The Red Bulletin US 05/22

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

U.S. EDITION MAY 2022, $5.99

BEYOND THE ORDINARY

THE

CHAMPION How MAX VERSTAPPEN became the best driver in the world

THE RED BULLETIN 05/2022

SUBSCRIBE

NOW D E TA I L S

INSIDE

THE FORMULA 1 ISSUE

EDITOR’S NOTE

SEISMIC SHIFT

At long last, Formula 1 is having its moment in the U.S. Our culture has had a long love affair with motorsports, but F1 has never quite captivated Americans like it has elsewhere in the world. But that’s changing. Whether it’s due to the character-driven success of Drive to Survive on Netflix, the pitched drama of the 2021 season or the arrival of a new grand prix in Miami, legions of new F1 fans are coming out of the woodwork. This issue is full of stories that celebrate and dig into this phenomenon.

CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE

JUSTIN HYNES

“Charting Max Verstappen’s rise from child prodigy to Formula 1 world champion feels like an object lesson in destiny,” says the author of our cover story. “But his exceptional skill is simply the product of insane levels of practice, preparation and pain.” Hynes, who is based not far from London, runs a media consultancy and has written about F1 for The Red Bulletin since 2005. Page 20

Oregon State students participating in Formula SAE, a global competition to develop the race cars of the future, prep their vehicle for a test demonstration.

Our cover story examines the biography and mythology of Max Verstappen—how the Dutch driver spent his life prepping to become an F1 champ. There’s a profile of icon Mario Andretti, who won an F1 title in 1978. And a deep dive into a college engineering program that is creating a new wave of F1 designers. We hope you enjoy this special edition—and then watch the action in Miami on May 8.

04

“Mario is my favorite racing interview—his name transcends racing and resonates still,” says the South Carolina–based author of our Mario Andretti profile.

“He’s sharp, he’s witty. He’s a living legend.” Lawrence, who has covered motorsports for Sports Illustrated, Car & Driver and The Guardian, is host of Ready for the Big Time, a new podcast from The Red Bulletin—available wherever you listen to podcasts. Page 9

THE RED BULLETIN

FORMULA 1/ADRIAN GREEN(COVER), KENNETT MOHRMAN

ANDREW LAWRENCE

GEICO.COM/CYCLE • 1-800-442-9253 • LOCAL OFFICE GREAT LOW RATES | MULTI-VEHICLE DISCOUNT | SPECIALIZED AGENTS Some discounts, coverages, payment plans, and features are not available in all states, in all GEICO companies, or in all situations. Boat and PWC coverages are underwritten by GEICO Marine Insurance Company. In the state of CA, program provided through Boat Association Insurance Services, license #0H87086. Motorcycle and ATV coverages are underwritten by GEICO Indemnity Company. Customer satisfaction based on an independent study conducted by Alan Newman Research, 2020. GEICO is a registered service mark of Government Employees Insurance Company, Washington, DC 20076; a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. subsidiary. © 2022 GEICO 21_731772673

CONTENTS May

FEATURES

20 Giant Steps

World champ Max Verstappen, who rolls into the 2022 season as F1’s new MVP, has always seemed destined for greatness.

28

F1: Deconstructed

36

The Right Stuff

Buckle up for a look at the newest circuit, a peek into pit stops and the cockpit, all the teams on the track and much more.

For decades, an international competition called Formula SAE has challenged college engineering students to dream up the race cars of the future—and make them a reality.

46 Glorious Legacy

Today, F1 is a technological marvel. But back in the early decades the cars were muscular and the racing was raw.

58

Grit Is Not Giving Up

68

Float On

Saray Khumalo is the first Black African woman to climb Mount Everest. But the summit was never the real prize.

The British artist known as Self Esteem reveals how she transformed from earnest indie girl to rising pop star.

20

PATH TO GLORY Supremely gifted driver Max Verstappen has always had an uncompromising competitive fire.

