May 31st, 2010 
Journo Week in and week out I continue to be surprised by the performances of the two Red Bull Racing cars – it’s not a good surprised though. Despite its position as one of the better funded teams in the sport, in its fourth season Red Bull continues to struggle consistently performing well – and from what we keep hearing, team owner Deitrich Mateschitz is starting to lose his patience.
The man answering the tough questions to Mateschitz back in Austria is team GM Jay Frye – the architect behind the current iteration of Red Bull. In the years before his ascension to the helm at Red Bull, Frye worked as an executive at the now defunct MB2/Ginn Racing. When he joined Red Bull, Frye was heavily touted as an answer to Red Bull’s woes – and after an abysmal first season, Frye’s leadership was a change.
Through 2008 and 2009 the performance of the team looked to be improved. Brian Vickers scored the team’s first win last season and made the Chase. Despite the improved performance, 2010 hasn’t been good to the #83 (or the team as a whole).
This season Vickers struggled through the opening weeks scoring only three top-tens in 10 races. With him now sidelined Casey Mears has been in the car the last two weeks, but he hasn’t been able to finish on the lead lap. For as mediocre as the #83 has run, Red Bull’s second car has performed worse.
Scott Speed, in his second season in the Cup Series, has only finished on the lead lap in five of 13 races. While he is improved over last season, Speed has only one top-10 to his credit in 2010.
As a GM, Jay Frye has struggled to make Red Bull a contender in NASCAR. Where other Toyota teams were able to overcome bad first seasons (Michael Waltrip Racing most prominently), Red Bull still hasn’t found the success of many of their counterparts.
And it’s no surprise. What’s been Frye’s answer to improving the team? Bring on many of his former MB2 employees (including Ryan Pemberton), and maintain the Red Bull extravagance. Oddly enough their performance has been about as good as MB2′s. Strange how that works.
This weekend two of the Front Row Motorsports cars actually finished better than the Red Bull cars. That’s a problem for Frye and those in charge of performance. Things need to change very quickly or those rumors we’ve been hearing will become reality.
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Red Bull as a whole was also turning fans off at their Fan Appreciation event last week. It was disorganised chaos, and two of the people who came with me have vowed to NEVER go to another Red Bull event again (unless Shaun White is there – ha!).
The visit to their shop was also awful, unless you enjoy being condescended to and otherwise being treated rudely.
I’ve been a Scott Speed/Red Bull fan for two years, but this past week’s experience has left me rooting for only the former.
Red Bull HAD a driver that they mismanaged terribly and as he was learning and inproving they fired him…
I’m betting as each race goes by Red Bull regrets more and more their decision to fire Allmendinger for Speed.
With the improved performance of the team last season maybe Red Bull Racing can attract at least one better driver. Let’s face it, Vickers is the most talented guy that has ever driven for the team, and that’s not saying much.
Not sure who that would be though, it seems Harvick and Childress have kissed and made up, who’s left that is better than what they have now?
I have hated Vickers for as long as I can remember….and I hope he gets well soon, because hating him on the track doesnt matter when he is battling to get back into the car…… Anyways, since I cant stand him, I naturally cant stand Red Bull Racing. And to see them toss aside Allmendinger, in favor of Speed, only to see AJ having success, is awesome. A successful race for Speed is being able to drive the car back to the hauler at the end, as opposed to a roll back bringing it back…..
Well done team Red Bull!!! Now you have 2 cars battling it out for Red Bull supremacy, of course, that means which ever team finishes above 30th in the standings….
Vickers and Allmendinger were both coming on strong near the end of their second season together, just before Red Bull let Allmendinger go. I think if they had left that driver combination alone in the first place, both teams would probably be doing quite a bit better than they are right now. Certainly losing Vickers has been a blow to the team, but Mears has come in and while trying to adjust to a brand new team in a difficult situation, he has still finished one spot ahead of Speed in each of the last two races. I think Scott Speed is a big part of the problem; he still hasn’t learned how to drive these cars all that well, and therefore the #83 doesn’t have much of a teammate to lean on.
I am a Vickers fan, and I will be the first to tell you that this year has been a huge disappointment. From the minute they unload off the truck till the end of the race on Sunday, performance has declined, but it isn’t just RBR. Plenty of upper level teams are mid pack. Look through the points standings from 15th to 30th. There are some solid names that have much bigger fan bases than Red Bull struggling in the 20s in points.
