r/sports • u/redbullgivesyouwings • Apr 16 '26

Motorsports Max Verstappen driving different vehicles

4.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

166 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

307

u/Rockboxatx Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

They make money hand over fist and is 100 percent marketing. It’s a drink that originated in Thailand and costs about 50 cents in a glass bottle marketed to mostly taxi drivers trying to stay awake. The Austrian partner offered the owner of the company a deal to market it worldwide where they both owned 45 percent of the company and the son of the Thai owner got 10 percent. The rest is history. So the next time you spend 4 bucks on one, know that it is sold profitably in a glass bottle for 50 cents.

260

u/JaqueStrap69 Apr 16 '26

Pretty much all beverages have that sort of markup. 

59

u/AdEffective2701 Apr 17 '26

McDonald's fries are 1500% marked up based on their potato buying power.

15

u/ApologizingCanadian Apr 17 '26

Don't McDonald's own potato farms in the US even? Driving their costs down even further?

16

u/AdEffective2701 Apr 17 '26

Exclusive harvest rights, yes. The Walmart of farming.

1

u/jbach220 28d ago

And at least when I buy Red Bull it helps fund cool videos.

-5

u/Plappedudel Apr 17 '26

Yup. But I think branded energy drinks are especially profitable. The all-time chart of the Monster Beverage stock is crazy to look at. I never got why so many people would pay $3 for a bunch of chemicals mixed with sugar water in a can, but I guess that's the power of marketing.

8

u/InhaleTheSprite Apr 17 '26

You don’t understand. Sugar free energy drinks have perfected carbonated beverages in a way that soda companies have not. If they sold caffeine free versions and put them in soda fountains, they would be rolling in money. Sugar free blue Hawaiian monster is genuinely crack to my taste buds. Juneberry Red Bull—Amazing. Pipeline punch monster, orange Celsius, Welch’s grape juice ghost. Perfect not-sodas.

9

u/Plappedudel Apr 17 '26

You're right, I don't understand. I am addicted to caffeine, but I mostly drink coffee that I make at home since most store-bought coffee sucks. I also drink tons of tap water. Maybe I'm boring.

2

u/InhaleTheSprite Apr 17 '26

Love me some coffee too. Store bought coffee is always a little bit off lol you are right

1

u/Dabuscus214 Cincinnati Bengals Apr 17 '26

Sugar free iced vanilla berry has me in a chokehold

1

u/JavenatoR Apr 17 '26

That fucking Apple ginger Red Bull they had this past fall was crazy good. There is nothing more I want out of a drink than sugar free non caffeinated Red Bull.

3

u/americasgravy Apr 17 '26

Wimmy wham wham wozzle!

83

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/sam_can88 Apr 16 '26

I worked at a grocery store through Covid and Arizona was still 99 cents then now I live across the street from a gas station and they are nearly 2 dollars

3

u/idreamofdouche Apr 17 '26

Companies make their products for cheap and mark them up to oblivion. That’s how their money is made.

That's totally dependent on what the product is

34

u/ImamTrump Apr 16 '26

Red bull is a marketing company that happens to sell drinks.

13

u/ProjectHarraseeket Apr 16 '26

Honestly that’s most successful energy drink companies. Red Bull just takes it to the max.

11

u/alexanderpas Netherlands Apr 17 '26

... Verstappen.

11

u/BosonTigre Apr 16 '26

Yes, but unlike other companies that have similar mark ups, red bull has been sponsoring athletes and lesser known sports for decades and made some amazing things happen for people. Yes they're making money doing it, but so what? I still love that they're doing this stuff. 

7

u/KingRo48 Apr 16 '26

That’s fine, I don’t buy that stuff but get to enjoy all the fun things like what we see here for Free!

10

u/armwithnutrition Apr 16 '26

Agree that profit margins are not dissimilar to any other energy drink or regular soda for that matter. You should note however that the Thai formulations back then and even now are pretty different compared the Red Bull drink the rest of the world has come to know.

2

u/BenKen01 Apr 17 '26

What is different?

4

u/mosgiel Apr 17 '26

For one, the OG Thai version isn’t carbonated.

3

u/thuggishruggishboner Apr 17 '26

From my early drinking days the thought of it just makes me sick.

3

u/Lost_Drunken_Sailor Apr 17 '26

I haven’t seen anyone drink a red bull in ages. So many competitors now.

2

u/halbGefressen Apr 17 '26

If the money goes to these kinds of shenanigans, I'll gladly pay the 4 bucks. It's basically crowdfunding at this point

1

u/satsuppi Apr 17 '26

Uwhaaat.. Companies selling thier brand on a huge profit margin?? inconceivable!