Here he is at home in the cockpit for Red Bull Racing.

46 EARLY DAYS

The last event of the 1960 F1 World Championship took place in Riverside, California. U.K. racer Stirling Moss won.

06

THE RED BULLETIN

26

THE

DEPARTURE

Taking You to New Heights

9 Mario Andretti reflects on his iconic driving career 12 Plogging: Great exercise

and good for the planet

14 Riding waves in Oahu 16 Carving lines in Arizona 18 DJ David Morales shares

the tunes that shaped him

GUIDE

Get it. Do it. See it.

79 Travel Miami: Top spots to put you under the city’s spell 84 Training tips from racing prodigy Jak Crawford 86 Dates for your calendar 88 The best new running gear 94 Anatomy of gear 96 The Red Bulletin worldwide

MARK THOMPSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, KENNETT MOHRMAN, GETTY IMAGES

98 Taking the plunge in Ibiza

36

BRIGHT FUTURE One of the most successful Formula SAE teams is Global Formula Racing, which has three No. 1 world rankings.

THE RED BULLETIN

07

LIFE

&

STYLE

BEYOND

THE

ORDINARY

GETTY IMAGES

THE

WINNING FORMULA

Living legend Mario Andretti looks back on his incredible career—from refugee long shot to becoming the biggest name in American motorsports.

THE RED BULLETIN

Andretti won the F1 championship in 1978.

Here he speeds along the track at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1979 for Racing Team Lotus.

09

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Although Andretti retired from racing in 1994, he continues to have a major impact on motorsports.

B

efore Derek Jeter and Kobe Bryant popularized the long goodbye, Mario Andretti set the pace. In 1994 he was feted in a season-long Arrivederci Tour—one last lap through IndyCar’s familiar haunts before calling time on an improbable career that spanned five decades and all three major racing series, peaking with the 1978 Formula 1 championship.

But soon after climbing out of the car and into quotidian life, Andretti found himself really struggling to adapt to a slower pace. “Here’s the thing,” the 82-year-old racing great explains. “When you’re leading the life that I led from my late teens, we’re talking about the better part of 50 years doing one thing,

10

week in, week out. I dealt with adrenaline for a major part of my life.”

Without it, his body went into shock. For years he suffered from labored breathing—an allergic symptom, he thought.

Specialists at the University of Pennsylvania couldn’t make heads or tails of Andretti’s symptoms at first.

But then he told them a bit about himself, about how his family emigrated from wartorn Italy to the U.S. when he was 15, about how he fell in love with auto racing and was piloting a stock car within a week of arriving in the New World, about how he spent the decades winning races across every major discipline—to the point of becoming synonymous with

racing itself. He won on road courses, paved ovals, dirt tracks. And all the while he remained in perpetual motion, jetting around the world to fulfill these nonstop commitments.

And that’s when it hit the UPenn doctor. “I can see your body is used to adrenaline,” Andretti says the doctor told him. “All of a sudden it’s missing, and your immune system doesn’t know what the hell to do. It has to readjust.”

It took about three years for Andretti to physically come down from a racing career that no American since has been able to approach—and not for lack of trying. Since his seminal F1 championship, the second ever by an American driver, scores of younger countrymen have tried to launch careers across the Atlantic, only to flame out or not get all that close to motorsports’ uppermost echelon. The irony is that Andretti himself couldn’t have been a longer shot.

Andretti wasn’t just a World War II evacuee who spent some of his childhood in a refugee camp; his family had no connections inside motorsports. And yet he grew up obsessed with driving, groping at the sensation with a lot of imagination and a little help from his twin brother, Aldo, and whatever kitchen implements came to hand. “One of us became the car,” Andretti recalls. “The one who’s the car holds a pot lid, and the other one drives.”

After moving from Montona (the war-torn medieval village that became part of Yugoslavia, and now Croatia) to Lucca, Italy, the Andretti boys got a sneak peek of their future at the 1954 Italian Grand Prix.

