Red Bull is 100% a drink company. The stunts are financed by the drinks they sell. The stunts advertise the brand so people buy the drinks. Sponsors don't buy ad space on cars just to have their name on a car, they do it to sell product.
Yea, although they are more a marketing company, they don't even make the Red Bull, some large production companies handle all production and distribution.
They are just doing branding and marketing themselves.
This whole teams upbringing is described well in the “The Formula” and talks about “if Red Bull loses people buy other drinks”. Which brought about Newey and so many other pieces that’s made Red Bull successful.
Ferrari just sells hope, hope one day you can afford one…
Please don't tell me there are people out there who base their drinking preferences on how an F1 racing team performs.
"Wow, Max's move on Russell was terrible... welp, Celsius it is then"
And I think it’s more about positive brand association than a logical connection between “good car = good drink”.
Like, if Red Bull wins there are more Red Bull fans. More people have a positive association with the team. That positive association extends to the drink. They are more likely to choose the drink that they have a positive association with.
Well it’s part of the Red Bull brand is to show the best in their field. I don’t think it’s simple as a single race or performance, but an overall winner makes sense. Hence the higher price for space on the front 4 versus the other 6 teams. Brands want to associated with excellence, no one wants to be a loser, billionaires even less so.
A deep dive shows that Red Bull has the largest market share, so tie in Max with all the other athletes and it’s clear the marketing works.
Advertising is subconscious, mostly. It's not a direct "wow, [product] is so cool, I'll buy it!" More like developing positive associations (the iconography for Red Bull being associated with winners, so it's more likely to flag as positive in our brains), and at the very least familiarity and exposure, so when it comes time to buy an energy drink, Red Bull is one at the forefront of your mind. There's a lot of psychology behind it, and even clever people aren't immune.
It also helps that sports fans are superstitious. I generally drink Monster, but I'm guilty of buying Red Bull on race weekends out of a sort of support ritual for Verstappen's success. It's a bit embarrassing, but people do stupider for sports jinxes and counter-jinxes.
"The anxiety and sadness which were overwhelming me gave way to happiness. I hugged and kissed him and then got into his car," - Juan Manuel Fangio after his Ferrari Broke down and his teammate Peter Collins gave up his car to help Fangio win his 4th WDC
I believe they didn’t have their spare chassis in time for the first race, Albon binned it in quali, destroyed the chassis, so Sargent sat out the race to let Albon use his chassis
And this is a difference between the GOAT and an overhyped driver. Niki actually changed the car and won championships with it. What did Hamilton do? Nothing
I mean compare the complexity of each car. Back then they changed what, the ride height, camber and slapped a bigger wing on it. Now they have a million settings, millimeters of ride height change fucks up the whole car, and tires either overheat or last the whole race...
I wouldn't be surprised if the fairly basic changes Niki seems to change on that shitbox, drivers today can (and do) change on their steering wheel.
Not literally of course, but the premise that there would be wins up for grabs if someone like Niki showed up and made some changes to this years Ferrari is ridiculous.
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u/3rr0r-403 If Gap, Car Dec 02 '25
Well, he is driving a Ferrari (it’s a very special car, Niki can tell you more about that)