2015 Season Review: Red Bull

This season saw the Red Bull team move down from second place in 2014 to fourth place in the Constructors Championship. With the team being more well known for their off-track than their on-track actions in 2015, the former world champions have still produced a reasonably successful car this season; albeit without a win for the first time since 2009.

Heading into the season, Red Bull retained Daniel Ricciardo for another season and promoted Daniil Kvyat from Toro Rosso to join him; after Sebastian Vettel decided to leave the team to join Ferrari this season. With a driver line up of experience, youth and promise; many thought that Red Bull could challenge just like they did last season for the spoils. But we was wrong.

The season opener in Austrailia saw the hometown hero Daniel Ricciardo manage his highest finish at his home race, bringing the Red Bull Renault in sixth place; but new teammate Daniil Kvyat failed to make the grid due to the car's woeful reliability.

The Renault engines shortcomings were brought to the eyes of fans when Daniel Ricciardo's engine went up in smoke after the finish line, with a huge plume of smoke signalling a destroyed power unit.

The best result for the team this season was a double podium in the action-packed Hungarian Grand Prix, both cars behind former driver Sebastian Vettel and just ahead of Red Bull protege Max Verstappen.

This season saw the team ending their long-standing partnership with Renault, after spending most of the season criticizing the poor reliability and power of the Renault power unit very publically during the season with Renault Sport Director Cyril Abiteboul branding Adrian Newey “a liar”; leading to Red Bull threatening to quit the sport for good if an adequate engine supplier was not to be found.

Many of their fans will hope that rhe base power unit that the team will use for the 2016 season is identical to the works engine that Renault will be using, but TAG Heuer branded and it will be up to the Milton Keynes outfit to develop the engine for next season.

But Red Bull did throughout all of this media war with Renault managed to gain fourth position in the Constructors' Championship and were the strongest in a very competitive midfield bunch featuring Force India, Sauber, Lotus and sister team Toro Rosso; but a team that is used to winning; this is not acceptable.

Daniil Kvyat – 95 points (7th in the drivers' championship)

Last year, Red Bull caused quite a stir by choosing Daniil Kvyat over Jean-Eric Vergne to partner the highly rated Daniel Ricciardo, who was praised as being something special after beating four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in his first season with the team.

Kvyat has been somewhat of an unsung hero this season, as he managed to outscore Ricciardo by three points even if he was out-qualified twelve times to eight times. But with little recognition of Kvyat doing what Ricciardo did to Vettel last season, he is still equally worthy of huge praise.

In the first half of the season, Kyvat scored three ninth place finishes in Malaysia, Bahrain and Canada, a tenth place finish in Spain and before the summer break, he scored points in Britain and in Hungary where Kvyat managed to bring home a stunning second place in Hungary and scoring the team's best result of the season.

In the second half of the season, Kvyat managed three consecutive points finishes in Belgium, Monza and Singapore which showed he can deliver when everything comes together for him. The final stages of the season saw Daniil scoring points at his home race in Russia, Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi; ending his first season with Red Bull in a reasonable position.

Even though there was much asked of him after stepping into the shoes of a four-time world champion, but as with his Toro Rosso promotion, Kvyat has stepped up and dealt with the pressure incredibly well; much like Ricciardo before him.

Kvyat silenced critics in the best possible way on the track who thought Vergne would have been a better fit in the team and has been one of the surprises of the season and one of the most impressive drivers on the grid. During the Hungarian GP, he reliably matched Ricciardo on pure pace, though both struggled on “power” circuits and with car reliability; showing he is a potential talent of the future.

He will remain at Red Bull for the 2016 season and if the outfit can improve its finishing record, Kvyat will be challenging for more podiums in the following season, and perhaps Russia could see its first Grand Prix winner in F1 history.

Daniel Ricciardo – 92 points (8th in the drivers' championship)

With many people having high expectations for Daniel Ricciardo entering the 2015 season after a solid first season with the Red Bull team which included his first podium and win in Formula One; many believed that this would continue but in the manner that he would have liked.

Even though Ricciardo might have been outperformed in the Championship by three points but he out-qualified his less experienced team mate twelve times compared to Kvyat who managed to out-qualify him seven times this season; he has shown his talent on the track and could have scored more points if the Renault power unit wasn't so unreliable.

In the first half of the season, Ricciardo started his season well with a sixth place finish at his home race in Melbourne and backed up with five consecutive points finishes in Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain and Monaco and having the upper hand of his less experienced team mate.

Before the summer break, Ricciardo scored points at the team's home race in Austria and followed Kvyat home in Hungary to take his best finish of the season in third place; even though Kvyat finished in a stunning second place.

After the summer break, Ricciardo struggled to extract pace and performance out of his car whereas his team mate picked up where Ricciardo left off. Ricciardo did manage to pick up more points in Austin, Brazil and Abu Dhabi; reminding everyone that he can still deliver just as good as his team mate when the car is underneath him.

With much negativity surrounding Red Bull, Ricciardo has always kept his moral high and was boosted by a strong finish in his home race in Australia after what happened in 2014 when he was disqualified for a fuel irregularity. But Ricciardo had no problem matching teammate Kvyat this season and largely delivered on the expectations of the team once they had discovered the flaw in their engines.

While eighth place in the Championship is a step backwards from last year, it is a fair reflection on how the car performed and even a driver as talented as Ricciardo couldn't drag the Red Bull into the top six as much as he would have liked to.

In conclusion, the Red Bull team have not had a terrible season despite them losing places in the Constructors Championship. Circumstances haven't exactly fallen their way though, starting with the Renault engines being under power and not exactly reliable.

Both drivers did the best job that they could do with the equipment that they had at their disposal and they did not do very well by their own standards in 2015 but as the year went on and the grid settled into consistent positions, Williams looked like a big threat and retained their position in the Constructors Championship as a result.

For 2016, Red Bull will be hoping to regain top spot next year but I do feel that Red Bull will improve next season but so will Mercedes and I do expect the gap to close a little, but they have a lot of work to do if they want to beat them and beat to the standard that they would like to and also what the fans are used to too.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa