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A review by stormlightreader
Growing Wings: The Inside Story of Red Bull Racing by Ben Hunt
4.5
Where Guenther Steiner's Surviving to Drive was laced with humour, which I loved, I was not expecting that nor did I get that from this book. Hunt provides a pretty matter of fact overview of key events from Red Bull Racing's rise to the championship winning Formula 1 team they currently are.
There are some interesting but unsurprising 'revelations' such as the FIA's scepticism of Red Bull's car design and the 'we don't have a number one driver' line (I'm a fan of their current second driver, this is absolutely a thing 😄).
I've grown up around F1 and the names of these drivers have been familiar to me for years but I wasn't as into F1 during Vettel's championship years. So it was insightful to hear about Vettel's mindset, which is currently mirrored in Max Verstappen's mindset and behaviour towards his Red Bull teammate in recent years.
The book was concise and was well paced. It focused on the racing and opted not to wade through any driver on driver dramas and Checo's significant drop off during the 2023 season, which was surprising, but it kept the focus where it needed to be.
There are some interesting but unsurprising 'revelations' such as the FIA's scepticism of Red Bull's car design and the 'we don't have a number one driver' line (I'm a fan of their current second driver, this is absolutely a thing 😄).
I've grown up around F1 and the names of these drivers have been familiar to me for years but I wasn't as into F1 during Vettel's championship years. So it was insightful to hear about Vettel's mindset, which is currently mirrored in Max Verstappen's mindset and behaviour towards his Red Bull teammate in recent years.
The book was concise and was well paced. It focused on the racing and opted not to wade through any driver on driver dramas and Checo's significant drop off during the 2023 season, which was surprising, but it kept the focus where it needed to be.