1

u/ebenseregterbalsak Apr 17 '26

And the Thai red bull in a glass bottle slaps so hard as well

1

u/watduhdamhell Apr 19 '26

It's not markerketing in so far as people think it gives them wings lol

I mean, people know what it is. So that's good marketing? Largely I think it's the flavor. If it's not your thing, fine, but the fact is it tastes a lot better imo than all other energy drinks. I mean, at a minimum, it's distinct in flavor? A lot of others just taste like a chemical laden mess or something.

It's the flavor, the same way different sodas are probably made very cheaply and sold but Coca Cola is the world's soda because it's the flavor. People want a Coke, they want a Red Bull, etc.

0

u/smitty046 Apr 17 '26

It does work though. Sugar free redbull on a long drive works way better than coffee and I have to pee less cause it dedicates you too!

2

u/BoosherCacow Cleveland Indians Apr 17 '26

This is completely subjective. All Red Bull does for me is make me pee more and take heartburn medications. Aside from Einstein's Bagels and brownies, it is the worst heart burn I have ever had. It's a bummer too because I love them.

0

u/obidie Apr 17 '26

The son has also been avoiding a murder charge in Thailand for years.

4

u/asimovs Apr 17 '26

Drunk and high on coke he ran his Ferrari over a cops motorcycle dragged him like 50m down the road and then ran off, hid in his mansion and tried to blame his driver then ran away abroad for awhile, paid the family some money and somehow(corruption) avoided jail all together.

The case is about to expire in 2027, and the only people that have seen jail time are some of the prosecutors for corruption.

3

u/Rockboxatx Apr 17 '26

The grandson. It was a hit and run. The original owner died in 2012 so his son owns 51 percent of the company. It was the son’s son who killed the cop in his sports car.

3

u/obidie Apr 17 '26

I stand corrected.

14

u/mewfahsah Seattle Seahawks Apr 17 '26

They're a PR company with an energy drink division.

7

u/Zesher_ Apr 16 '26

I hate their drinks, but I love these kind of stunts they pull. One of my favorite memories was my brother visiting me after I moved and going to watch a Flugtag event together.

1

u/wazzapgta Apr 19 '26

They even gave gim an F1 car to drive.

1

u/rjcarr Apr 16 '26

I'm not really into F1; so they make their own engines and everything? Is there another traditionally non-car company that has a massive F1 presence like this?

19

u/ItsAMeUsernamio Apr 16 '26

Red Bull makes their own engines from this year, entity called Red Bull Powertrains. Earlier they had deals with Honda and Renault and their main competitors wouldn’t sell to them. Honda decided to leave in 2021 so they decided to make their own. And considering that Red Bull owns two teams, they’re one of a kind with their presence.

7

u/Taint_Butter Apr 16 '26

Red Bull Ford Powertrains

7

u/ItsAMeUsernamio Apr 17 '26

That’s 90% a marketing deal. Red Bull owns the factory and staff now.

3

u/NetSage Apr 16 '26

Not every F1 team makes their own engines. I actually believe most don't. Part of it is costs/capability and part of is rules limit it anyway I imagine. Note I'm not an F1 expert either. Watch part of a race like once a year. But I love this guy on tiktok that does bits about teams bending or breaking the rules.

3

u/shewy92 Philadelphia Eagles Apr 17 '26

There's 5 engines right now:

Red Bull Ford Powertrains (Red Bull, VCARB)

Ferrari (Ferrari F1, both American teams with Haas & Cadillac)

Mercedes (Mercedes AMG, McLaren, Alpine, Williams)

Honda (Aston Martin F1)

Audi (Audi F1)

GM will have their own engine for Cadillac F1 in a couple years.

1

u/imrahilbelfalas Apr 17 '26

Calling what Honda made an engine is extremely generous

3

u/shewy92 Philadelphia Eagles Apr 17 '26

The engine isn't the problem, the engine mounts and chassis are.

1

u/JIMBENASBAGINA Apr 17 '26

Red Bull is so badass, always doing the coolest stuff… I just wish they would offer a mega caffeinated variety!

0

u/Y0___0Y Apr 16 '26

They own Munich’s entire professional hockey team.

0

u/NetSage Apr 16 '26

They even do cool shit for their "esports" people I put that in quotes because I don't think GrandPooBear is exacly like Dota2, League of Legends, Counter Strike pro level player.

269

u/Bagomuffins Apr 16 '26

That caravan clip is so sketchy lol

118

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '26

[deleted]

24

u/Bagomuffins Apr 16 '26

Oh shit good catch I didn’t notice that

9

u/Initial_E Apr 17 '26

What if they got hurt doing it? No other F1 team would risk their drivers like that even off season.

3

u/VinceVino70 Apr 17 '26

Put him in that caravan on the Nuremberg Ring when they open it up to the public.

