This year’s Formula One season has been dominated by one driver, Max Verstappen, and one team, Red Bull. A sport once financed by tobacco sponsorship, now has its fastest car bankrolled by an energy drink.
Commercially, Red Bull’s presence in Formula One makes perfect sense. Any global brand would love to take centre stage in a sport associated with thrills, excitement and glamour.
And just like a Formula One engine, Red Bull’s journey to that stage has been meticulously engineered. The company started out by sponsoring a Formula One team (Sauber) in 1995, went on to buy Jaguar Racing in 2004 and then in 2005 bought Minardi to form another team, Torro Rosso, now known as AlphaTauri.