STR previews Bahrain

How things change. Only a year ago, Red Bull Racing was making its debut on the Formula One stage and here we are, twelve months on, with two teams running under the Red Bull banner, courtesy of Scuderia Toro Rosso. Now that we represent 18.18% percent of the grid (maybe we should buy 1.82% of another team, just to get it back to the nice round 20% we had before that new eleventh crew arrived), there have been suggestions we should clean up our act.

But don't worry, we're still cool and crazy and true to the Red Bull creed. In fact, finding out if someone is cool and crazy has been the top priority during any job interviews we conducted this winter. Adrian Newey? Did we care that his cars had won loads of races and titles? No, we were impressed that he was cool and crazy enough to desperately want to work in Milton Keynes. Gerhard Berger? Is his vast experience as a driver, a team boss and a businessman important? No, what matters is that he's a walking A to Z of cool (leave out the crazy, he wants you to leave out the crazy, Ed.).

Therefore, this season we plan to share with you the impressive depth of experience in our two teams, which is now simply astounding, as can be seen from the following incident. One of our hire cars broke down on the way to a test session recently and our engineering specialist suggested the problem was no doubt related to the valves or the crank sensor. However, our electrical engineer disagreed and insisted we have a look at the wiring loom. Finally, the team's computer software specialist came up with a solution: "Let's close all the windows, get out of the car, get back in, then open the windows again and I bet it will start!" What a cool, crazy guy!

At most events this year, you'll be getting just the one race preview for both teams, because the theory goes that we are 'rivals on the track but part of the same family away from it'. No doubt you heard that sentiment a lot at our launch. It sounds good, but what it probably means is that after the first three races, the two teams won't even say hello to one another. Our launch? Oh yes, that's right, we've not had it yet. We're just far to cool and crazy to do anything conventional, like launch our teams well ahead of the first race, which might possibly have been useful to you journalists.

If we had organised a launch, the other word you would have heard a lot is "synergies", which is confusing, because we don't understand why something a nurse uses to give you an injection can also be an important advantage of running two teams. As you can tell, we are the teams that like to do things differently, or in the case of launches, not at all. But we're so cool and crazy that our drivers and engineers will be happy to talk to you at any time over the weekend (apart from during the Thursday night launch party), especially if you come and ask them difficult questions on the grid, just before the start of the race.

For the record, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso are not staging a pre-season launch with interviews etc. However, drivers and personnel from both teams will be available to answer questions from the media in the Sakhir Circuit paddock during Thursday 9 March. Specific times will be posted in the Media Centre. The Thursday evening event will serve to launch the new liveries for both teams. No interviews will be held in the venue during this event.