“That’s when I got to see my idol, Alberto Ascari, race live,” Andretti says. “From there on, the mold was cast.

There was never a Plan B.” Once settled in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, the twins were THE RED BULLETIN

“THERE WAS NEVER A PLAN B,” ANDRETTI SAYS OF RACING.

MARK MANN/AUGUST, GETTY IMAGES, KAREEM BLACK

quickly reeled in by the engine roar emanating from the local fairground, the sparkling venue for Sundaynight modified stock car races. Within two years the teens were building their own cars and posing as adults to race—to the chagrin of their parents, who worried about them dying behind the wheel.

Their father, Luigi, once remarked that racing drivers “bring body bags home more

than trophies.” When a bad wreck put Aldo in a coma, Luigi assumed it would scare the boys straight. But if anything, the accident made Mario even more determined to make it to Formula 1.

Andretti shot quickly up the racing ladder, reaching IndyCar in 1964. His thirdplace finish in the 1965 Indianapolis 500 landed him on the radar of Colin Chapman, the team principal

Andretti is the only driver who has won the Indianapolis 500, the Daytona 500 and the F1 World Championship.

At the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix, Andretti and fellow Lotus-Ford racer Ronnie Peterson placed 1-2, respectively.

In the race that followed, Peterson died after a horrible crash, and Andretti clinched the world championship.

THE RED BULLETIN

at Lotus. Making his F1 debut three years later, Andretti put Chapman’s Lotus on the pole of the U.S. Grand Prix. At last, Andretti had arrived.

He abided in Formula 1 for 14 seasons, claiming the 1978 championship, 12 grand prix victories and credit for helping to develop the supertacky race-car winglets that have since become an essential accessory. Even more impressive than his accomplishments is how Andretti achieved them without fully committing to F1. (At that time IndyCar was the more lucrative career path.) Not only has his legacy endured but it’s been kept alive through the younger generations. Until a few years ago his grandson Marco was a stalwart in the IndyCar series. Meanwhile, Mario’s son Michael is a motorsports mogul with front-running operations in IndyCar and Formula E. In February, Mario announced that Michael had formally applied to field an F1 team in 2024 called Andretti Global.

Andretti’s farewell tour was supposed to mark an ending. But given his continuing impact on motorsports, well, he may have said arrivederci too soon.

—Andrew Lawrence To hear more about Mario Andretti (and what it’s going to take for F1 to make it in the U.S.), tune in to Ready for the Big Time, a new podcast from The Red Bulletin available this May—wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

11

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Erik Ahlström

RUNNING THE GREEN MILE How a veteran runner’s litter-picking campaign birthed a global sport—and gave us a new word in the English dictionary.

12

THE RED BULLETIN

H

“Plogging,” a combo of jogging and picking up trash, isn’t just good for the environment— it’s great exercise, too.

THE RED BULLETIN

LUCA MARA

ead to the picturesque region of Val Pellice, northern Italy, in early October and you’ll spot them: dozens of the world’s top trail runners clambering up mountainsides with huge trash bags in their hands. They’re taking part in the World Plogging Championships, an eight-hour race that combines speed, altitude and, unusually, litter picking. The word “plogging”—a portmanteau of the Swedish term plocka upp (“to pick up”) and jogging­— was coined in 2016 by the sport’s creator, trail runner Erik Ahlström.

This isn’t the first time the 62-year-old Swede has led the way. Ahlström has been trail running—and coaching others —for 30 years, since the days when it was still considered a niche sport, and he was the brains behind the Salomon Trail Tour. At the heart of Ahlström’s passion is the experience of being outdoors.

“When running in nature, you’re using all five senses,” he says. “Endorphins are pumping and a wide smile spreads across your face.

