Last week, I was blessed with the opportunity to visit F1 racing champions, Red Bull Racing‘s factory in Milton Keynes. Courtesy of their sponsor, Pepe Jeans, I headed down there via coach with a bunch of competition winners and a handful of bloggers. This was the Friday where I had 3 hours sleep, woke up at 5am to drop le other half off to the airport then to Milton Keynes for this trip. The energy drink was a must, in fact I consumed it over 5 times that day just to stay awake and alert.
If I’m honest, I’m not a big F1 fan. I used to watch it on a fortnightly basis when I was younger, the Schumacher days but nowadays who really has time for TV? I think if I learnt how to drive, F1 would appeal to me a whole lot more. The technology and glamour was always appealing, the sport has always been classy.
Digressed! Doh. We were greeted by the team’s head of marketing as soon as we arrived at the Red Bull factory. I’ve never met a woman who knows so much about cars and the technology revolving around EACH part – I guess its her job but you certainly need a passion for it to be able digest and deliver that info on a regular. Incredible. At the start of the day, I just wasn’t able to understand any of it. Big fat question mark above my head whenever a car nerd term came up.
She started the tour by taking us to the room where they compile the cars together and practice pit stops. If you didn’t know already Red Bull hold the record for fastest pitstop, 2.4 seconds. MADNESS. I can’t even pee that fast. They train around a 1000 times in between races, all of the team have to visit the personal trainer at the on site gym . It’s clearly paid off for them.
She also gave us a brief insight into the team’s small history and facts:
• Red Bull bought the company from Jaguar for £1. The catch? They’d have to keep all 217 staff. Now 3 years later, they own 3 buildings and have 550 onsite staff working 24 hours a day with day and night shifts.
• Last season’s car (one pictured in slider) took over 100,000 hours to build. No overtime pay! That’s pure passion driving them. Seeing your car/team win back to back titles is most definitely worth it!
• Their car designer is the only in all of F1 to draw his cars by hand instead of CAD. The executives decide how they’re going to build his designs after.
After showing us the room where they compile the cars, Millie took us to a talk hosted by one of the company’s heads. He gave us a flashy keynote presentation on the team’s ethos, car, drivers and more. What stood out for me was the Energy Station/Treehouse video – OMG. They’re both structures that Red Bull take with them wherever they go. I can’t find the video anywhere online – there was one part where the Energy Station was constructed on a air craft carrier. My jaw dropped at the sight of it, luxury. One is two floor building full of leisure amenities for their 40 or so travelling staff and the treehouse is where all the engineers and strategists work. In other words, the Energy Station is a nightclub, the very best of the best. Super fancy. Check out photographs of it here.
The actual factory tour was eye-opening, I never really knew how much money went into building these streamlined automobiles. Heck they had 4 machines that cost £250,000 each and all they did was laser double resin cut 1 part at a time. It’s the same tech used for prosthetic limbs and it’s still a few years away from being used on a larger scale. It’s a shame we weren’t allowed to take photographs; there were a few perfect industrial photograph moments. Ah well, it’s understandable – a team at the top of their game have to be careful.
Sigh I’m still mulling over the fact I wasn’t allowed to take any photographs so you can see what the factory looked like. Although I had no keen interest in the manufacturing of F1 cars or the team itself, I certainly came away with a new level of respect for what they do and their eye for detail. They really are perfectionists with awe-inspiring dedication and passion for what they do is truly inspiring. Have a gander at my imagery and few of Red Bull racing’s videos. Shout out to Mapi from Pepe Jeans!
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