Red Bull’s domination of Formula 1 might wax and wane, but there is one area it continues to be market-leading: pulling off mind-boggling stunts with its F1 cars.

From demonstrations in crazy locations all over the world to hitching colour-coded caravans onto the back of Aston Martins at Zandvoort, Red Bull is F1’s single biggest asset when it comes to taking the show to the people. 

And Red Bull’s most ambitious, crazy and sometimes seemingly impossible stunts take F1 cars to truly bizarre places.

We’ve seen yet another example of that following F1’s triple-header, but where does that rank among some of Red Bull’s greatest F1 stunts? 

Here’s our take: 

17th: Red Bull vs Leeds United 

Red Bull’s latest stunt featured its Formula 2 driver/next-in-line for an F1 seat, Arvid Lindblad heading to Elland Road, the home of Championship winners Leeds United Football Club. 

Red Bull became Leeds’s shirt sponsor from the 2024/25 season and celebrated Leeds’ return to the Premier League with a special drag race between Lindblad and three of Leeds’ players.  

Willy Gnonto, Largie Ramazani and Isaac Schmidt were picked as the Club’s fastest players to sprint alongside Lindblad, who was at the wheel of Red Bull’s 2011 title-winning RB7. 

They had to negotiate Elland Road’s turf and do a 180-degree turn in the opposition box before sprinting to the finish. 

It was a cool stadium stunt, but Red Bull has set the bar so high with its previous major stunts…

16th: Verstappen's road trip to the Italian GP

The 2021 Italian Grand Prix will be best remembered for Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s big shunt and Daniel Ricciardo’s final F1 victory, but there was also a memorable road trip for Max Verstappen before then. 

Verstappen drove through the streets of Palermo, including the Ballaro market, forest roads and stopped on his marks atop a boat to cap it all off. 

It managed to top anything even Ferrari produced for the Monza race and made it feel as if it was Red Bull’s home race, not Ferrari’s. Subtle but great execution. 

15th: Ricciardo's Aussie outback homecoming 

When Daniel Ricciardo returned to the Red Bull F1 fold in 2023, it wasn’t long before he was back behind the wheel of one of its F1 cars as he took the RB7 through Australia’s iconic outback. 

He raced alongside a Daniel Sanders-ridden motorbike that flew over the top of him, an aerobatic seaplane and Aussie enduro icon Toby Price tailed Ricciardo in his Trophy Truck. 

To top it all off, Ricciardo headed to Bathurst to duel with Supercars legend Shane Van Gisbergen in his Red Bull Camaro across the iconic Mount Panorama circuit. 

It’s the kind of stunt that makes you wish we could see F1 cars racing around Bathurst! 

14th: Ricciardo vs Bath rugby club

In 2016 Red Bull released a video of Daniel Ricciardo and an RB8 from 2012 going up against an eight-man scrum from Bath Rugby.

A specially-engineered scrum machine and a rugby player-inspired flat nose for the RB8 were created to facilitate the face-off, with Red Bull’s video even showcasing the intense heat from the car’s engine and rear tyres, and the players’ bodies.

What counts against this video slightly is that it took place on private property, at the team’s swanky training facility. However, that did throw up the very cool image of Ricciardo sliding the car past the rugby players across the gravel. 

13th: Jordan road trip + Dead Sea show run

The first time we were properly introduced to the concept of a Red Bull road trip was when David Coulthard explored Jordan in April 2016, ahead of a show run with Pierre Gasly on the banks of the Dead Sea.

The desert run posed a major challenge for Red Bull, as the intense heat took the engine temperature beyond 100 degrees and the car was sucking up sand and dust.

And via the Amman citadel to chariots and Roman soldiers in Jerash, a Salt City mosque to the Al-Khazne temple in Petra, this had more than a touch of the spectacular to go with the logistical challenge.

At the time, Coulthard said: “I’d say of all the journeys I’ve been on with the team, this one has been the most epic.”

12th: 'Dirt track' version of COTA

While longer cross-country road trips would be explored in later years, Red Bull’s 2011 takeover of Austin before the return of the United States Grand Prix took in lots of locations around the city.

And as each venue brought something to the table, leading up to a spectacular dirt track lap of an unpaved Circuit of the Americas, this could be considered the first time a simple show run was shunned in favour of more complex storytelling.

DC’s dirt road ‘escape’ from the ranch has him being chased by a car, a quad bike, horses and a helicopter. Bonus points if you spot the failed attempt from one rider to lasso the car!

11th: New York and the Lincoln Tunnel

It’s not unusual for Red Bull to be able to briefly take over a major city. But when that city is New York, it is already a little different. And when it involves clocking nearly 200mph in the Lincoln Tunnel, you see why this is on the list.

One year after their dirt track exploits, Red Bull and Coulthard returned to America to promote the 2012 US GP, and the F1 street track in New Jersey slated to be used the following year.

With a Liberty Island backdrop, a drive through Liberty State Park, a sample run through the New Jersey course that was never realised and the Lincoln Tunnel blast, Red Bull’s project was a massive undertaking.

The 190mph run through the tunnel is the star attraction. But Coulthard cracking on through residential areas is not far behind.  

10th: Driving on a frozen lake in Montreal

Red Bull likes to use older-generation cars for show runs because of the V8 engine’s durability. But even this engine has its limits, which were tested in the Canadian winter.

In temperatures of -10 Celsius, Red Bull’s biggest problem was avoiding the axles freezing and locking, so the priority was to keep the cars warm instead of cool.  

Sebastien Buemi was tasked with controlling the RB5 on ice, aided by specially produced tyres, with a run across a frozen lake and then a circuit that was mapped out loosely on the Montreal F1 track.

9th: A Rocky Mountains (and beach) road trip

In 2018, Red Bull’s F1 road trip concept evolved into an absolute monster. San Francisco, Monument Valley, Las Vegas, the Rocky Mountains and Miami Beach – it was truly worthy of the road trip name.

The lengths Red Bull went to for this were intense. The desire for sunrise and sunset shots meant days sometimes started at 4am, and ran until midnight. In between, there were still plenty of locations to hit to get the footage, and operationally Red Bull sends a very small crew.