What do you get if you put a MotoGP rider, a freestyle skier and a snowboarder in the same room? Well, if it’s a room at the Red Bull Racing factory and it happens to be British Grand Prix weekend, you have ingredients for an exclusive peek behind the scenes with F1’s most exciting and dynamic team.
I joined MotoGP-winner Scott Redding, pro freestylist Paddy Graham and World Cup Half-pipe star Ben Kilner – all British Red Bull ambassadors – for a tour around the operation’s cutting edge Technology Centre in Milton Keynes. If this was the day’s aperitif, the starter would be a visit to the pit garage at Silverstone (just half an hour away) and my main course, as Red Bull Reporter, would be a rendezvous with Aussie F1 ace Mark Webber.
Pulling up outside the Red Bull Racing factory, you’re greeted with a striking image. The iconic crimson bovine leaping across a yellow sun is emblazoned across an enormous navy fascia running the length of the building. Morning light glints of stylish cyan-tinted windows by a huge signboard which leaves you with no doubt as to where you are. I met with my fellow guests in the reception area, where an early incarnation Red Bull Racing F1 machine hangs impressively from the wall, and we were guided through into the depths of the building.
The factory is actually split across three on-site facilities: the main unit, the machine shop and the race car assembly stage, with almost 600 employees working across each sector. The main unit houses the vast and spacious drawing office, which was our first stop on the tour. This is the brains behind the operation, where the clever people work their magic – including chief technical officer Adrian Newey, the man responsible for conceiving numerous championship-winning F1 cars over the years. Design ideas are sent through to the adjacent model shop for scale components to be produced with breathtaking precision – the laser equipment used is capable of dividing a strand of hair ten times lengthways!
On the way out of the main building I had a chance to watch one of the ops room engineers at work. These guys – Red Bull Racing’s “Mission Control” – have live data feeds from the car as it races around the circuit, whether it’s just down the road at Silverstone or across the other side of the globe in Australia. Even as I looked on, modifications were being made to a three-dimensional CAD model of Sebastian Vettel’s front wing, from information gathered during the previous hour’s practice session. I was assured that the changes would buy the team at least one thousandth of a second for qualifying. That’s three-hundred times faster than you can blink!
Time was pressing as we embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the second and third buildings. The machine shop is where the race cars begin their proper transformation from paper to reality, but much of it was off-limits this weekend (especially to nosey reporters with flashy cameras). This is where advanced milling machines cut and mould carbon-fibre components before they’re baked rigid in searing, high-pressure autoclaves. Once cooled, the shaped element is ten times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight – only a lick of paint stands in the way of it becoming a fully-fledged feature of the race car.
The Red Bull Racing livery is a favourite up and down the pitlane, with bold, sweeping lines and vibrant colours reflecting the brand’s sexy, snazzy image. At the 2007 British Grand Prix, the cars ran with unique paint schemes – photo montages of fans who had donated money to the team’s adopted charity, Wings for Life. This Red Bull reporter was delighted to find his own ugly mug grinning from the nosecone of Mark Webber’s RB3 race machine, which now sits on display in the final building on the factory tour.
And with that, we were whisked off to the Silverstone circuit to catch the on-track action and soak up the atmosphere in the pit and paddock. The half-hour journey afforded just enough time to gauge the thoughts of my fellow guests, the Red Bull ambassadors. Evidently the multi-million pound operation had made an impression on the young athletes: “The most I usually spend on a snowboard is seven-hundred quid,” commented Kilner. “And that’s made of high-tech hardwood and fibreglass.” Fellow freestylist Graham nods in agreement, adding: “And maybe another hundred pounds for some polyurethane goggles. But it really puts it into perspective seeing how much money goes into F1.” Even MotoGP star Redding was moved to suggest that the attention to detail and level of sophistication at the factory put his sport somewhat in the shade.
Comments
Add a comment