Webber: If Red Bull was a manufacturer, it might get more praise

Red Bull Racing (RBR) have had a metronomic rise to success in F1 since Red Bull bough the Jaguar F1 operation back in 2005 and rebuilt the struggling team into an ultra-successful F1 operation.

Their first win in F1 came in 2009, at that year's Chinese Grand Prix, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel. Five more wins followed that season Vettel winning in Britain, Japan and Abu Dhabi, while Webber won in Germany an Brazil.

In 2010, RBR started their first dominant streak with Vettel, as they secured four F1 Title doubles between 2010 and 2013, before they dropped back in 2014 at the start of the F1 Turbo-Hybrid era, as their engine supplier Renault botched up their V6 turbo hybrid power unit.

RBR kept chasing Mercedes, the dominant force between 2014 and 2021, and became gradually better having joined forced with Honda in 2019, and finally managed to beat them to the 2021 F1 Drivers' Crown with Max Verstappen beating Lewis Hamilton, while Mercedes retained their Constructors' Title.

As from 2022 onwards, the year the current ground effect regulations were introduced, RBR have embarked on their second dominant run, achieving the milestone of 100 grand prix wins at the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix, with Verstappen leading the charge, thus joining an elite club that includes the likes of Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes.

Red Bull, in 2026, will start designing and manufacturing their own power units, and have agreed a collaboration with Ford in that regard.

But many still regard RBR as a Red Bull marketing exercise in a bid to sell more cans of their energy drink, but Webber believes his former team "has to be one of the great success stories of Formula 1" speaking to Motorsport.com.

"If it was a manufacturer, it might get some more praise and notoriety," the Australian reckoned. "Because, in essence, it’s still a team made of tremendous individuals and people that have done a great job to engineer beautiful Formula 1 cars for world championships with constructors’ and drivers’ [titles], and to be dominant in many ways.

"So, I think that their ability to be able to do that has been a great success story," he insisted. "And what they’ve put into the sport in that area – like in terms of their staff, the infrastructure at Milton Keynes, what they’ve done – has been a testament to them.

"And the sheer commitment that they show – their employees and the people and to the sport – I’m not going to say it’s second to none but it’s pretty bloody [good].

“We’ve had a lot of people come and go," Webber pointed out. "And these guys what they’ve done – with two teams. People forget about the level of employment that Red Bull has put into the sport is truly extraordinary."

Webber was part of RBR between 2007 and 2013, and has racked up nine wins, 13 pole positions, and 32 podium finishes with the team.