The culture clash at the heart of Red Bull's stalled Porsche partnership

Red Bull was a disruptive force when it blew its way into Formula 1 in 2005. From the ashes of a Jaguar team muzzled by corporate obliviousness - famously, Ford overlords in Detroit were unaware why millions were being paid to a 'Mr E Irvine' - here grew a lithe operation. It turned up the music, constructed the 'Energy Station' in the paddock and presented its unashamedly vibrant self, while Christian Horner was by some way the youngest team principal.

Seventeen years later, the marketing department still works hard to sell a similar image. Think of the squad’s grand prix drivers racing Aston Martins while towing caravans or the spectacle of putting a set of snow chains on an RB7 before sending it up a ski slope. How about the Red Bulletin from this year’s Austrian GP, which ran a cartoon of sustainability superhero ‘Sensibleman’. This was the tale of Sebastian Vettel, his eyepatch-wearing cat sidekick Doctor M and archnemesis Smog Demon, otherwise known as F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

These examples show how Red Bull chooses to portray itself to the public. But behind closed doors, insiders reveal it functions absolutely as a process-driven, hierarchical organisation. That's how it won four title doubles between 2010 and 2013 and is back as the current standard-bearer in 2022. The promotional department offers a veil to this, rather than simply projecting the team’s 'DNA' to the outside world.

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For its three Le Mans 24 Hours victories and a hat-trick of World Endurance Championship titles, the 919 Hybrid must surely rank as the greatest Porsche racing car of the 21st century. Arguably, it’s the greatest creation of all from the LMP1 era since it triumphed over stellar multi-marque competition from Audi and Toyota. That’s before you consider the skunkworks Evo iteration, which went on a lap record-smashing farewell tour.

But it could easily have been a different story for the 919. The success was deep rooted in autonomy. Autosport understands that leaders of the race programme had to fight to break away from boardroom oversight and intervention to effectively operate as a separate side project that was led by now McLaren F1 team principal Andreas Seidl. By actively seeking to be cut adrift - gaining the financial backing but not allowing too many cooks to be involved - the 919 project could be more dynamic and faster to act and react.

Porsche completed a hat-trick of Le Mans 24 Hour wins with the 919 Hybrid in 2017

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

And to the outside world, that freedom didn’t make a blind bit of difference. The car still carried the Porsche name and crest. The big wigs could still toast the success. The marketing department could still absolutely bill this as the manufacturer winning the most famous race in the world so that buyers of 911s, Boxsters and Caymans around the world felt as though their pride and joy had been honed on the race track.

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The 919 appears to be the case study that Porsche hasn't fully appreciated as it sought to become a stakeholder in Red Bull Powertrains and buy 50% of Red Bull Advanced Technologies - the part of the company responsible for designing and building Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s race cars.

Rather than send some stickers to Red Bull to put on the side of the car, there has been an understandable desire for Porsche to install its own chiefs to be front and centre of its F1 participation. That, however, would inevitably affect Horner’s position - whether he would be marginalised or just face extra and needless levels of bureaucracy that has the potential to make Red Bull less front-footed.

"Porsche: it's an enormous company, great heritage, phenomenal brand. There are attractions to that. But any partnership would have to fit with the Red Bull philosophy, the DNA, the culture of who we are" Christian Horner

It’s also tough to envisage how Helmut Marko would have remained so public to the extent he is now. Here’s a small selection of some of his more pointed quotes from recent years: “Red Bull, in complete contrast to Ferrari and Mercedes, have balls.” “Adrian Newey is castrated by this engine formula… these rules will kill the sport.” “[Valtteri Bottas] is a flop when it comes to overtaking.”

The boss of the Red Bull junior programme is no stranger to a soundbite and has, by extension, courted plenty of controversy. His straight-talking manner is seen by some camps as entirely refreshing and at odds with F1’s perceived blanket seriousness. Others view his words as overly callous and at times, excessively stirring the pot. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit, his tone is certainly different to that of Porsche.

Horner and Marko have been two key figures behind Red Bull's F1 success

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

It would absolutely be a lazy stereotype to assume the marque is typically Germanic and lacking a sense of humour. Experience of working with Porsche in historic motorsport celebrations and Formula E shows the opposite to be true a lot of the time. Nevertheless, whether Porsche is running under the Volkswagen Group umbrella like at present, or later trying to boost its share price amid plans to go public, there is a party line to present. Marko might not be whipped into toeing it so easily.

From what Porsche has presented for how it would be involved, it seems Red Bull is understandably reluctant to be put in a position where it would be slower to react by waiting for the manufacturer to go through its own more elongated structure. And a partnership risks sidelining the people that have been so key to the success on track. Even if the two operate in the same process-driven way to cultivate their success, on its own, Red Bull is like turning a speed boat. Porsche is more like steering a cruise ship.

Whether it be Toyota, BMW and Honda, there are plenty of examples in F1 of how a race team and a boardroom fail to integrate and stop the project from achieving its true potential. Red Bull will know this personally. It has helped Honda fight for wins and championships directly after the Japanese manufacturer was hurt by McLaren’s unaccommodating attitude.

Since the Porsche-Red Bull deal was set for 10 years, naturally there had to be a process of due diligence before the two parties were wed. Horner let on to this in Hungary, saying: “Porsche: it's an enormous company, great heritage, phenomenal brand. So, of course, there are attractions to that. But any partnership would have to fit with the Red Bull philosophy, the DNA, the culture of who we are, how we go racing and what we've achieved. It would be absolutely fundamental to any discussion of not changing that.”

That means Red Bull doesn't want to be micromanaged. Then, with a 50% stake in Red Bull Advanced Technologies, it's understandable why Porsche might not want to be involved solely as a writer of big cheques and trying to resolve any PR fallout if chief executives are unreceptive to Marko or Horner's way of working.

And with those two positions unlikely to align, the deal, it seems, is off.

Could Red Bull's philosophy and route to success have derailed its Porsche partnership?

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images