Dietrich Mateschitz (left) congratulating Max Verstappen on the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix
Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who became a major global business figure with his energy drinks empire, has died at the age of 78.
Mateschitz was the driving force behind establishing the world market leader for energy drinks.
He used the fortune thus created to build a Formula 1 team that has become one of the leading forces in the sport.
“It’s very, very sad, what a great man,” said Red Bulls team boss Christian Horner.
“What he has achieved and what he has done for so many people around the world in different sports is second to none.”
Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of qualifying for Saturday’s US Grand Prix, shortly after Mateschitz’s death was announced, Horner said his team was determined to “do our best for him” in qualifying and Sunday’s race.
“So many of us must be so grateful to him for the opportunities he offered and the vision he had, the strength of character and the fear to pursue your dreams.
“He did that here in Formula 1 and proved that you can make a difference. We are just incredibly grateful.”
Horner said Mateschitz was “lucky” to see Red Bull’s Max Verstappen win his second world title in a row when the Dutchman won the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks ago.
“He was very proud of the team,” added Horner.
Mateschitz’s death is not believed to threaten the future of Red Bull or its sister team Alpha Tauri.
From salesman to founder of a $25 billion beverage giant
Austrian Mateschitz was a salesman for consumer goods company Procter & Gamble when, traveling in Thailand, he discovered Krating Daeng, the drink that would become Red Bull.
In 1984, he founded Red Bull with the drink’s founder, Thai Chaleo Yoovidhya, and launched the Red Bull brand in 1987, eventually making it the largest energy drink in the world and making a fortune estimated at $25 billion becomes.
He began to associate the brand with extreme sports such as surfing, cliff diving, winter sports and mountain biking, and Red Bull became involved as a sponsor for many of them.
His involvement in F1 began with the Switzerland-based Sauber team, in which Red Bull owned a 60% stake, before the two companies parted ways after a dispute over driver choice – Sauber signed inexperienced Finn Kimi Raikkonen for his debut season in the Year 2001, when Mateschitz wanted him to choose Red Bull protégé Enrique Bernoldi.
Three years later, Red Bull bought the ailing Jaguar team from owner Ford and renamed it, hired ex-Formula Two driver Christian Horner as team boss and hired the sport’s leading designer Adrian Newey as technical director on a salary of 10 million dollars.
They set out to make Red Bull a leading force, becoming the fastest team in F1 in 2009 and winning their first drivers’ and constructors’ titles with German Sebastian Vettel in 2010, the first of four consecutive championship doubles for the team.
Red Bull also expanded its sporting interests into football, buying teams in Salzburg, the city closest to Mateschitz’s home in Fuschl am See in Austria, and Leipzig in Germany, as well as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, Campinas in Brazil , founding a club in Ghana and taking over an ice hockey team in Munich.
Red Bull has earned a reputation for combining Newey’s design genius and competitiveness with a ruthless, combative attitude in all aspects of the sport, from exploiting technical gray areas to aggressively approaching rule-setters and rivals to reveling in the role of disruptor .
The advent of turbo-hybrid engines in 2014 brought their dominance to an abrupt end as Mercedes began its own period of leadership.
Red Bull continued to produce competitive cars but were held back by their Renault engines. In the meantime, they laid the groundwork for their return to the front.
Mateschitz’s motorsport right-hand man, Helmut Marko, signed Verstappen in 2014 in the middle of his debut season in auto racing, making him the youngest driver to compete at a Grand Prix weekend when he was handed a Toro Rosso for the first practice session with the greats Prize of Japan, aged 17 years and three days.
Verstappen was signed for the Toro Rosso team in 2015 – the former name of Alpha Tauri, now named after one of the group’s fashion brands – and was promoted to Red Bull in the fifth race of 2016, where he made the big one on his debut Prize of Spain won for senior team.
After abandoning its engine partnership with Renault and merging with Honda in 2019, Red Bull has become increasingly competitive and in 2021 had its first fully competitive car since 2013.
Verstappen used it against Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in one of the most intense title fights in Formula 1 history. The Red Bull driver was eventually declared champion after a contentious final in which he won the race and passed Hamilton after the FIA race director failed to follow him correctly during a late safety car period.
With the advent of new rules in 2022, Red Bull emerged as the dominant team, culminating in Verstappen’s commanding assault on a second world title.
During his involvement in Formula 1, Mateschitz, although a reclusive figure who rarely gave interviews, developed into one of the most important power figures in the sport.
At the same time, he used his fortune to help revitalize his native Styria in Austria and promoted local crafts and art. He also founded the Wings For Life charity to support spinal cord research.
He left a significant legacy in motorsport and global business. But his death inevitably leaves long-term question marks over all aspects of the business, even if Chalerm Yoovidhya, Chaleo’s eldest son and believed to be Red Bull’s majority shareholder throughout, is said to be an F1 enthusiast.
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