Red Bull RB7

Season summary

The car was launched at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain on 1 February 2011. Sebastian Vettel was the first driver to test the car.

The car was fastest throughout Barcelona testing with Vettel at the wheel. It won the first race of the season at Melbourne with Vettel, whilst Webber finished fifth. In the nineteen races of the 2011 season, the RB7 only failed to finish in the top five twice, when Mark Webber crashed out of the and when Sebastian Vettel retired from the .

Vettel used the RB7 to claim the 2011 World Drivers' Championship in Japan and Red Bull won the World Constructors' Championship the following weekend in South Korea. The car achieved three 1-2 finishes during the season. It is one of the most dominant Formula One cars ever built, winning 12 of the 19 races and claiming all but one pole position in the 2011 season, in part due to the innovative but controversial exhaust-blown diffuser.

Sebastian Vettel, who (since joining Scuderia Toro Rosso) makes a habit of naming his cars, named his RB7 chassis Kinky Kylie.

The RB7 was the first Red Bull car to assume Renault full-works team partnership status after the Renault F1 Team was rebranded to Lotus Renault GP and later Lotus F1 Team following Renault's sale of their 25 percent stake in the team to Lotus Cars in late 2010. The RB7 was also the first-ever KERS-equipped Formula One car to win the constructors' title.

Later uses

After the 2011 season, the RB7 was frequently used in demonstrations and rewrapped in different liveries throughout the years:

• On 15 March 2014 Daniel Ricciardo raced an RB7 against a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18 Hornet, piloted by RAAF pilot Michael Keightley.
• On 14 January 2016, the RB7 was used by future Red Bull driver Max Verstappen to make a snow demonstration run at Kitzbühel.
• On 4 February 2023, the RB7 was used by New Zealand Formula 2 driver Liam Lawson to make a demonstration lap of the Mount Panorama race track in between practice and qualifying sessions for the 2023 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
• On 15 March 2025, the Brazilian city of Curitiba, Paraná staged the Red Bull Showrun with two versions of RB7. The F1 model was driven by Patrick Friesacher, and the Racing Bulls version by Scott Speed. This event mobilized over 100,000 people to watch and was an absolute success.
• On 2 April 2025, these cars reappeared with the same livery during the Red Bull Showrun x Powered by Honda event at Tokyo ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
• On 8 June 2025 the same cars participated in Red Bull Showrun Sofia and were driven by David Coulthard and Nikola Tsolov.
• On 26 July 2025, the Lithuanian city of Klaipėda organized the second Red Bull Showrun in Lithuania, the car was driven by Patrick Friesacher.
• On 13 September 2025, the car took part of the Red Bull Motormania in Magny-Cours in France. Two RB7s were driven by F1 driver Isack Hadjar and former F1 driver Sébastien Buemi. They notably demonstrated with former MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa and multiple WRC champion Sébastien Loeb, each on their own machinery.
• On 27-30 November 2025, these cars participated in the Red Bull Demo Run where they did on track demonstrations for the Adelaide Grand Final at the Adelaide Street Circuit in Australia. Two RB7s were driven by Former F1 drivers David Coulthard, Scott Speed and Brendon Hartley.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

References

References

1. "Red Bull RB7 Renault".
2. "RB7".
3. (20 January 2011). "RB7 LAUNCH DATE ANNOUNCED". [[Red Bull Racing]].
4. Collantine, Keith. (29 January 2011). "Driver line-up set for first F1 test of 2011". Keith Collantine.
5. (28 March 2011). "Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel enjoys perfect day with Kinky Kylie". [[The Guardian]].
6. (14 September 2011). "Red Bull now Renault's works team – Horner". [[Motorsport.com]].
7. (8 December 2010). "Lotus buys Renault stake as legendary F1 name doubles its presence". CNN.
8. (15 March 2014). "Red Bull v Hornet: Ricciardo joins the RAAF". [[Red Bull GmbH.
9. (16 January 2016). "F1 in the snow as Max Verstappen tackles ski slope in Red Bull car". [[Sky Sports]].
10. (27 January 2023). "Lawson to drive Red Bull F1 car at Bathurst". [[Autosport]].
11. "Kiwi star Liam Lawson to drive Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 car at Bathurst".
12. (16 March 2025). "Curitiba recebe Red Bull Showrun e encanta com velocidade e adrenalina". [[Motor1]].