Off-track, the team’s impact was just as immediate, as it brought a ‘work hard, Play hard’ attitude to the paddock. With its three-storey Energy Station as its travelling HQ, the team brought haute cuisine, DJs, pop-up parties and intense games of table football to F1 in order to liven up the post-session evenings. Today the mega-motorhomes are a familiar sight behind the garages; in 2005 it looked like a spaceship had dropped into the Paddock.

Although that first season represented a bright start, the team was in no mood to rest on its laurels and the next major addition came at the end of 2005 in the shape of respected designer Adrian Newey.

Although his contribution to the team’s second challenger, the RB2, would be minimal, Newey’s experience, winning pedigree and vision would have a major impact in the future. Under his guidance the technical departments began to put in place systems which would ultimately yield major benefits.

The first of those came the following season. With the RB2 now powered by Ferrari engines, David Coulthard delivered a faultless drive at the Monaco GP to secure third place and the team’s first podium finish.

As the team prepared Newey’s first real design, the RB3, for 2007, more major additions were announced in the shape of a switch to Renault power and the signing of highly-rated Australian driver Mark Webber. In time, both would help Red Bull Racing make the next step forward, out of the midfield and towards the front of the grid.

The team climbed to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, with the on-track highlight being Webber’s third-place podium finish at the European Grand Prix.

The next year brought another podium, this time supplied by Coulthard in Canada; it would prove to be the Scot’s final podium before bowing out of F1 driving at the end of the year.

The experienced Scot’s retirement left a void, but the team was fortunate that waiting in the wings was a young graduate of the Red Bull Junior Team programme just itching to stake a claim to F1 greatness. Having recently taken a stunning maiden F1 win at the Italian GP while racing for Red Bull Racing’s sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Sebastian Vettel had marked himself out as a future superstar and the team now offered him the perfect platform from which to seize glory.

A comprehensive set of rule changes gave the team the chance to build a radically different car and when the RB5 proved to be a front-runner, both Webber and new boy Vettel didn’t waste any time in turning it into a winner. After an awesome effort from the team to get the car ready in Shanghai, Sebastian landed the team’s first win at the Chinese Grand Prix and Mark doubled the celebrations by backing Seb up to deliver a first one-two finish. Five more wins, including Webber’s own maiden victory in Germany, followed and the team sealed second in the Constructors’ Championship and second in the Drivers’ battle for Vettel.

The following year saw the team realise the dream it had begun just five years earlier. Webber and Vettel were title contenders throughout, but after they had secured the team’s first Constructors’ title with a one-two finish in Brazil, Sebastian took the Drivers’ Championship in Abu Dhabi with his fifth win of the season. A title double after just six seasons in the sport was a remarkable achievement.

That 2010 success provided the springboard for a dominant 2011. Having refined the design philosophy begun with RB5, the team allied excellent pace to strong, improved reliability and the RB7 propelled Red Bull Racing to a second team title and Vettel to another Drivers’ crown and a host of new records, including a new standard of 15 pole positions in a single season.

Red Bull Racing has come a long way in a short time. Founded with the goal of doing things just a bit differently, its four championship titles in just seven seasons are testament to its success in meeting that target. The mission now is to translate that success into a heritage of excellence, and with a unified and committed team firmly in place, the future does, indeed, look bright.