his closing laps in Spain, while Webber was dogged with hydraulic problems all weekend, eventually retiring from the race after failing to set a competitive lap in qualifying. The performance hike the team experienced at the Catalan track left both drivers and team optimistic about their future results, with reliability troubles being as much a focus as the increase of their already competitive pace. Red Bull Racing further strengthened their technical department by hiring Geoff Willis as Technical Director on 17 July 2007. After this, the drivers seemed to have a stroke of good luck during the unpredictable and exciting 2007 European Grand Prix in which Webber finished 3rd, his second career podium. Coulthard backed it up with a strong 5th which was made all the more impressive by the fact he started 20th on the grid after the team mistakenly kept him in the pits too long resulting in him not being able to complete another qualifying lap. Red Bull had a strong end to the season. Webber came close to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix, but he was involved in a crash with Sebastian Vettel. During the same race, Coulthard again demonstrated his wet-weather ability and finished 4th. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull had a competitive qualifying session. Coulthard achieved 5th on the grid, along with Webber in 9th. 2008 season Red Bull continued with the same drivers in and had numbers 9 and 10 on their cars after finishing 5th in the 2007 Constructors' Championship. Red Bull presented the RB4 at the Jerez circuit on 16 January and announced that Sébastien Buemi would be their test and reserve driver for 2008 combining it with his GP2 drive with the Arden International GP2 team. After Webber retired from the opening round he went on to score 5 consecutive points finishes. Coulthard had a tougher start to the 2008 campaign due to poor qualifying, but a 3rd place at Canada gave Red Bull their first podium since the 2007 European Grand Prix. At the half-way mark, the team had notched up 24 points – the same as their total for the 2007 season – and were locked in a fierce battle with Toyota and Renault for 4th in the Constructors' Championship. The team had also resolved the reliability problems that had dogged them the previous year. However, as the season progressed, Red Bull failed to keep