F1 and Red Bull mourn Mateschitz: luck with drinks then triumphs in the GPs

The co-founder of the energy drinks brand and owner of the team acquired in the early 2000s and then reached the world championship successes with Vettel and Verstappen passed away at the age of 78.

October 23

– austin (usa)

F1 mourns the passing of Dietrich Mateschitz, the billionaire whose Red Bull energy drink business has become a major motorsport sponsor. A few minutes before qualifying for the US GP, the news of his passing at the age of 78, following a long illness, arrived. Red Bull is today a reality that in motorsport means the presence of two top-level teams such as the homonymous team which is based in Milton Keynes and the sister team AlphaTauri, which is based in Faenza because Mateschitz took over the property when it was still called. Minardi, calling it Toro Rosso. The Red Bull Ring is the track hosting the F1 and MotoGP World Championship events, while the Servus television channel holds the rights to broadcast the sport in Austria. However, the Red Bull logos are present in many other two- and four-wheel championships.

winning recipe

Mateschitz co-founded Red Bull in 1984 with Chaleo Yoovidhya, after discovering Red Bull’s recipe in Thailand, and sensed that motorsport could become an excellent tool for promoting the brand. Gerhard Berger became the first driver to be sponsored by the company in 1987. Red Bull increased its presence in F1 when he became main sponsor of the Sauber team in 1995.

landing in the engines

In the early 2000s Mateschitz acquired the Jaguar team, which Ford had put up for sale in 2004. He entrusted the task of managing it to Christian Horner, founder of the Arden team who had brought Vitantonio Liuzzi to the Formula 3000 title that year. A partnership that still lasts and that led to the world triumphs of Sebastian Vettel from 2010 to 2013 and of Max Verstappen in 2021 and 2022. Mateschitz, one of the richest men in the world with a fortune estimated at 15 billion dollars, appeared only occasionally in person to witness his team’s success and hadn’t been seen in an F1 paddock for several years.



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