Under New Management - Part II: Red Bull & Force India

Not only have the manufacturer Formula One teams of Renault and Mercedes undergone various incarnations throughout their histories; in addition, the corporate-backed Red Bull and Force India teams have raced under several different guises in the past – allow me to take you through them all.

Red Bull (aka Stewart, Jaguar)

The current dominant force of today's F1 grid began life as the Stewart team, named after its founder, three-time champion Jackie Stewart. With the help of son Paul, who already ran a highly successful outfit in British Formula Three, Stewart's eponymous cars took to the grid in 1997 with backing from Ford, HSBC and the Malaysian tourism board. After three years of mixed fortune at Jordan, Rubens Barrichello opted to throw in his lot with the fledgling team in its inaugural season, with Jan Magnussen being recruited as the Brazilian's teammate thanks to his eye-catching performances in British F3 in 1994 that led Stewart to declare the Dane as the most exciting talent he'd seen since Ayrton Senna. The team disappointed initially with just one podium finish, courtesy of Barrichello in appalling conditions around the streets of Monaco in '97, during its first two seasons, in which time Magnussen had been replaced by Jos Verstappen after failing to live up to Stewart's high expectations. With the acquisition of acclaimed designer Gary Anderson from Jordan however, things took a major turn for the better in 1999 as Barrichello became a regular fixture on the podium. New teammate Johnny Herbert was even able to claim an unlikely win in a race of attrition at the Nurburgring, contributing to a strong fourth place in the constructors' standings. 

At the turn of the millennium, Ford took the decision to take over the team from the Stewarts and rename it after their Jaguar car brand, adorning the cars in British Racing Green in the process. Eddie Irvine, having lost the championship by a whisker to Mika Hakkinen in '99, did a straight swap with Ferrari-bound Barrichello to partner Herbert at what had very much become F1's English national effort. For all the hype though, unreliability combined with gross mismanagement from Ford's directors resulted in the team quickly becoming the disappointment of the grid, beating only financial minnows Minardi and Prost in 2000. Things failed to improve much in the following years, despite two podiums for Irvine, who bowed out of the sport at the end of 2002. His replacement was young Australian Mark Webber, who had achieved stardom in his very first F1 race with an excellent fifth place on home turf at Melbourne at the wheel of the Minardi, the least-fancied car of the grid. Webber quickly marked himself out as a qualifying specialist, but generally seemed to have trouble converting his impressive grid positions into points. This distinct lack of results and the apparent never-ending financial woes of Ford led to the US car giant putting its team up for sale in 2004. The buyer was a certain Austrian beverage magnate by the name of Dietrich Mateschitz, who, with the help of Messrs Horner and Newey, set about turning the struggling team into a world-beater.

Force India (aka Jordan, Midland, Spyker)

Force India's story dates back to 1991, when Irish businessman Eddie Jordan joined the F1 grid after achieving a great deal of success in Formula 3000. Jordan was able to put together quite a portfolio of sponsors with which to tackle the challenge, chief among them being Pepsi, whose 7UP brand led to Anderson's maiden F1 design being painted in an attractive green livery. Veteran Italian Andrea de Cesaris was signed, along with young Belgian Bertrand Gachot. Thanks to semi-regular points-scoring finishes throughout the season, the Irish squad took fifth in the constructors' championship out of 18 teams on a sparkling debut season. After the withdrawal of Pepsi and the team's reliable Ford engines however, success became harder to come by over the next few years, though the team built up something of a reputation for giving promising newcomers a try. When Gachot found himself imprisoned after assaulting a London taxi driver in 1991, one Michael Schumacher was drafted in as his replacement for Spa. The German immediately stunned, taking seventh on the grid on a track that'd he never before raced on. Sadly, his race was curtailed by clutch failure, though it is often forgotten that De Cesaris would have probably won the race but for mechanical maladies of his own. The rival Benetton team wasted no time in pinching Schumacher in time for the next round, but Jordan were also responsible for the debuts of future race-winners Barrichello, Irvine and Ralf Schumacher during the decade, acquiring a distinctive yellow livery courtesy of cigarette brand Benson & Hedges along the way. The team didn't win a race itself until 1998, where in treacherous conditions at Spa, Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher took a famous one-two. This breakthrough was followed up by a pair of wins for German Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1999, whose evident talent was unlocked by Jordan after two troubled seasons at Williams. As per Stewart/Jaguar however, 1999 proved to be Jordan's zenith as the team began a steady decline towards the rear of the grid. Initially, speed didn't appear to be lacking, but reliability certainly was, costing Jordan its position as 'best of the rest' behind Ferrari and McLaren. After parting ways with Frentzen on bitter terms in mid-2001 and losing its works Honda engine deal at the end of 2002, Jordan took one final, fortuitous win with Giancarlo Fisichella at a sodden Interlagos in 2003. 

By 2005, Jordan had joined Minardi as an established rear-of-the-grid runner, and Eddie Jordan finally sold out to Russian billionaire Alex Shnaider who re-christened the team Midland F1 for 2006. The team remained mired at the back despite a raft of fresh sponsors, and Shnaider sold the team to the small Dutch sportscar firm Spyker later that year. Once again a new owner had little impact on the team's performance, even if their driver Markus Winkelhock did lead the 2007 European Grand Prix extremely briefly after an inspired tyre choice in monsoon-like conditions. It was then announced that the team would be purchased by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya, who gave the team its third name in as many years in 2008 – Force India.

Not be forgotten either are Scuderia Toro Rosso and Sauber who have also experienced changes in ownership – the former ran as the perennial Italian backmarker Minardi until its sale by owner Paul Stoddart in 2006 to Red Bull, while the latter have raced under the Sauber banner since their 1993 debut, including 2006-9, when the team was owned by well-known German car manufacturer BMW and thus named 'BMW Sauber'.

Next Sunday is the British Grand Prix, which will hopefully be somewhat more enthralling than the bore-fest was last week's race. Check back here on Saturday and Sunday for all the details of the qualifying and the race.