The Red Bull brand is all about speed. And with a tagline like “Red Bull gives you wings,” drone racing seems like an obvious space for Red Bull to bring their unique blend of hipster cool and circus-like production.
Red Bull’s DR.ONE took place in Spielberg, Austria last week. For the race, Red Bull created “one of the toughest and most unique drone courses ever built” and set up a competition with 18 of the world’s top drone racers.
The course was inspired by the elements: and drones dealt with flames, waterfalls, and blasts of air. The rules were a little different too – Red Bull allowed for more strategy and creativity in development of the drones, limiting weight to 1.5 kg but size only based on the smallest obstacle path (50 cms.)
The two day race saw 20-year old Austrian pilot Bastian Hackl take home the win.
“Youngster, Hackl, said: “I tried to keep cool at the start as I started after everyone else and followed them around the course. I tried to push it even more after every lap to catch them up and overtake them. To win is amazing!” reports Red Bull.
“Polish pilot Max Poschwald added: It was exceptional. We have never seen a kind of track like this before with fire, water and wind, it was just crazy. The final race we started off aggressively and it was very intense, a really good race.'”
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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[…] is finding new ways to keep itself relevant. Case in point: drone racing, with its first DR.ONE competition taking place in Austria last month. It’s also been augmenting its usual cast of skateboarders and […]