Red Bull Junior Team

The Red Bull Junior Team is a driver development program run by the energy drink company Red Bull GmbH in an attempt to identify potential future racing stars in open wheel racing. The similar Red Bull Driver Search, now ended, was an American spinoff of the same idea held in 2005. Members of the Junior Team are financed and sponsored by Red Bull in lower racing formulae. The programs have been successful in bringing a selection of drivers into Formula One. Five of them, Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, and Carlos Sainz Jr. have won a Formula One race, with two of them (Vettel and Verstappen) having won at least three World Championships. Red Bull owns two teams in Formula One, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri. The Red Bull Junior Team was also the name of RSM Marko, a team that competed in International Formula 3000 between 1999 and 2003, sponsored by Red Bull and run by Helmut Marko. The Red Bull Junior Team was formed in 2001 as Red Bull's European driver programme. Red Bull offers funding and support for the promising young drivers that are part of the programme. In 2004, Christian Klien became the first Red Bull Junior to race in Formula One, while in 2008, Sebastian Vettel became the first Red Bull Junior to win a Formula One Grand Prix, the Italian Grand Prix. Two years later, in 2010, Vettel became the first Red Bull Junior graduate to win the Formula One World Championship.