Red Bull Racing brought out its fastest cars and drivers to put on a show for the tens of thousands of fans and residents of Red Bull’s home city of Milton Keynes, U.K., Saturday.
Approximately 60,000 spectators turned out to watch the Red Bull Home Run event, which was designed both to thank the local fans for their support and to highlight the deepening involvement of Nissan’s Infiniti division with Red Bull Racing.
Formula One drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel and test driver (and former F1 pilot) David Coulthard displayed the speed and power of the team’s Formula One and NASCAR machines doing doughnuts and acceleration runs through the streets of Milton Keynes. Motorcycle stunt rider Chris Pfeiffer was also on hand to thrill—and scare—the crowd with some amazing tricks.
The drivers talked with fans and signed autographs and created huge clouds of smoke and black tire tracks on the city’s asphalt. Team principal Christian Horner and designer Adrian Newey also attended. The spectacle was shown on several giant-screen displays so everyone could get a close-up view of the action.
Sebastian Vettel told the crowd, “Thanks to all the fans who came today. We wanted to put on a great show, so I hope they enjoyed it. It’s a great way to finish the season,” according to the Red Bull website. Mark Webber added, “I live locally too, so it was nice to give something back to the community. I know some of the roundabouts on the course from driving my road car, so it was something different to drive them in an F1 car!”
The drivers arrived in Infiniti’s M35h, billed as the “world’s fastest-accelerating hybrid” (among road-going cars it must be assumed; Peugeot’s 908 LMP is certainly a bit quicker.) Also on display were an Infiniti FX Sebastian Vettel Version concept and an Infiniti FX30ds specially branded in RB7 livery.
Wayne Bruce, communications director, Infiniti Europe said in a press release, “Today has been a truly fitting end to a remarkable first F1 season for Infiniti and we are delighted to have been able to support Red Bull Racing on the event.” [etssp 483]
Nissan, already a partner with Renault, which supplies Red Bull’s engines, announced in March that Infiniti would have both a marketing and technical partnership with the F1-champion racing team.
On Oct. 16 Red Bull announced a multiyear agreement with Infiniti, including more and larger Infiniti logos on the new-for-2012 Red Bull RB8 Formula 1 car. It can be assumed Infiniti is also offering the team more money.
Christian Horner said on the Red Bull website, “In the short time we have been involved with Infiniti it has become clear that the closer we work together the more performance advantages can be gained by both sides. It has been a phenomenally successful first season to date, and deepening our partnership further provides us even more scope to share knowledge and expertise, leading to mutual benefits on the track and the road.”
The partnership seems to be primarily commercial so far, with Infiniti branding on the Red Bull cars, but that may change. Infiniti Senior Vice President Andy Palmer told the Red Bull site: “Over the midterm, Infiniti will be simultaneously expanding its global presence and broadening its product range. Given these twin ambitions, it is clear Formula One offers us an unrivalled global communications platform, complementing Infiniti’s ethos of ‘Inspired Performance.’”
So, Infiniti might be building a higher performance car and hopes the Red Bull association will give it legitimacy? Or maybe Infiniti simply wants more people to see the company logo; F1 draws a lot of TV viewers.
Whatever the case, Red Bull and Infiniti got a lot of fans outside on a very cold day, and gave them all a show worth watching.
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