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Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz dead at 78
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Ride on: Red Bull’s Austrian CEO, Dietrich Mateschitz, arrives in the paddocks ahead of the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix on June 30, 2018 in Spielberg, central Austria. Mateschitz died on Saturday aged 78, the company said. (AFP/APA/Erwin Scheriau)
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ed Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who made the energy drink brand a global phenomenon and forged a title-winning Formula One team and a sports empire, died on Saturday aged 78, the company said.
Red Bull expressed both its “sadness” at the Austrian billionaire’s death and “gratitude for what he accomplished”.
Mateschitz, a reclusive man who rarely gave interviews, took a sweet drink that was already popular in Asia and adapted it for the Western market to huge success.
He was named as Austria’s richest person by Forbes in 2022 with an estimated net worth of US$27.4 billion.
Mateschitz invested heavily in sports to give his brand global exposure.
Besides its involvement in Formula One, Red Bull bought the soccer club of the Austrian city of Salzburg in 2005, and then that of Leipzig in Germany. Both clubs have enjoyed trophy-winning success thanks to the brand’s substantial investment.
Red Bull has also branched out into extreme sports, sponsoring events such as air acrobatics and cliff diving.
The head of the Red Bull Formula One team, Christian Horner, said “thankfully” Mateschitz lived to see Max Verstappen clinch his second title for in as many years when the team’s Dutch driver won the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Horner described Mateschitz as the “backbone of all we do”.
“It is very, very sad,” said Horner, speaking at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. “A great man, one of few of a kind, for what he achieved and he has done for many people around the world and across so many sports.”
Horner told Sky Sports F1 that Mateschitz “proved you can make a difference. He was a passionate supporter and the backbone of all we do. A remarkable man and inspirational individual.”
‘Visionary entrepreneur’
Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali described Mateschitz as “a hugely respected and much-loved member of the Formula One family”.
“He was an incredible visionary entrepreneur and a man who helped to transform our sport and created the Red Bull brand that is known all around the world.”
Mateschitz’s legacy, the Red Bull energy drink, was born during one of his many business trips as the marketing director of a German cosmetics company, when he was served a sweet beverage common in Asia in a luxury bar in Hong Kong.
He was immediately fond of it and was impressed by the drink’s apparent ability to help him overcome his jet lag. Deciding to partner with the beverage’s Thai developer Chaleo Yoovidhya, the two men founded Red Bull in 1984.
Based in the Austrian municipality of Fuschl am See, the drink slowly but surely won over Western taste buds and the brand developed globally, thanks to clever marketing and the tie-ins with sports.
Red Bull entered F1 by taking a 60 percent share in the Swiss-based Sauber team, before the two parted company following a row over the choice of drivers.
Three years later, Red Bull bought the failing Jaguar team from owner Ford and rebranded it. The team soon developed into a leading force, becoming the fastest F1 team by 2009.
Red Bull won its first drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 2010 with German driver Sebastian Vettel at the wheel.