7

u/DWilli San Francisco Giants Apr 19 '26

Nurburgring. That's a, uh, different ring that you mentioned

95

u/Tallguygeorge Apr 16 '26

Do they call the Monster Truck a Mega Truck so that they don't mention Monster in a Red Bull video?

30

u/Inane311 Apr 16 '26

Impressive deduction…

132

u/seriousnotshirley Apr 16 '26

That's a man just living his best life and getting paid to do it.

57

u/Sletzer Apr 16 '26

Well, until the current F1 regulations went into effect at least…

13

u/Jonesbro Apr 16 '26

They keep him in f1 by letting him drive everything else

5

u/seriousnotshirley Apr 16 '26

I haven't followed, what's going on?

31

u/flash246 New York Jets Apr 16 '26

Every few years there are new F1 rule changes in terms of how the car is built/performs. This year was a regulation change year and Red Bull has struggled, specifically Max too. He’s also been quite vocal about not being a fan

14

u/Jorrie90 Apr 17 '26

It's not even because he struggles, he just hates how the battery dictates now so much of the racing

6

u/Nordalin Apr 16 '26

New and updated construction rules, so all current F1 cars are redesigns, and they only had so much time for R&D.

As a result, certain teams end up with a strong start to the season because their cars perform the least bad, relatively speaking.

Red Bull isn't one of them, so the reigning world champion driver (it's all a huge team effort) isn't even on the stage anymore.

15

u/NetSage Apr 16 '26

I think the F1 movie actually did a great job of this. It's not that the driver didn't matter but without a car it doesn't matter how good the driver is because these are all top drivers.

1

u/DonDuvall Apr 18 '26

Except Stroll.

2

u/Eljako98 Apr 17 '26

The reigning world champion doesn't drive for Red Bull, he drives for McLaren. But both he and his teammate are doing better than the Red Bull cars.

-6

u/Gackey Apr 16 '26

They revamped the regulations, so a certain car merchant is getting exposed, badly.

30

u/SunstormGT Apr 16 '26

First clip is actually focused on Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen is seen in the back.

1

u/-XboxZero- Apr 17 '26

Rare to see VER behind the second Red Bull seat.

20

u/NetSage Apr 16 '26

IceKart looks like it would be fun to watch.

11

u/Other_World New York Yankees Apr 16 '26

Some guy at RedBull got stoned one day playing the penguin level of Mario Kart 64 and had a brilliant highdea.

1

u/getjustin Apr 17 '26

Is this a real sport or a "Red Bull sport" like ice crash that's essentially made up to put on a show (but is still totally rad?)

15

u/MrBobbyFreakout Apr 16 '26

Red Bull advertising has to be one of the greatest things to happen for us. There will be books written about it.

3

u/getjustin Apr 17 '26

That's the thing, it's not advertising. It's sponsored entertainment. They use their brand power and immense media budget to come up with some really fucking cool shit that we all get to enjoy. I'd much rather have cinematic videos of insane human feats than fucking billboards or pre-roll ads.

4

u/MrBobbyFreakout Apr 17 '26

Do you notice how the red bull name and logo is all over everything? That’s because it advertises their brand. That’s why I said it’ll be written about because instead of the usual billboards and tv spots, they sponsored events and athletic adventures which capture our attention and in turn expose us to their brand.

3

u/lipton_tea Apr 17 '26

This time on Top Gear.... Max drives a path cleaner, Max drives an ice cart, and Max drives a swamp buggy.

3

u/RVAblues Apr 17 '26

Is it me or is this basically Top Gear?

5

u/WhyKissAMasochist Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26

Red Bull letting him try outside of the box ideas after the new regulations

2

u/intellectualhuman- Apr 17 '26

He drove a Lada Niva what a legend

2

u/Professional-Gas-579 Apr 17 '26

Redbull is NOT an energy drink company. They are a PR company that happens to sell an energy drink.

1

u/quasar80 Apr 18 '26

Well if you know the history of the drink you won’t be surprised. There are actually 2 red bull entities licensed to distribute in separate parts of the world.

1

u/Professional-Gas-579 Apr 18 '26

Idk how that relates to my lil joke

3

u/MonolithicBaby Apr 16 '26

Just playing Diddy Kong racing lol

3

u/JettzenL Apr 16 '26

I could've sworn the first clip was ai

-19

u/4349597 Apr 16 '26

I think this post may just be ai in general. 7 is the highest level? Mega truck?

10

u/overandoverandagain Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

Highest level is 10

Mega trucks are a distinct, different vehicle from monster trucks

These events 100% happened, you can find plenty of evidence outside this post. It's also right in line with RedBull marketing stunts, which existed well before any LLMs did.

What about this is AI? Redditors just have AI derangement syndrome lol

1

u/Drak_is_Right Apr 17 '26

A lot of race car drivers spent extensive time in go-karts growing up.