You feel like, ‘Wow, this is how life should be.’ ” Motivated by his reverence for the natural world, Ahlström became a passionate environmental advocate, organizing litter-picking events in his local town for more than 20 years. Now, his communityminded attitude has sparked a global environmental movement named Plogga, with supporters including trailrunning champions Kilian Jornet and Emelie Forsberg.

“It’s about changing your mindset,” says Ahlström. “If there is trash in front of you, pick it up, because if you do, the person behind you will do the same.”

the red bulletin: Where did you get the idea for plogging? erik ahlström: I was living in this tiny Swedish ski resort called Åre, and while walking my son to school in the morning I would pick up litter.

It made me sad to see the amount of trash on the streets, so I began organizing group cleanups. Over two decades, I noticed that I’d made a real impact. When I moved back to Stockholm in 2016, the litter problem was worse.

It was like no one seemed to care. I started running with friends, and we decided to collect litter while we ran. It became like a treasure hunt.

We were running, laughing and having fun. Others saw us and said they wanted to join in. Then the whole thing just went bananas. A German TV company came to Stockholm to do a feature. By then, hundreds of people were taking part in local plogging groups across Sweden and it spread globally through social media. It was crazy.

What impact have you seen across the world?

There are now hundreds of plogging groups. In 2018, the world record was recorded just outside Mexico City, where more than 4,000 ploggers took part. It was also chosen as the fitness trend of that year in India, and it’s estimated that around 10,000 people now regularly go plogging there. It has even been made an official word in the English dictionary.

Are there fitness benefits over normal running?

Running is more or less the same movement from the waist down. Plogging involves bending, so you’re using your core, side muscles and legs

much more, plus the upper body because the litter bags unfortunately become very heavy. You also burn more calories. Half an hour of plogging will burn 288 calories on average, compared with 235 calories from regular jogging.

Has this sport taught you anything unexpected?

Kids love it. It’s such an inclusive activity because it’s not just about who is the fastest but also about which items are the most valuable for recycling. A child who [isn’t the best runner] might know that a PET bottle never disappears—it just breaks down into microplastics—so he could be the hero of the class plogging team. Plogging is also very addictive: When you see trash, you can’t help but stop and pick it up.

You care more about the environment, and caring becomes change.

How can people get involved?

Start by finding a group to go plogging with. There might already be ploggers in your area. You can also join our Plogging World Facebook group to see what ploggers in different countries are doing.

Or you can create your own event and just start picking up litter with friends. You just need a bag and a pair of gloves and you’re ready to go.

—Nina Zeitman Erik Ahlström is taking part in this year’s Wings for Life World Run, where 100 percent of the entry fee goes toward finding a cure for spinal cord injury. The Wings for Life World Run takes place on May 8 at 12 p.m. UTC. To find out more and to take part, go to wingsforlifeworldrun.com.

“PLOGGING IS ADDICTIVE: WHEN YOU SEE TRASH, YOU CAN’T HELP BUT PICK IT UP.” 13

Haleiwa, Oahu

WAVE OF RELIEF Every picture tells a story, but while this image of Koa Rothman surfing a glorious wave in his native Hawaii has undeniable impact, the greater drama happened off camera. Shortly after the shoot, Californian photographer Ryan Moss broke his back in a jet-ski accident that also destroyed most of his equipment.

Which is when the surfing gods stepped in. “With the help of a friend, I was able to recover some images from my memory card,” says Moss, whose efforts earned him a semifinal place in the 2021 “Masterpiece by SanDisk Professional” category of global photography competition Red Bull Illume. “That helped the pain from the injury and surgery hurt a lot less.” ryancmoss.com

RYAN MOSS/RED BULL ILLUME

DAVYDD CHONG

T H E D E PA RT U R E

15

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Page, Arizona

DAVYDD CHONG

HITTING PAY DIRT

NOAH WETZEL/REDBULL ILLUME

“Shouldering his unforgiving downhill bike, Blake quickly scaled 800 vertical feet of loose hot shale and dropped in for one last sunset line.

