Red Bull only F1's eighth-best team

When Sebastian Vettel won the Indian Grand Prix, all the watching world cared about was that he had won the drivers' championship. Red Bull clinching the constructors' title was, at best, a footnote.

The less high-profile classification is regarded as crucial by the team, not least because both prize money and Red Bull's generous staff bonus payments are based upon it. But for the majority of those with an interest in the sport, the phrase 'world champion' applies to the driver.

After all, the world championship had already been staged eight times by the time Vanwall became the inaugural car-makers' title-winner in 1958. And for many, albeit not all, fans it is much easier to feel an emotional connection to a flesh and bone driver than to the inanimate machinery cocooning him.

So amid the clamour to declare Vettel as great, not great or a work in progress, Red Bull's achievement has been largely overlooked.

It has now won four constructors' titles on the bounce as well as helping making Vettel a quadruple world champion. Think about that for a minute...

Remember, Red Bull took over a Jaguar team that was a laughing stock. After Ford bought Jackie Stewart's eponymous and very effective outfit and rebranded it for 2000, it was an embarrassment.

Five seasons produced just two F1 podiums for Jaguar © LAT

In five seasons, Jaguar made the podium twice in 85 attempts, scored only 49 points (albeit in 'old' money) and never finished higher than seventh in the constructors' championship.

Yet that same team has now won 27 per cent of the races it started since its metamorphosis into Red Bull.

"In 2006, the dream was just to try and win a race," admitted chief technical officer Adrian Newey less than an hour after Vettel's celebratory donuts.

"To win championships, and then four consecutive championships has been an amazing ride."

It really has been. Red Bull - meaning the racing team based in a relatively modest, if extremely well-equipped trio of industrial units on the outskirts of British town Milton Keynes rather than the parent company - has achieved incredible things.

So what if it has spent a lot of money, so have its rivals. So what if it has pushed the boundaries of legality, that is what any racing team has to do to be successful. It has thrived where most have failed.

While a big budget is a pre-requisite of success, it is not a guarantee. There are far more big-money outfits that have failed miserably than have had even a fraction of Red Bull's success. Yes, we are all thinking of you, Toyota.

So is Red Bull now one of the all-time great teams? Certainly by numbers alone it qualifies as one of the very greatest, but that's not quite enough to earn it a place with the absolute elite.

It's far easier to quantify a team's greatness than that of a driver. The performance of a team's car and its results are an absolute metric of its effectiveness.

Toyota: proof that big budgets do not guarantee F1 success © LAT

In real terms, F1 is a level playing field. Yes, Red Bull has vast spending power, but that is because it of the success of its parent company, supplemented by subsequent partnerships with the likes of Infiniti.

F1 is raw competition, and budget is part of that competition. Marussia and Caterham compete under exactly the same rules even if their resources pale in comparison. They don't have the same cash but, hard as it is to raise, there is no insurmountable barrier preventing them from doing so and both teams would happily spend $1 billion if you gave it to them.

So, here are the numbers: Red Bull is the fifth most successful constructor in F1 by titles won and overall race wins. Only Ferrari, Williams, Lotus and McLaren outstrip it. That in itself is an astonishing achievement.

Below are the top 10 teams in world championship history by wins. This varies from the 'official' list which usually ranks by constructor. Red Bull slips a place in this list because 'Scuderia Enstone' has more victories in its various guises having won 49 times as Benetton, Renault and Lotus.

World championship race wins by team

 1. Ferrari     221
 2. McLaren     182
 3. Williams    114
 4. Team Lotus  74*
 5. Enstone     49**
 6. Red Bull    44
 7. Brabham     35
 8. Tyrrell     23**
 9. BRM         17
10. Cooper      16

*Lotus is credited with 81 wins as a constructor, but two of those were claimed by the modern Enstone Lotus team and five by privateer machines run by Rob Walker
**Comprises Toleman, Benetton, Renault of 2002-2011 and the modern Lotus
***While the modern Mercedes team shares the same company number as Tyrrell via its various guises as BAR, Honda and Brawn, the fact that the team was effectively built from scratch ahead of the 1999 season means Tyrrell is regarded as a separate entity

So what are the criteria for greatness in a team? Success, clearly, is the main one. Red Bull has been staggeringly effective. Four double titles in four years is an astonishing return. Only McLaren from 1988-1991 matches and Ferrari from 2000-2004 eclipses it.

Red Bull's run of titles has equalled McLaren's dominance from 1988-91 © LAT

But while drivers often enjoy most of their success in narrow periods of time teams can demonstrate the kind of longevity that outlasts even the most enduring driver.

Red Bull has only been competing for nine seasons, several of those trying to build a coherent team out of the mess of Jaguar. It has excelled under what is (save for various big ideas being introduced and banned) essentially the same rules package. It is a one-era outfit. For now...

To be regarded as one of the absolute greatest demands more than one spell of success, ideally with more than one driver. Arguably, there are seven outfits in F1 history that tick that box: Ferrari, McLaren, Team Lotus, Williams, Brabham, Enstone and Tyrrell.

The first five names all endured bad times, but each have won races and titles over long periods. Eyebrows might be raised over Enstone and Tyrrell, but both do fit the bill.

Enstone has won 49 races from 1986 to date and seven world championships, which allows it to claim greatness even if it has had more than its fair share of fallow seasons.

As for Tyrrell, while its glory years stretched only from 1969-1973 and Jackie Stewart was its sole champion driver, it was still a winner as late as 1983, competing in its own right as late as 1998 and won running Matra, March and its own machinery.

That leaves Red Bull, as the most successful of the second division of great teams (yes, even Cooper which led the rear-engined revolution) in eighth place.

None of this is a criticism of Red Bull as it simply has not had time to reel off the achievements necessary. The early years were all about building up the team, recruiting (aggressively, much to the chagrin of rival outfits), Adrian Newey setting things up to get the most out of his genius. So effectively, it has had one rules cycle in which to be successful.

Stewart was Tyrrell's only champion, but it was still a winner as late as 1983 F1 © LAT

Next year, with a major rule changes, Red Bull has the chance to take the next step.

Setting aside success and longevity, there is one other key quality of the greatest teams - the ability to innovate. Today, innovation doesn't take the form of visually obvious ideas such as sticking a wing on a car, harnessing ground effect or using a fan to suck the car to the ground.

Newey and Red Bull haven't come out with something so obvious, but there is no doubt the team has changed the sport.

Bringing back exhaust-blown downforce defined F1 for several years, while in terms of understanding of aerodynamics, driver-in-loop simulators and flexible bodywork, Red Bull has set new standards. It has pushed the boundaries, but so did the other great innovators.

As for Newey himself, there is no doubt about his own claim to greatness. He is right up there with Colin Chapman as a transformative technological force in grand prix racing.

Newey's remarkable March 881 is one of the most significant cars in F1 history, setting the path for what might be termed the aerodynamic era. He has won titles with Williams and McLaren as well as Red Bull. For Newey, Red Bull stands as his greatest triumph and he has often stated it is effectively continuing what he started with his 'own' team at Leyton House back in the late 1980s.

F1 is all about the next challenge. For Red Bull, it is the 2014 rules set. Success there would constitute doing so in a different era, which would be another item checked off the list.

If Red Bull keeps up the good work, it will get there. After all, what it has achieved over the past decade or so has been, for all the complaints and criticism, remarkable.

Winning, going faster than the rest, is what grand prix racing is all about. It has always been that way. And from 2009-2013, Red Bull has been the best at it.

For that, the whole team, not just Newey but team principal Christian Horner, owner Dietrich Mateschitz and every member of staff at Milton Keynes, deserve far more credit than they receive.