Formula One
05 Jun 2024
After taking a look behind the scenes at Red Bull’s Showrun team last year for RACER, the team invited me to join it for an event in Poland for a true ‘fly-on-the-wall’ experience.
Since it bought Jaguar at the end of 2004, Red Bull has taken Formula 1 to the people with countless demonstration and filming projects all over the world, and my feature – which you can read here – pulled back the curtain on the one-of-a-kind operation delving into its inner workings, exploring how it puts on its events, and how it keeps its championship-winning workhorses from 2011 in shape for the new challenges they’ve faced away from the race track.
I joined the team at ‘Red Bull Speed Ways’ in Wrocław, Poland – something that perfectly epitomizes what the Showrun team is all about. It’s in a place that’s never held a grand prix and isn’t likely to have one soon, therefore showcasing F1 to a crowd that’s probably never experienced it in person before and may never do so again. But it also encompassed a typical ‘show run’ on the streets surrounding the Stadion Olimpijski speedway venue, as well as a show inside the stadium where David Coulthard raced a 2011 RB7 against a speedway bike.
Read more from Red Bull Speed Ways Wrocław
Can an F1 car beat a speedway bike on dirt? Hold my Red Bull…
The team takes two cars to each event, keeping one primed and ready to step in at a moment’s notice if anything goes wrong.
RB7-04 was the car of choice in Poland, previously campaigned by Mark Webber in 2011
Aside from some subtle changes – such as fans fitted to the radiators and tweaks to button assignment on the steering wheel – the car is exactly as it raced.
And it takes quite a beating…
Whether that’s on the streets…
Or somewhere more extreme.
David Coulthard has been Red Bull’s go-to Showrun driver for almost two decades.
In fact, he’s now been doing this for longer than he ever raced in F1.
Coulthard has driven in front of crowds of tens of thousands all over the world.
The event in Poland brought together other facets of the Red Bull family too, including speedway star Maciej “Magic” Janowski.
And pilot Lukasz Czepiela who landed his plane in – and took off from – the centre of the stadium.
