Formula One cars go on Formula One circuits. Sometimes they’re permanent tracks, sometimes they’re carved out of city streets. But they’re always closed off and designated for the purpose. Almost always, we should say, because once in a while, an F1 team takes one of its delicate high-performance machines off the track and out onto the open road. Like Red Bull Racing has done right here in America.
Called (simply enough) Road Trip USA, the clip and photos below show what happened when Daniel Ricciardo took the RB7 out for a Sunday drive in the western United States.
The Renault-powered Red Bull Racing RB7 was, and remains, one of the most successful racing cars ever devised. With Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel (and Mark Webber as wingman), the RB7 won both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles in the 2011 Formula One World Championship with a commanding 650 points. It won twelve out of the nineteen grands prix that season, and landed at least one car on the podium at all but one round.
A spectacular racing car it was, then, but we’re not sure it’d be our first choice for a long-distance road trip, raw and bereft of creature comforts as it is. But we’re glad Ricciardo did. His trip started out in San Francisco in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley before heading out to Monument Valley and concluding in Las Vegas. It even included a pit stop right in the middle of a bridge. And media-savvy as it is, Red Bull captured it all on video. So sit back, turn up your speakers, and enjoy.