Barely days after Sebastian Vettel had sewn up his fourth straight World Drivers’ Championship, his team celebrated in the only way it knew how: literally over the top!
Having flown into Abu Dhabi for the weekend’s Grand Prix. Red Bull decided that it had to commemorate the occasion with a unique series of runs on the helipad of the iconic Burj Al Arab.
Now one might ask if there was enough place for a 750bhp four-wheeled missile to strut its stuff but then didn’t one get to see Vettel celebrate his fourth title at the Buddh International Circuit by doing those rubber-shredding donuts on the main start-finish straight?
That was the spur, which the team needed, and they promptly dispatched former F1 ace David Coulthard with one of the team’s spare F1 cars to do donuts on top of an even smaller patch than what Vettel had at his disposal at the BIC.
The Red Bull RB6 was lifted by helicopter and placed on the helipad, which was, but 24m wide and with a 210m drop to the surface below. This small detail didn’t deter David at all as he got the proceedings off to a blustery start, the Pirellis gripping but just about as the Renault V8 motor kept at it, physics and human endeavour combining to make the car burn rubber yet perform 360-degree donuts over and over again! And that too without even skimming the guard rail on the outer edge of the helipad!
The one thing that Scotsman David knew from even before he decided to strap himself into the cockpit was the fact that there would be no Euro 25,000 fine after this show of daredevilry unlike what the killjoy FIA stewards saddled Vettel with at the BIC!
Stunts that give it wings
Red Bull may be a drinks company to the world but its racing team is one of the best there is on the planet and it has made its mark in a relative short span of time in the business. Apart from doing the usual, like winning World Championships for drivers and manufacturers, the team has also taken F1 cars places where no one has ever gone. In 2011 it ran one of its cars on the Leh-Ladakh mountain section, tearing away on gravel, snow and sheets of ice in what must surely rank as one of the craziest stunts ever performed using a Grand Prix machine.
David Coulthard echoed this line of thought when he stepped out of the cockpit after his rubber-smoking donut spree at the Burj Al Arab: “When Red Bull first suggested the idea to me I said ‘why not?’ I like getting involved with anything that pushes the boundaries and it’s what Red Bull stands for. I think this will produce fantastic, iconic shots in an amazing town and I’m really privileged to be part of it.”
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