Carving and slashing down the face, Blake screamed through the frame, accompanied by distant hoots and hollers from Jack …” After four long, sunbaked days shooting near the ArizonaUtah border with his freeriding pals Blake Sommer and Jack Graham in late 2020, this moment of magic was just reward for American action photographer Noah Wetzel. Not to mention a semifinal entry in Red Bull Illume. noahdavidwetzel.com

17

T H E D E PA RT U R E

Playlist

SPIN DOCTOR

Four tunes that shaped the career—and saved the life— of superstar DJ David Morales.

H

ouse music icon David Morales is a trailblazer in the world of DJ’ing. The 59-year-old Brooklyn native first made his name in the ’80s New York club scene, and his fame grew yet further in the ’90s with acclaimed production and remixes for the likes of Mariah Carey and Jamiroquai, as well as his own solo albums. Now the Grammy winner is back with his first album in more than a decade, Life Is a Song. “Music is really important [to me],” he explains, “to the point that it saved my life.” Here he reveals four of those lifesavers. David Morales’s album Life Is a Song is out now; djdavidmorales.com

THE JACKSON 5 “ABC” (1970) “There was no escaping this song as a kid, because it was played all across pop radio.

When I was in elementary school, maybe first or second grade, the class had to do a presentation where we chose a famous group and performed one of their songs.

Some kids chose the Partridge Family; I chose the Jackson 5 and did ‘ABC.’ It was one of the first songs to have a major influence on my life.”

18

THE O’JAYS “PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER” (1973) “Even though I had no money to buy music when I was growing up, I’d still go to the record store to look. When I did finally get some money, this was the first 45 I ever bought. I remember bringing it home; we had this rubbish sound system in the house, and I took the speaker and faced it out the window, then I played this record for what must have been a hundred times.”

DOUBLE EXPOSURE “TEN PERCENT” (1976) “Growing up in the hood, there used to be these block parties where DJs would play in the park.

I remember being about 13 years old and seeing this guy set up his equipment; it was the first time I ever saw two decks and a mixer, and he was playing [‘Ten Percent’]. Hearing the break blew my mind. It was the first 12-inch single released on Salsoul Records, and once I got a copy I played it to death.”

THE JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH “IT’S JUST BEGUN” (1972) “This record was like a graduation for me. It reminds me of my teenage years, when I was into graffiti and breakdancing.

I was the best dancer in my crew and I went by the name Flaco Larock, which I had got written in fluorescent letters on the front of a T-shirt. When I used to battle, ‘It’s Just Begun’ was one of the records that would go off in the club, because it had such a sick break and intro.”

THE RED BULLETIN

WILL LAVIN

Scan this QR code to hear our Playlist podcast with David Morales on Spotify.

GIANT STEPS

Supremely gifted, and newly gilded thanks to a world championship title, driver Max Verstappen rolls into the 2022 season as Formula 1’s new MVP. But if you study his path to glory, he has always had an uncompromising competitive fire and seemed destined for greatness.

Words JUSTIN HYNES

MARK THOMPSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Max Verstappen is most at home in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car, ready to race.

21

et’s start in February 2022. It’s been about two months since Max Verstappen muscled his way past seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton to claim his first world championship title on a hugely controversial final lap of the final race of an epic 2021 season. Now, as he begins preseason testing ahead of the 2022 campaign, Verstappen is asked what it means to be the man to beat.

There’s a pause, and then, with the cut-to-the-chase frankness that has been the hallmark of everything the 24-yearold says (and does in the car), he drops the accelerator. Verstappen bounces the question into the weeds. “It doesn’t matter,” he shrugs. “Even after winning the championship, my ambition is still to win races and try to fight for the championship again.”

And with that blunt answer, Verstappen hits the reset button. That was then, this

The Dutchman celebrates his world championship with a trophy and a jubilant smile.

