June 23rd, 2011 
Journo I got an email from a reader on Monday pointing out something I hadn’t put much thought into. He wrote asking us to talk about the Toyota engine program and how in five years the teams using Toyota built motors, Michael Waltrip Racing and Red Bull Racing, only had one win not decided by weather or fuel mileage (David Reutimann’s at Chicago last year; Joe Gibbs Racing builds its own engines – they’ve scored 33 wins since switching manufacturers in 2008).
Though I’m not going to talk about that with this post, with Red Bull’s recent decision to exit NASCAR in the news I couldn’t help but think about how connected the two are. Just Marketing CEO and founder Zak Brown told USA Today:
I couldn’t agree more.
This issue of performance is interesting because Red Bull never really made serious lasting changes to fix the problem.
Since the team began they’ve had the same guy in charge of competition former F1er Gunther Steiner (UPDATED) The team has been through several competition directors; a string of so-so crew chiefs (Doug Richert, Randy Cox, Kevin Hamlin, Jimmy Elledge, Ricky Viers), and they’ve burned through two drivers, never giving either the time they needed to develop.
And then there is the much lauded Jay Frye who replaced Marty Gaunt pretty early on. He brought to Red Bull a, well, spotty track record. He ran the very mediocre MB2/MBV, and then was at the helm of Ginn Racing. Though the collapse of Ginn wasn’t Frye’s fault, he didn’t always help matters. The team was notorious for its spending and it struggled to find sponsorship. That spending mentality ended up at Red Bull, and was in full effect until this season. To his credit Frye did help drag the team out of the gutter, but with his personnel decisions he’s really done nothing more than turn it into MB2/Ginn 2.0.
Mix the above with the team’s continued commitment to Toyota’s less than stellar engine program and it’s no wonder the team never performed very well.
From Austria to Mooresville, leadership was severely lacking. This is an organization that had a ton of potential to succeed but was never given the time, patience or the right resources to do so.
Red Bull’s demise is surprising, but not completely unexpected – it just couldn’t continue on the same path indefinitely.
Oh, what could have been.
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Excellent piece. And it’s interesting to see you call out Jay Frye on his record. He seems to have a lot of friends in NASCAR,which is great,but his accomplishments on track are less than stellar and no one has mentioned that much since the Red Bull news broke last week. I hope Frye does save the team, though, and if he does, I wish them much success. A little stability and continuity would probably go a long way.
Journo,
Can you go into more detail on Ginn’s team being ‘notorious for it’s spending’? And the ‘spending mentality ended up at RB’? Obviously S&P teams running on scuffs is a sign of ‘little spending’ but what are the signs that a team is ‘living large’?
Fireball – Just like at Ginn, salaries at Red Bull have generally been quite a bit higher than the rest of the sport, substantial amounts have been spent on remodeling shop space and the maintenance of the “Red Bull” brand image through inconsequential things (i.e. clothing, shoes) has very obviously not been cheap (I say that with the caveat that spending has been tempered this season). Not to use cliches, but there has always been a lot of show, but not a lot of go – such was the case with Ginn.
I would love to see the team stick around in some form if they change makes. Switch to Ford, Chevy or Dodge and hang around. But if they “just have to stay toyota” then I say good ridance.
Snakes in the grass or in this sport, snakes in the garage. It’s sad to see a company that markets itself as “we’re cool and hip”, yet in a way arrogant, decide to give up so easily and leave people scrambling for their futures. Sad.
Steiner has been gone from Red Bull Racing for 2 almost 3 years, and he was never head of competition, that would have been Elton Sawyer who has been gone about a year. Check some facts, I guess that’s why you’re a “blogger”
WTF – I guess it’s good I’m only a very limited, part-time “blogger.” My mistake. The post has been updated. Thank you for the pleasant way to brought it to my attention.