FACTORY TOUR EXPERIENCE 2017
WELCOME TO OUR HOME A Formula One Factory is a technological marvel. It sets performance benchmarks not just for motorsport but for industry at large. And we d like to invite you into ours
FACTORY TOUR MILTON KEYNES In a very short space of time Red Bull Racing has established itself as one of the world s most elite sporting outfits. Our iconic blue, red and yellow livery is recognised around the globe but the public-facing part of the team that you see trackside, is just a small fraction of the operation. The beating heart of Red Bull Racing is our Factory in Milton Keynes and very few people get to see that! If you want to see what really makes us tick, we offer an extraordinary opportunity to tour the Factory - going behind the scenes, witnessing first hand something very few people outside the business have ever seen: the process of creating a Formula One car from drawing board through to the final assembly.
CRAFTING THE ULTIMATE IN RACING EXCELLENCE
FACTORY TOUR MILTON KEYNES Our tour is designed to trace the evolution of a Formula One car all the way from the designers imagination through to a race-ready machine. You will follow the various developmental stages, visiting departments where components are designed, put through simulations, manufactured, tested and inspected, finishing up with a visit to the Race Bays where our Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer RB13s are built-up and stripped-down before and after every grand prix. The tour is fully interactive with plenty of opportunities for a hands on experience. Both your host and our experts in each department will be there to answer questions and delve into more detail on their various areas of expertise.
THE MEZZANINE Before starting the Factory Tour, we invite you to join us on The Mezzanine area that overlooks our Race Bays, where you ll enjoy a bird s eye view of the work being carried out below. This is a great opportunity to enjoy a range of refreshments and get to know your Red Bull Racing host, whilst enjoying our hospitality. We ll be visiting the five main areas of our factory during your tour and encourage you to ask questions to further enhance your experience.
DESIGN TEAM The design process is a continuous cycle, with the team often working around the clock to improve the design of the cars from race to race, if not day to day. Our resources are always split between designing the next car and improving the current model one step at a time. This iterative process sees thousands of parts redesigned over the course of a season, improving reliability, finding more downforce or shaving off a gram here and there. Individually these improvements may be measured in thousandths of a second; taken collectively they can be the difference between success and failure.
MODEL SHOP 60% SCALE REPLICA One of everyone s favourite stops on the tour is the Model Shop. While simulation and analysis play an increasing role in F1, creating models for testing in the Wind Tunnel is still a crucial step in the design process. Marrying science with the art of the model maker, the crew in the model shop craft an exact replica of a Formula One Chassis - only at 60% of the size. This highly detailed model allows the technicians to further hone their design, ensuring aerodynamic efficiency. This is a crucial step in the journey of creating a race winning car, correlating the Computer-Aided Design data with the Wind Tunnel results.
MANUFACTURING The pace and nature of Formula One means the majority of components for the RB13 will be manufactured right here in our Machine Shop or composites facility. This vast area operates day and night, making an endless stream of components that flow into quality control and onwards to the stores, the Race Bays or, once the season begins, onwards to wherever the race team is currently located. Everything from the smallest titanium retaining bolt to a full monocoque can be manufactured by our skilled team of machinists and fabricators. We have five operational autoclaves in our Factory where we cure over 50 different types of carbon cloth; it s a highly skilled and labour intensive process that you ll get to witness first hand.
ASSEMBLY Like a military vehicle, an F1 car is designed to be repaired at high speed. The trade-off is that the operation has to be labour intensive. To aid our garage mechanics frequently operating with the clock ticking as far as possible the car is constructed from sub-assemblies that can simply be bolted together. Working this way reduces thousands of parts to hundreds of subassemblies. Our Sub-Assembly workshop builds up items such as steering columns, suspension uprights and brake hubs, ready for installation in the Race Bays or pit lane garage by our mechanics.
THE HALL OF FAME
THE HALL OF FAME We have packed a lot into a dozen seasons of racing. Our brand new Hall Of Fame displays the cars that tell the story, charting the history that takes us from our relatively humble origins through to the race - and championship - winning glory years. The Hall of Fame features cars from 2005 s Red Bull RB1 through to last season s race winning RB12. Not only is this is a fascinating and unique experience to see the cars side-by-side but also a great photo opportunity.
THE RACE BAYS
THE RACE BAYS The race bays themselves are the last stop on the tour and usually the highlight. This is where the RB13s are assembled, prior to being packed in shipping containers or transporters and whisked away to their next engagement. The crews that build the cars here are the same people operating over the grand prix weekend - Their ownership of the car is total. But more goes on here than preparing the race cars. You may see an RB7 receiving the same level of care and attention as it did when it was winning two World Championships as it is prepared for a live demo event. You may be lucky enough to see the Pit Stop Crew running through their routines with a mule car, building up the muscle memory to do the real thing in less than two seconds under the most intense pressure during a grand prix. You ll leave with a special memento of your day but you ll also depart with a greater understanding of what goes into making a Formula One car. It will change your appreciation of grand prix racing forever.