22

is now. There are new problems to solve; another chapter is waiting to be written.

But while the F1 champion’s nature is to distill everything to its essence—to seek a signal-to-noise ratio that removes all distractions and leaves only fundamentals—the truth is that his 2021 title win matters more than anything. His game, and by extension that of the whole sport, has been changed. The truth is that the noise around Formula 1’s newest superstar has become a cacophony.

Without any doubt, the Dutchman’s world championship has propelled him into the stratosphere. This March, Verstappen inked a contract extension that will keep him at Red Bull Racing until the end of the 2028 season, a deal speculated by insiders to be valued at $250 million for the five-year term. This makes Verstappen not only Hamilton’s on-track rival; now he can take their parity to the bank.

So as the 2022 season hits its stride, Verstappen will be thrust into and portrayed as six different characters at once. He is a superstar, villain, hero, challenger, target and champion, all rolled into one. His title success has elevated him to a new level of existence.

But if you scroll back through time— from the epic encounters of 2021 to his hot-headed early years in F1 and way back to his formative years at the wheel— Verstappen has been studying for each one of those roles for years. Let’s hit the rewind button and examine exactly how he got here.

The infamous win

Now it is December 12, 2021. A lovely day in Abu Dhabi that becomes a historically controversial day.

In the final moments of 2021’s final grand prix, Verstappen’s charge toward the title appears to be over. Archrival Lewis Hamilton is 12 seconds clear in the lead and Verstappen is running out of road. But then, seven laps from the flag, Canadian driver Nicholas Latifi hits the wall and the safety car is released.

Verstappen pits for new tires. Hamilton, expecting the race to be completed under the safety car, stays out.

Now comes one of the most controversial episodes in the history of a sport well versed in divisive moments.

Race director Michael Masi allows a handful of lapped cars to pass and then restarts the race. Armed with fresh tires and with the gap to Hamilton eradicated, Verstappen pounces. He shoulders the stunned Mercedes driver aside soon after the restart and claims the race win—and the 2021 crown.

“It’s been manipulated, man!” howls Hamilton, sparking an unprecedented winter of discontent for many in the sport. Hamilton retreats into such a fortress of solitude that he finally departs in the week of Mercedes’ 2022 car launch.

Masi would soon be vilified and eventually replaced for a decision that many viewed as affecting the destination of the title. But what about Verstappen?

As has happened so often in his bruising path to the top, the Dutch driver is cast as the pantomime villain, a THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES, ALPHATAURI

L

Verstappen wears a 3D knit jumper by AlphaTauri.

He is portrayed as six characters at once—a superstar, villain, hero, challenger, target and champion.

In a move for the history books, Verstappen passes Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the final race of the 2021 season to clinch a Formula 1 world title.

playground bully who pummeled his way to the title with a combative energy that caused collisions and controversy, whose team pressured officials to restart a race that should have finished under caution.

But Verstappen refuses to play along with that script. Questioned by Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the new champion is sanguine in the face of suggestions that some are trying to lessen the value of his title. “If they know me well, they know I don’t care,” he says.

“The losing team will try to take the shine off it a bit. But on the winning side, it still feels good, I can assure you.”

The path to glory

But the 2021 campaign was not one race.

It certainly wasn’t one lap. Verstappen raced to win the whole season.

It’s all too easy to crystallize Verstappen’s ascent around those dramatic moments in Abu Dhabi. Too simplistic to portray him as a driver who bullied his archrival for the title. But in the white-hot fury that followed the end of the 2021 season, Verstappen’s singular achievements across the course of F1’s longest-ever campaign were all too frequently brushed aside.

The Dutchman wants to talk about this. He is in Barcelona for preseason testing early in 2022. There he tells me that his championship was built over nine months of racing and not the handful of minutes it took for the race in Abu Dhabi to be turned on its head.

