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MAGES18 AUTOSPORT.COM 25 JULY 2019
mile on his face, red cape (and nothing more) on his
torso, Christian Horner leaps into the swimming
pool of the Red Bull Energy Station. It’s May 2006,
and Horner is not making quite the same jump as
around 15 months previously, when he was placed
in charge of Red Bull’s new, wholly owned Formula 1
squad and named the youngest team principal in
the championship’s history. But it’s significant nonetheless: Red Bull,
the party team, the young disruptor, has just scored its first podium
finish on its 26th attempt. Horner’s leadership by example triggers
post-race celebrations that descend into a massive shoving contest
as team members rush to throw one another in the water as well.
“I can’t see Zak Brown doing that now,” grins Horner as he
reflects with Autosport on that moment more than a decade later.
“Or Ron Dennis, or even Flavio Briatore. It was just... different.”
Red Bull was ever thus. Especially in F1. Especially in the early days.
F1’s general split between teams being entered by car manufacturers
or racing companies helps highlight the extent to which Red Bull is
an anomaly. Benetton is the only other team that has come close,
in terms of a major sponsor taking charge and running the team
under its own name to so much success.
For a long time Benetton’s story was unique. Yet Red Bull’s F1
story can be unfairly characterised as a massive company deciding
to get more involved, spending a lot of money, and winning – then
complaining when it stopped winning. That glosses over the
investment and effort that has gone into making it happen.
“Red Bull has always been non-conformist,” says Horner, still
presiding over the race team and (as in 2006) back to creating a
foundation to fight for titles. “I think back to the energy that Red
Bull brought into the paddock when we first turned up in 2005,
at Imola for our first European race, with the Energy Station. The
music was playing loud and there’s a real vibe. Everyone thought,
‘What on Earth is this?’ This quickly got confused with us being
portrayed as the party team. What it really was, and it quickly
became clear as we recruited key personnel and became more
competitive, is there is no reason you can’t have fun along the
RED BULL
RACING WINSDRIVER WINS
Sebastian Vettel 38
Mark Webber 9
Daniel Ricciardo 7
Max Verstappen 6
Toro Rosso (Vettel) 1way, no reason to not be burdened with corporate blandness.”
What started with letting David Coulthard grow a beard –
“that never happened at McLaren!” – has grown into much bigger
exhibitions: driving a car through the streets of London, performing
donuts on the helipad of a roof in Dubai, sliding down the snow-
covered slopes of Austrian Alpine town of Kitzbuhel.
On-track, Red Bull backs 20% of the current grid, and helped keep
Honda – an important manufacturer – in F1 after the Japanese engine
maker’s split from McLaren. Red Bull is responsible for the return of
the Austrian Grand Prix, one of the season’s most successful races (this
year’s being no exception). And the driver programme it has funded at
immense cost produced one of the most successful racers in history
in Sebastian Vettel and is giving modern fans Max Verstappen.
The raft of drivers Red Bull has brought into F1 have added ability, race
wins and personality in spades. These drivers have been encouraged to
speak their mind, enjoy what Red Bull has to offer, and not feel restrained
by the ever-increasing corporate world of F1. It is similar to how the
company sees itself. As Red Bull motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko
puts it: “We leave the personalities of the driver, we don’t train them
how to speak. As long as they can eat with a knife and a fork, it’s fine!”
Red Bull’s influence also stretches wider than most. While its headline
involvement has unsurprisingly been the two F1 teams it bought and
rebranded (and the short-lived NASCAR effort), it has also committed
to other major sponsorship deals with teams and individual drivers.
It has been affiliated to various successes, including MotoGP, the
World Rally Championship, DTM, World Touring Cars, Australian
Supercars and the Dakar. When assessing what it has done for F1,
and the wider motorsport world, in the last decade and a half,
Red Bull probably does not get the credit it deserves.Horner celebrates
first podium at
2006 Monaco GP