Pure Bull
PICTURES
RED BULL HAS ALWAYS APPROACHED FORMULA 1 ON THE FRONT FOOT. IT’S AN ATTITUDE ENCAPSULATED IN THE UNOFFICIAL COMPANY PHILOSOPHY: “NO RISK, NO FUN.” ANOTHER CLICHÉ TO DESCRIBE IT, PERHAPS, WOULD BE: “GO HARD OR GO HOME.”
It is a credo, a modus operandi, that goes right back to Red Bull’s early days in Formula 1. When Red Bull joined the grid back in 2005, taking over the Jaguar team, Christian Horner decided the best way to guarantee success was to sign the greatest designer of his age.
So Red Bull’s team principal went after Adrian Newey and tempted him away from McLaren at the end of 2005, a little over four years after McLaren had successfully fought off an attempt by Jaguar to do the same.
It was evident, also, throughout the titlewinning years of the early 2010s, when Red Bull explored the limits of the technical regulations on a number of fronts in a manner that angered its rivals and even caused the occasional raised eyebrow and roll of the eyes from the late Charlie Whiting, then the FIA’s F1 director.
And so it is obvious again in 2021, a season in which Red Bull has found itself in a title fight for the first time in eight years.
In Max Verstappen, Red Bull has found in many ways its perfect figurehead. A racing driver who simply refuses to compromise, who so far has refused
