F1 fans all saying same thing as Red Bull create skate park in the sky

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Formula One fans have joked about whether Red Bull could breach the FIA’s budget cap rules for a second time after the team pulled off a daring stunt to showcase the very latest in carbon fibre technology. A skate park was constructed in the sky and suspended under a hot air balloon at around 2,000 feet with the help of the engineers working alongside Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the paddock.

Professional BMX rider Kriss Kyle came up with the wild idea during lockdown and joined forces with Red Bull to help bring the concept to life in an attempt to tackle his fear of heights. It was revealed to the world on Thursday morning by the brand’s official channels and quickly caused a stir on social media, although some F1 fans were quick to question whether the money involved would spell trouble for Red Bull’s hopes of staying within the budget limits this year.

They were, of course, found to have overspent in 2021 following an FIA investigation and were eventually fined and docked testing hours as part of their punishment, although Red Bull boss Christian Horner was adamant that no extra money went into the development of their car and infamously blamed the infraction on expensive catering costs.

“Going over the budget cap again,” said @ForestAdam3 in response to the skate park stunt, while @itsonlymine442 quipped: “This will be used to offset their cost cap for next year…’that was for the bowl’.”

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@Moose_HTAFC added: “Ohhh so THAT’S why they went over the cost cap,” whereas @CjgMng poked fun at the current gulf in performance between Red Bull and Mercedes by saying: “While Mercedes are scrambling to fix their car, Horner is out here doing side quests.”

The Red Bull boss went on to explain the process behind the brave stunt in an interview with Sky Sports, in which he made it clear that he and his F1 colleagues were more than happy to provide the help needed to turn Kyle’s lockdown dream into reality.

“The thought of riding a BMX bike suspended from a hot air balloon, 2,000 feet in the air… only Red Bull could come up with an idea like that,” said Horner. “All we could do was provide the technology of making a bowl that was light enough and strong enough.

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“We used Formula One composite technologies to enable the stunt to happen, but I certainly wasn’t involved in the idea!”

Rob Gray, technical director of Red Bull Advanced Technologies, added: “The biggest thing was just getting the weight of the bowl down as much as possible. The balloon is already the biggest balloon in Europe and so the bowl needed to be as light as possible so the balloon could actually lift it off the ground.

“Whilst making the bowl light, it also needed to be structurally strong enough and stiff enough so that when Kriss is landing in the bowl he doesn’t go straight through the bowl. Red Bull like to do things which are slightly out there and look slightly crazy at times.”

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