Hello F1 fans!
Last year, I had the chance to tour the Red Bull Racing F1 factory which was absolutely fascinating and I thought I would share my experience.
The campus is huge and whilst I was there, construction was well underway of the Red Bull Powertrains building.
The tour itself covers mostly all areas with exception of the design and management floors (i.e, where Christian and Adrian are based) but we did get to see their offices from outside
The actual race cars and teams were away as it was a Grand Prix weekend however there was still a "spare" RB16B car left in the final assembly bay which we got a close up look at.
The highlight for me was being able to go deep into the factory and seeing actual components being machined, built, tested and painted. The amount of effort that goes into painting the external parts to the livery spec is amazing!
We also got access to the viewing room where you could see all of the MK based team communicate with the race team (it was a Grand Prix weekend as mentioned) including the live telemetry and live feeds. I think this was called the Mission Control room (that's what McLaren call theirs anyway).
I seem to recall (but please do not quote me on this as there were lots of facts and figures) but the screen that is used in this "Mission Control" room is the biggest screen in Europe.
Headphones were also available so we could listen in on the audio.
For obvious reasons, photography is not allowed during the tour. Only photography of inside MK-7 and some external shots of the buildings is allowed which I have shared below.
MK-7
Various components:
F1 ECU:
Carbon fibre materials:
Max's shoes:
The steering wheel. Pre-Covid-19, you could actually hold it.
The test car on display outside MK-7:
The trophy cabinets. Christian specifically asked for this to motivate the team as they enter the main building.
The team had just won the French Grand Prix during my visit hence the trophy was on display:
The display car outside the Stewart building:
