How do the current Red Bull compare to the greatest F1 teams in history

11-03-2023 20:56 Last update: 11-03-2023 21:17
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Joseph Tyrrell

Over the years we’ve seen some incredible Formula 1 dynasties. Mercedes between 2014 and 2020, the Michael Schumacher and Ferrari collaboration between 2000 and ’04, Red Bull in the early 2010s and now the same team are writing a new record in the history books with Max Verstappen at the forefront. 

The current Red Bull setup looks simply unstoppable right now and we’re only one race into the new season. It looks like they could go one better than last season with Perez and Verstappen dominant in Bahrain. Given their current form and record in recent years, does that make them the most dominant sports team in history? Well that’s impossible to say it’s a matter of opinion but what we can do is stack them up against some of the greatest F1 teams in history and compare their stats. 

The opposition - Red Bull 2021-present, Mercedes 2014-2020, Red Bull 2010-2013 & Ferrari 2000-2004

So for the purpose of this task I’m going to be comparing Red Bull 2021 to present with Michael Schumacher and Ferrari of the early 2000s, Red Bull in the early 2010s and Mercedes between 2014 and 2020.

Longevity

The first and one of the biggest markers is longevity. Now the current Red Bull era falls way short of any of these. Vettel’s prime and Schumacher’s lasted four and five years respectively and the Mercedes dominance went on for seven years and is up there in terms of longevity in sporting history full stop.

Now Red Bull and Max could match that but they are a long way off getting close to Vettel at four years let alone Mercedes. If we going to compare them to anyone at the moment, Red Bull should be put alongside Alonso and Renault both at two titles in two years. Well that’s that right, conclusion. Wrong.

Points per race

This Red Bull team is completely ridiculous and some of the numbers are absurd so lets dig a little deeper. Points per race. Now over the years we’ve had lots of different points systems so we are going to match all the points to the current system, ignoring fastest laps and sprint races. 25 points for a win, 18 for second, 1 for tenth etc etc.

I’m hoping the maths is correct but the Ferrari era of Barrichello and Schumacher between 2000 and 04 is first up. They started started 168 races between them, Barrichello didn’t start two in ’02 so we’ve removed those because Schumacher still raced. That means they scored 2611 points at an average of 31.45 points per race. Next up Red Bull between 2010 and 2004. The duo of Vettel and Mark Webber scored 2204 points over 144 races at an average of 30.60 almost a point less than Barrichello and Schumacher. Mercedes longevity wise is possibly the greatest but how about points per race. Hamilton missed the Sakhir Grand Prix so between himself, his replacement Russell, Bottas, and Nico Rosberg they featured 276 times and scored 34.4 points per race. The best so far and quite significantly as well.

Onto the current Red Bull spell and we’ve taken out points for sprint races. We’re talking normal races only. Believe it or not this Red Bull team are bottom of the pile! They come in at 29.65 points per race, putting them lower than Red Bull’s previous era of dominance. Admittedly they are the smallest sample size and this could change drastically across the course of the season but despite being completely overpowered they still rank bottom of our list. 

Percentage of points won

What about % of points won? Sticking with the same format, if Red Bull scored a one-two at every race since the start of the 2021 season, scoring a maximum of 43 points, they’d have 1943 points but we know they’ve scored 1334.5 points. Giving them a score of around 68%. So how do they stack up. Schumacher and Barrichello well they’d score 3619 points but they actually got 2634 giving them a % of around 72%. Red Bull in the 2010s they get a % of 71% which is incredibly close. And finally Mercedes scored a whopping 80% of their possible maximum points haul. 

Percentage of race wins

Our third and final measure will be the % of race wins. How many race wins do each era have compared to their total entries. Lets run in reverse order starting with Red Bull. They’ve competed 45 times since the start of 2021 and won 27, that’s 60%. Mercedes they won 102 out of 138, 73%. What about Vettel and Webber between 2010 and 2013? If you remember Max smashed Seb’s race win record last season. That era saw Red Bull win 41/77 races about 53% so the lowest so far. And finally Ferrari in the early 200s. They won 57 out of 85 possible entries 67% and of course at two races they only had one car. So in order it’s Mercedes, Ferrari, the current Red Bull and then Vettel’s era. 

Lead drivers

A brief mention on lead drivers, Verstappen over the last two or so years would actually be third overall, beating Vettel’s era and missing out to Schumacher and Hamilton on points per race.

What does this tell us?

So what does this tell us? Well its absolutely impossible to give a definitive greatest team of all time. It’s the same with drivers. Some will say Hamilton, some Schumacher others Senna but we only have numbers to compare them and there are so many variables at play. Location, cars and luck!

For the purpose of this we are going to say Mercedes are the best team of all time, how do they stack up against other teams from other sports? Well longevity they are certainly up there. In my lifetime I’m looking at the Spain and Barcelona football teams between 08 and 2012, Mercedes beat them. The Australian Women’s cricket team certainly is a rival and maybe even beats them for longevity. Their current era starts all the way back in 2010 and is still going now. Rugby fan? Well the New Zealand mens team starting in 2010 is another incredible team, two World Cups!

However as I’ve already said so much of it is opinion, people might argue it’s the car not the driver, you’ll struggle to get a definitive answer. Back to the point of this, are Red Bull the greatest team of all time? Probably not however, a lot could change this season and they are certainly on their way to going down in history if they hadn’t already. 

This article was a script written for the GP Blog YouTube channel by Joe Tyrrell.