Red Bull Racing Honda went head-to-head with an upside-down Race plane in a world-first move for the new From Castle to Castle video.
– Red Bull Racing Honda has undertaken some spectacular road trips over the years, but the latest adventure might just top them all.
– After recently crisscrossing the US, wheel-spinning through the streets of Amsterdam and thundering across the 15 July Martyrs Bridge in Istanbul, the Team’s latest adventure From Castle to Castle saw the Red Bull Racing RB7 embark on a high-speed tour of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
– Starting at the world-famous Prague Castle and taking in a flat-out blast across the Charles Bridge, the tour sees 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard power through the scenic vineyards of the Moravia region and onto Slovakia’s beautiful capital Bratislava before heading to Proprad Airfield for the ultimate speed showdown – a flat-out race against 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Champion Martin Å onka.
– It was no ordinary battle of the pilots. While the RB7 hit top speed on the short runway in conventional style, Å onka, took an alternative route, flipping his Extra 300 SR plane onto it’s back for a heart-stopping full-throttle flight, inverted, just metres above the F1 car and with the drivers almost eyeball to eyeball throughout.
– Former Red Bull Racing driver Coulthard said: “The great thing about this film is that it’s all real. When the aircraft is just a few metres above the RB7 and upside down, that is real, that is the skill of Martin. He’s a professional right at the top of his game. I really enjoy the fact that I have the opportunity to showcase the Formula One car across different countries and here in the Czech Republic and Slovakia we’re on cobbled streets and dusty tracks and some beautiful scenery in the mountains. It’s been incredible and From Castle to Castle has been like a journey of discovery for me as well as a showcasing what a Formula One car can do off-track.”
– Å onka added: “We have both have very limited vision out of our cockpits and for me to fly at such a low level and inverted, I more or less need to look to the front to be able to control the height of the plane. The driver also has to look to the front but because of the head and neck restraint F1 drivers use he can’t look up. So we solved the problem by placing a small mirror in front of him so he could see me and look to the front. It was incredible to fly in such a formation, plus I’m a big fan of Formula 1 so just seeing the car so close from the cockpit of my airplane was something really special.”