Texas’s Austin Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian millionaire, was the creator and owner of the Red Bull Formula One
racing team in addition to co-founding the energy drink brand Red Bull. He was eighty-eight.
Mateschitz passed away on Saturday, according to representatives of the Red Bull racing team at the United States
Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. His exact location of death and cause of death were not immediately known.
The head of the FIA, the authority that oversees motor sports, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, referred to Mateschitz as “a
towering figure in motor sport.”
“The thoughts of all the FIA family are with his loved ones at this time and he will be greatly missed.”
As the public face of Red Bull, an Austrian-Thai corporation that claims to have sold nearly 10 billion cans of its
taurine- and caffeine-based drink in 172 countries last year, Mateschitz rose to prominence.
Mateschitz not only contributed to the global success of the energy drink but also created an empire centered around
the brand in sports, media, real estate, and food.
With Red Bull’s increasing success, he increased his sports investments considerably, particularly in motorsports
and extreme sports. As a result, Red Bull currently owns and operates F1 racing teams, football clubs, and ice hockey
teams. Red Bull has a comprehensive driver development program to elevate racers to the highest level and has
contracts with hundreds of competitors across other sports.
“What he has meant for Red Bull, and of course the sport, and especially for me, it’s been hard news,” stated Max
Verstappen, who won the Formula One Championship for a record-breaking two weeks ago.
At the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, Verstappen aims to tie Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher for the
most wins in a season in Formula One racing history. He also aims to secure the constructors title for Red Bull.
“What he has done for me, my career so far, and in general my life, it’s really tough, it’s a really tough day,”
Verstappen stated. “There’s still a race ahead and we’re going to try to make him proud tomorrow.”
The business was established in 1984 by Mateschitz and Thai investor Chaleo Yoovidhya when Mateschitz saw the
opportunity to market Krating Daeng, another energy drink that Chaleo had produced, to a western market. Red Bull
claims that Mateschitz spent three years refining the recipe before the updated beverage was introduced in 1987
under a new moniker in his home Austria.
Red Bull swiftly expanded its market share under Mateschitz’s direction, first in Europe and later in the US, thanks
to advertising campaigns that emphasized the beverage’s purportedly energizing qualities.
In Formula 1, Red Bull Racing has achieved success, taking home the constructors’ championship in 2010, 2011,
2012, and 2013, and signing German driver Sebastian Vettel, who won four consecutive drivers’ championships, to
the team.
Verstappen began his career with Red Bull’s driver development program. with 2015, at the age of seventeen, he
joined the junior Toro Rosso team and became the youngest driver in Formula One history to start a grand prix.
Currently, the most dominant driver in the sport is the Dutchman.
“A great deal of us owe him a debt of gratitude for the chances he gave us, his vision, his moral fortitude, and his
unwavering courage to pursue our goals. He demonstrated this here in F1.
“We’re just incredibly grateful for him, everything that he’s done, everything that he’s supported us with over the
years,” Horner said. “He is sorely missed by a great number of racers, team members, and others in this pit lane. He
has been the team’s ardent supporter and the cornerstone of all we do. He was immensely proud of the group and of
what we had accomplished.
Top division soccer teams from Austria, Germany, Brazil, and the US are sponsored by Red Bull. In 2005, the firm
began by purchasing the Austrian team SV Austria Salzburg and renaming it Red Bull Salzburg, using the company’s
colors.
It made a similar move in Germany, purchasing SSV Markranstädt, a fifth-tier team, in 2009, renaming it
RasenBallsport Leipzig, and providing the funding for its gradual ascent up the league ranks until its promotion to
the Bundesliga in 2016. RasenBallsport, which translates to “grass ball sport Leipzig,” is the team’s German name;
nevertheless, the squad simply goes by RB Leipzig. German league laws barred the business from branding the team
Red Bull Leipzig.
Mateschitz’s populist stance also garnered media attention. He has previously attacked German Chancellor Angela
Merkel for how she handled the 2015–16 refugee crisis. The TV station Servus in Austria
held by Red Bull Media House GmbH, is renowned for endorsing aggressive right-wing viewpoints.
At the end of 2004, Mateschitz acquired the Jaguar Racing team from its former owner, Ford, and for the 2005
season, the team was rebranded as Red Bull. Subsequently, he acquired Minardi and rebranded it as Toro Rosso,
shrewdly employing it as a feeder squad for Red Bull.
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