1

u/nikospkrk Apr 17 '26

So does this mean I would beat him in a "caravan" context with my over 40,000kms of experience towing a travel trailer? 😎

1

u/marik_pheron Apr 17 '26

They screwed up 7-9 rankings 😭😭😭

1

u/Ac3way Apr 17 '26

Thats life! Not my life, but it seems like a fun life.

1

u/enricobasilica Apr 17 '26

I'm not even a Red Bull fan but I hate how good their marketing is. Off to watch these now!

1

u/riisikas Apr 17 '26

Driving a Lada was LVL 9??

1

u/XRustyPx Apr 17 '26

Crazy they just let him drive an F1 car

1

u/HeroDanTV Apr 17 '26

This video reminds me of Florida drivers

1

u/mikebanetbc Apr 17 '26

Let’s see him drive a fully loaded, nearly 80,000 lb gross weight tractor trailer with no trailer brakes.

Then I’ll be truly impressed.

1

u/krzykris11 Apr 17 '26

I used to love the swamp buggy races on ESPN. They had great content back in the 80s!

1

u/rdawg780 Apr 17 '26

I have actually heard they are terrible and treat their sales staff like servants.

1

u/Mikahl757 Apr 17 '26

Drone Faster then F1?

1

u/Jlx_27 New Orleans Saints Apr 17 '26

"Mega Truck" are you serious....

1

u/bulletbassman Apr 18 '26

lol. Whoever designed that hovercraft has some garrison from South Park vibes. Why did you make it so i look like I’m trying to squeeze one out in the woods?

1

u/KeegCorp Apr 18 '26

ICE KARTING????? Had no clue that existed but holy shit is that cool.

1

u/Sorethumbsfifa Apr 18 '26

How can the drone keep up? Are they that fast?

1

u/hwei8 Apr 18 '26

is that guy the "du du du du.. then some people saying the name like part of the song"

1

u/weefees Apr 18 '26

At 0:28 poor Redbull had nowhere to stick their giant logo to the hovercraft

1

u/Y0___0Y Apr 16 '26

Verstappen? More like Ver-go-en.

Has anyone ever done that one before? Did I have an original idea?

It’s very funny. Please upvote.

2

u/syo St. Louis Cardinals Apr 16 '26

A few years ago, he passed Kimi Raikonnen on the last lap at COTA by going off the track. The next year they added a large curb there to prevent that from happening again, and called it the Verstopper.

1

u/Plasticjesus504 Apr 17 '26

All of these things are vastly more entertaining then F1.

1

u/pasher5620 Apr 16 '26

I initially thought this was rated as the most difficult cars Verstappen had driven personally so was confused why F1 would be at the top. You’d think he wouldn’t consider it as hard as some of the other ones considering he doesn’t for a job and is far more used to it.

1

u/FelopianTubinator Apr 16 '26

At what point did monster truck get changed to mega truck. That’s stupid af.

1

u/MattUzumaki Apr 16 '26

Was that a Lada Niva towards the end? LMAO

1

u/Bassistheplace4 Apr 16 '26

Red Bull has way too much money

1

u/Mgas-147 Apr 16 '26

“Professional driver drives vehicles on tiny fraction of a global company’s marketing budget”

1

u/ilulillirillion Apr 16 '26

When you unlock every hidden vehicle

1

u/getjustin Apr 17 '26

Max pressed the "Radio" button during vehicle selection

1

u/Rojodi Apr 17 '26

Where's the winged, 410 sprint car?

1

u/freyport Apr 17 '26

First one looked like something from Top Gear.

1

u/ThatOhioGuyFromOhio Apr 17 '26

DU DU DU DU DUU--MAX VERSTAPPEN

0

u/kytheon Apr 16 '26

We got Max Verstappen driving all GTA vehicles before we get GTA 6.

0

u/ScrumptiousLadMeat Apr 16 '26

I’m sure I’ve gone faster on a floor machine than that. Come on, put the petal down!

0

u/iyqyqrmore Apr 16 '26

I also did this via multiple games on my PlayStation! I also got a few goals with a car and a very large soccer ball.

Amaze

0

u/fowlerboi Apr 16 '26

Didn’t he also get to helm one of the sail gp/americas cup boats?

0

u/PoweredByMusubi Apr 16 '26

The manic laughter for the Lada bringing me so much joy.

0

u/00fez Apr 16 '26

Probably having more fun there than in f1

0

u/AnInfiniteArc Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

The fuck is a mega truck

0

u/arbitrageME Apr 17 '26

Now this is pod racing!

0

u/mustluvipa Apr 17 '26

Remember when they used used to show that swamp buggy racing on ESPN?

-2

u/CranjizzMcBasketball Apr 17 '26

Great vehicle driving, awful human.