I love Dinger and hate what happened to him with RBR, but he has 3 more years experience and is only 65 points better than Scott Speed. In fact there are a few drivers lower than 20th in points that are supposed to be budding superstars (JPM, Kahne, Keselowski). I don’t hear many people comparing Red Bull to EGR, RPM, or Penske.
This year has been a concentrated version of the haves vs the have nots. Teams are either on it right off the truck, or struggling for the whole weekend. The only surprises have been the teams that haven’t performed well, not the ones that are slowly pulling away.
Jay Frye made the team a contender, but that doesn’t necessarily win championships. I think that the team would be better off under the umbrella of an established team with Red Bull staying on as a sponsor. I would rather have Mateschitz cutting a check to Gibbs or Hendrick instead of trying to go it alone. Even if it is just for engines, help would help.
Sorry for the half-coherent rant, but being a Red Bull fan, you get kicked around a lot. Sometimes for good reason, sometimes not. Hopefully with the rest of the year of BV can get his health and mind right, SS can get more experience and maybe a few decent finishes, and the whole team can come back strong next year.
Brandon,
While Speed is only 65 points behind AJ there’s a couple of things you missed there. AJ’s first real full season was last year. He pretty much ran partial seasons in 2007 and 2008.
and unlike Scott, AJ didn’t get a year in ARCA, trucks, and nationwide. He made a few truck starts and then plopped right into cup..with a brand new team, and a brand new manufacturer. You can blame AJ for putting himself into that situation but that was really no place for a rookie driver with no stock car experience to be.
Also, aside from Daytona, Scott has been unheard from the entire season…which I guess is good because it means he hasn’t wrecked either…but if the 43 ever gets a litle bit of luck they can go on a tear. Had the fastest car in the Daytona 500 and his pit crew and then the pot hole and then despite having no damage to the car the tires were flat and he was stuck in the grass. Dover had the best car on the track until the pit crew messed up again….fast car at Phoenix and Talladega and got caught out on a GWC…AJ has PERFORMED as a top 15 driver this year without the results to back it up. When they start finishing the way they’ve run they’ll be a force.
Robbie – I totally agree with everything you said. I fully believe that Red Bull really messed up when they let AJ go. Since Scott is DM’s boy from F1, he got special treatment from day 1. AJ has done a fantastic job since the day he joined up with Petty, and I’m one of the first people to cheer for him. I was a Petty fan growing up so I will always have a soft spot for the 43.
Now with all that said, potential is great, but it only matters if it translates into points. I’m in no way saying SS is on his way to a chase berth, but for all the crap that he takes, he has kept the fenders on it more this year. Honestly, he doesn’t have a DNF this year.
It seems to be more car than driver. I only say this because it seems like the 82 and 83 are always together in practice Friday, qualifying, and then the race on Sunday (no matter who is in the 83). Unfortunately it hasn’t been in the top 20 much in the last 6 weeks or so. At least they have been bringing it home running. The overall performance and setup just seems to be a tick behind the elite teams.
Potential and solid runs are great, but at the end of the day, the points standings are all that really matters. One good run, a lucky sequence in a GWC, or one really bad day can set any of these guys up for the rest of the year. I think that the margin for error is just that ridiculously small. I can’t wait to see what happens.
I read somewhere RB gets way more bang for the buck sponsoring international “extreme” events such as the air races.
Let’s not forget about ryan pemberton during this discussion. The power-team of frye&pemberton have managed to destroy several well funded race teams. Red Bull is just another example. Their recipe is simple: come to a new team, fire all the people there and replace them with all of the ginn and mb2 people, run below average, and then run the place out of business. Over the past 6 months, jay frye has managed to fire the last of the successful names with race winning careers. How many wins do jay and ryan have? hmm – well, let’s see. We have benson in 2002 at rockingham while jay was a marketing guy at valvoline. Then ryan has himself a whopping 2 fuel mileage wins in a 15 year CC career. You do the math.
Robert P is an ahole that doenst know what he’s talking about…How well did they do in 2007 prior to Jay Frye? Hmmmm werent we in the chase after his first season there? I think so ….what new team has done something similar (besides the obvious T Stewart)?. Uhhh no one….