I am living in my Red Bull era these days, and also this year is their 20th season, so I think it is reasonable that I wanted to learn a bit more about their history. I recommend these two!
Red Bulletin – 20 Laps around the Sun:
I accidentally saw it in a supermarket in England (but you can also get it in the Red Bull Store), and since that was after my day at the Red Bull HQ for the race screening, I was very much in the mood, so I absolutely had to buy it.
It basically summarizes the history of Red Bull Racing (RBR) from the beginning, including interviews with their drivers (including F1 Academy, which I was really happy about), Christian Horner, and Adrian Newey, and, of course, lots and lots of pictures. It’s a beautiful, high-quality publication, and it gave me some information that I didn’t know before (which, let’s be honest, isn’t surprising since I wasn’t really interested in Red Bull up until recently).
It felt very personal for me because the interviews seemed to be really honest – Mark Webber’s interview is still quite… bitter regarding his rivalry with Vettel, but also Coultard’s enthusiasm is quite endearing as well. Adrian Newey recalls how the engineers criticized him when he first started working at Red Bull and how difficult it was to change the culture from “oh, that’ll do” to being creative, doing things differently than before, and striving to be the best.
I think this bookazine also gave a good testament to their culture, which I could also experience when I visited them. I don’t know if they have like keywords, or mottos (besides the wing thing), but what comes to my mind is professional, innovative, inclusive and fun. So “party team”? Very much so, but maybe that is also a drive to try out new things and innovate, and also to operate on the highest level.
I loved the pictures, the structure, everything, but the part that the middle part that I am supposed to open up, was so tightly tucked in, that I could only open it in a way that it tore. Otherwise, it is a great taste into RBR, so weather you are into Red Bull or not, I think it’s a good read.
Ben Hunt: Growing Wings – The Inside Story of Red Bull Racing
I found this at the airport coming home, and it called my name. It seemed to dive a bit deeper into RBR’s 20 years, and I was right on that account. It goes through everything, starting from the origin story of the energy drink, then going through how Mateschnitz slowly weaved his way into F1, until he bought the Jaguar team. Then it tells the stories of their seasons, some deeper, some not so much, but I found it the perfect ration.
It talked about the drivers quite detailed – I already read the interviews with them in the bookazine, and I think that was good to read both, because this book offered a more objective viewpoint and kind of rounded out the picture of them.
It is very easy to read, obviously has a lot of data about race results and such, and as a recent fan, those years and results don’t make me remember anything, but it was good to have them to see the full picture (but I will still definitely not be able to tell you who won which race in a certain year).
This one is a deeper dive into Red Bull, so I would only recommend it, if you are either a commited RBR fan or you are invested in F1 history. Or if you have been a fan for 20 or more years, because I but the nostalgia factor can be huge reading about these historic events.
I also made a reel of these books on instagram, if you wanna see how they look on the inside:
Leave a Reply