Yahoo Autos Watch Vettel Send His Red Bull F1 Around the Nürburgring
Germany hasn’t hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix since 2019, leaving a giant hole for motorsport fans in the country. While it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting a German stop on the race calendar soon, the team at Red Bull has found new ways to keep fans satiated. Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, we can now hop on board as four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel and former F1 racer David Coulthard take on the Nürburgring in some historic Red Bull F1s.
Red Bull Formula Nürburgring took place over the weekend, serving as a demo day for the ill-treated German F1 fanbase. Working alongside Vettel and his Race Without Trace initiative, the event featured a ton of impressive racing hardware running on carbon-neutral fuels. Chief among the machines were two of Vettel’s championship-winning rides, the 2011 RB7 and 2012 RB8 chassis. Vettel took the wheel of the RB7, the platform which he secured 11 wins with during the 2011 season. Coulthard spent the day chasing Seb in the RB8, which was also a dominant performer in the hands of Vettel and Mark Webber in 2012. Aussie driver Daniel Ricciardo was initially set to wheel the RB8, but was replaced following his wrist injury at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Formula 1 stopped racing on the Ring back in 1976, owing largely to the transparent amount of danger involved with racing open-wheel cars at the famed circuit. For that same reason, the drivers were not allowed to push their F1s to their limits during the event. A pace car was involved to help keep things in check, and no timers were running during the jaunt. That said, the Formula 1 cars looked tremendously quick on the toll road track, which comes as a surprise to no one. The organizers did allow the drivers to open up those V-8 engines at a few points, which is the real highlight of the clip. It’s even more exciting to know that those cars were as green as could be during the trek, and that the carbon-neutral fuel doesn’t neuter that glorious song.
"Motorsport is my great passion and I want to keep the sport alive. Fuels can be produced synthetically and serve as a substitute fuel,” Vettel told Red Bull. “It's important that we all become aware that we must do something. And the great thing is – you don't feel any difference in the car, it's just as much fun driving it on synthetic fuel."
Here’s hoping those synthetic fuels are able to help keep these former racing icons on the track for years to come. If we can’t have the V-8 or V-10 back in the sport for real, we’re going to need events like this well into the future.
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