Although DC's future looked uncertain, he eventually secured a drive with Red Bull Racing for 2005 - and revitalised his career, scoring 24 points during the season and ending the year 12th in the drivers' championship. Indeed the Scot finished in the points on nine occasions, his best results two fourth places finishes - in Australia and at the Nurburgring.
With his career now revitalised by his move to
Red Bull, DC continued to show off the benefit of his experience in 2006, even if the team's 'sophomore' season arguably proved to be far tougher than their debut year.
Indeed, despite switching from Cosworth to
Ferrari engines, the team struggled to make the potent V8 units work well, with reliability proving a major bugbear ahead of the season. However, despite having failed to complete a race distance before Bahrain, DC only failed to see the chequered flag five times over the season.
The rather conservative RB2 was a mid-field runner at best though and despite DC's attempts to haul it into contention, an eighth place finish at Melbourne was the only highlight of a tough start to the season.
Nonetheless, the best was yet to come after DC gave Red Bull their first podium with a thrilling driver to third place at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Scot making the most of his experience around the circuit to deliver one of the year's most memorable moments.
Fifth in Hungary was the only other strong points haul though and DC became increasingly vocal about the team's inability to improve through the season. Still, with Adrian Newey set to exert his expertise on the RB3 and
Renault providing engines, DC opted for a third season with the team in the hope of hitting the highs he managed in his career with
McLaren.
While not quite embodying Red Bull's ethos of promoting youth, DC remained eager to show that he could still cut it against the new breed of young guns eager for his place, but faced fellow veteran
Mark Webber across the garage in what many predicted as his swansong season.
