Since we may argue that all is not fair when it comes to motorsport (unlike love and war), it’s only natural for Red Bull to playfully get on McLaren’s case over their futuristic MP4-X car.
The tweet read “Hey @McLarenF1, you’re five years too late” followed by a wink and a #X2010. To remind you, the X2010 (later X2014) was a fictional Red Bull prototype featured in both Gran Turismo 5 & 6 PlayStation games.
Designed by Adrian Newey himself (the man behind Red Bull’s championship-winning cars), the X2010 was designed to be the ultimate racing machine, far beyond what somebody might achieve even with a Formula One car. Initially, the concept was called the X1, but after the name change came an even newer version called the X2014.
Either way, basically the Red Bull concept and the McLaren concept aren’t even in the same tier when it comes to performance, yet that didn’t stop Red Bull from insinuating that the MP4-X wasn’t as original as its designers might have wished it to be.
Of course, this is all just goofing around – much like how certain mobile phone manufacturers make fun of each other whenever they catch somebody copying one of their designs.
Truth is, it’s a copycat world, where everybody copies something from somebody else, regardless of industry. Tech giants do it, automotive giants do it and sports franchises do it too when it comes to strategies and playing styles.
So perhaps we should be raising an eyebrow at Red Bull instead of McLaren for this little gag. Besides, isn’t the MP4-X much better looking than that PlayStation car?