Red Bull

January 16, 2007 Formula One is underway again for 2007 with the launch events as spectacular as ever. Toyota Panasonic was the first team out of the blocks, then followed McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari with world champion drivers champ Fernando Alonso no longer in Renault Mild Seven blue but the black and silver of McLaren. The biggest change is at Ferrari where Kimi Raikkonen now wears Ferrari (or is that Marlboro) Red and has been installed by the bookies as champion elect in the absence of Michael Schumacher, narrowly shading Alonso. Similarly, Ferrari is now favourite for the constructors title over McLaren with Renault seen as a distant third. BMW will unveil its new Sauber F1.07 later today in a live event held at its web site. Renault will trot out new R27 livery next week with the Mild Seven sponsorship leaving, and Williams will show its new Toyota-powered FW29 team in early February, followed by Honda’s RA107, Red Bull and Toro Rosso … with Dieter Mateschitz owning both teams, the party (current form here and here) can be expected to trump them all. If you’re an F1 tragic, might we suggest a new way to get amongst it is the on-line fantasy game Formula One Grand Prix Manager! which gives you the chance to become a manager of your own F1 racing team. Read More

August 18, 2006 If you can’t remember the first time you heard the name Red Bull, we can tell you it wasn’t long ago, because the brand didn’t exist before 1987 and wasn’t sold outside Austria until 1992. Driven by a marketing campaign based around over-the-top, extreme living, Red Bull has become the world’s best known and top selling energy drink and one of its most valuable brands in short order. Similarly, the Red Bull Air Race World series was conceived in 2001 to make flying more interesting and accessible for the public, the first race was held in 2003 and the 2006 series has been held in Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Berlin, St. Petersberg and Instanbul with Budapest this weekend and Longleat (UK), San Francisco, and Perth still to come. In five short years, Red Bull has manufactured a new form of mass-appeal spectator sport where pilots race against the clock around a slalom course of 20 metre high air gates, with races staged in the heart of the world’s major cities before an enthralled audience of well over a million spectators at a time. Indeed, the nine race series will have more live spectators in 2006 than will witness the 18 Formula One races. Extraordinary image gallery with this story. Read More

November 10, 2005 Elite motorcycle racing has many similarities to Formula 1 but it also has many differences, and perhaps the starkest contrast became evident on the Valencia racetrack in Spain yesterday just three days after the last race of the 2005 season. Formula 1 driver changes are major announcements in exotic locations. In MotoGP, all of the rider changes that had been rumoured and spoken of in hushed terms for the previous three months were suddenly on display as the first official test session for 2006 got underway. Honda’s big hope for 2005, Spaniard Sete Gibernau, was riding a Ducati. More significant though was the absence of many of the senior names which have monopolised the key factory rides for the last five years and in their place a half dozen or more new riders who have surfaced though 125, 250 and superbike – Pedrosa, Vermeulen, Stoner, Divizioso, Luthi, De Punier, Kiyonari and Neukirchner were among those who got their first chance on the ultimate racing machines yesterday as the Japanese factories (primarily Honda) made it clear they were seeking the next Valentino Rossi. Extensive image library Read More

May 22, 2005 When it comes to doing things on a grand scale, a strategic alliance between George Lucas and Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz always threatened to be a bit over the top. And so it came to pass. Lucas and Mateschitz partnered for a week of global promotional hype on the Cote d’Azur with stunning success. The tie-up between Red Bull Racing and the latest Star Wars movie finally reached its conclusion on Saturday night in Monaco when the last (and first) film in the series, “Revenge of the Sith” was screened for the benefit of guests from the world of Formula 1. The screening, which took place in the Grimaldi Forum was followed by a party, attended by several stars of the film and its director, George Lucas. There were plenty of sore heads in the Monaco paddock this morning, after a crowd of around five hundred F1 movers and shakers attended the biggest bash of the weekend in the Grimaldi Forum last night. Then the Red Bull pit crew did its stuff decked out as Star wars characters and around 500 million people around the world were reminded about the film’s premier. Read More

After races in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain, the Formula One circus returned to home ground this week as the motorhomes of the drivers and teams pulled into the historic Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit near Imola in Italy. The San Marino Grand Prix means a return to the European Grand Prix lifestyle which is of necessity, very different to the fly-away rounds. It’s where magnficent, luxurious, purpose-built surrounding can be driven to the circuit to make life more bearable, more fun and more efficient for 11 of the 19 race meetings each year. It’s where the world first sees each new mine’s-bigger-than-yours motorhome. It’s where the world first saw McLaren’s portable and palatial F1 nerve centre and this weekend, it gave us the first glimpse of what will surely become one of the most notorious and elite high-tech nightclubs on the planet – the Red Bull Energy Station. Read More