Red Bull's power
A year ago, Red Bull Racing astounded the Imola paddock with their triple-storey Energy Station, a 'motorhome' so large that, come Monaco, it would require its own barge and mooring at Monaco.
The construction - which offered offices, a 'public' bar and staff dining room on the ground floor, guest brasserie serving hip meals all day (and, say some, night) and meeting area on the first, and superb race viewing on the rooftop terrace - easily knocked McLaren's three-year-old Paddock Palace, the previous benchmark, from the top of the pecking order.
Shortly before then, of course, the Austrian drinks company had splashed out on the re-structuring of erstwhile Jaguar Racing - which even the Ford Motor Company had been unable to keep afloat, even with trade-associated sponsorships, without attracting vast flows of red ink - and by season's end Minardi, the purchase of which had, according to internal sources, been made necessary by the need to fulfil contractual obligations towards its raft of young talent, had been added to Red Bull's list of sporting assets.