 when Verstappen nabbed the Drivers' crown from Hamilton in the rather controversial ending in Abu Dhabi, although the Constructors' still went to Brackley.

The second Red Bull era

Since the start of 2021, Verstappen has been the leader of the Red Bull resurgence, seemingly smashing some sort of record every other week.

Indeed, he has won 27 of the 47 races since the start of his first title winning campaign, including a record-breaking 15 in 2022 in one of the most dominant seasons ever seen.

Throw into the mix a very strong number two in Sergio Perez who has chipped in with four wins since his 2021 arrival, an utterly dominant, if fragile, RB19, and it is clear that F1 is now entering its second Red Bull era.

The only question now is how close will Verstappen be to Hamilton's benchmarks by the time it ends, or indeed, will he be in front?

Onto the next 350 races...