“A championship is won over the season, right? Not because of the last lap,” Verstappen says. “If you look at the year, the title would normally have been decided way earlier. It is just that I was taken out twice and had some bad luck with tire blowouts. It came down to the last race because of all that misfortune.

Look at the stats. That usually gives you a picture of how the season went.”

So let’s take a look at the stats. The last-minute win in Abu Dhabi was the Dutch driver’s 10th of the season. Had Hamilton won, it would have been his ninth victory. During the 2021 season, Verstappen was on pole 10 times to Hamilton’s eight. In all, the Dutch driver finished first or second 18 times over the season. His ninth-place in Hungary was his only nonpodium finish all year and in two of his three failures to finish, the Red Bull driver was in the top two when he exited the race.

“I have no doubt he is the best we have seen in one of our cars. In terms of raw ability and commitment, he’s the best we’ve ever seen.”

24

Not surprisingly, Christian Horner agrees. “What really stood out for me is in moments of adversity he kept believing, kept pushing, kept driving the team forward,” says the Red Bull team boss.

This comment comes at last December’s FIA prize-giving ceremony, at which Verstappen is officially presented with the trophy. “It lifted everybody around him.

Particularly in the second half of the year when we didn’t have the fastest package, he kept us in this championship.”

Verstappen is more modest when asked about his achievements, insisting that Formula 1 remains a hugely cardependent sport. “Individually you can make differences, but if the car is a second off, you’re not going to win the race,” he says. “A driver can influence the result a bit, especially in crucial moments, with decision-making or when weather conditions are changing, but when you look at raw pace, if the car is the quickest, that will help a lot more.”

Horner, however, has no hesitation in classifying his young driver as the ultimate performance differentiator. “I have no doubt he is the best we have seen in one of our cars. In terms of outright raw ability and commitment he’s the best driver we’ve seen,” the team boss tells Britain’s The Times. “The standout moments for me come when you turn up somewhere like Jeddah [Saudi Arabia], nobody has seen the circuit before and Max goes out and is 2 and a half seconds clear of anybody else. It takes half an hour THE RED BULLETIN

for anyone to get close to his time. He’s got a fundamental, natural ability, which means he’s driving with less effort at the limit than other drivers. Very rarely do you see drivers with that. Lewis has that.

Max has that.”

Veteran F1 star Fernando Alonso agrees. “Max is driving one step ahead of all of us,” says the 2005 and 2006 champion, routinely acknowledged as one of F1’s greatest drivers, right before the title showdown in Abu Dhabi. “We saw [his qualifying] lap in Jeddah until he touched the wall in the last corner. That lap was coming from him, not Red Bull.

Max, overall, across the year, was driving one step ahead of everyone.”

The slow burn

GETTY IMAGES, GETTY IMAGES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Now it’s 2016, the year Verstappen starts driving for Red Bull Racing. And the guy who will later insist that Formula 1 is a car-dependent sport is in the trenches, learning that lesson the hard way.

Over the following four years there will be standout performances, sporadic wins and moments of genius that serve to illustrate his abundant talent. But there will also be episodes of hot-headed behavior that reveal his frustration at having to push his car past acceptable limits just to approach genuine competition for race wins.

He’s racing in the midst of a period during which Mercedes’ mastery of hybrid engines has seen them take 111 wins from the 160 races held between 2014 and 2021. Red Bull’s cars, hindered by underpowered Renault engines, are

holding Verstappen back. A single win in 2016 becomes two in 2017, and Verstappen notches two more in 2018.

A radical change is needed. Enter Honda. Bruised by a failed and increasingly rancorous three-year argument with partner McLaren, the Japanese automaker retreats to the less pressured environs of Faenza, Italy, and Scuderia Toro Rosso. In 2018, Red Bull’s sister squad effectively acts as an R&D platform for Honda, and the following season its redesigned and optimized unit is transported across to Red Bull Racing.

Now it’s 2019 and everything is different. Honda’s first win in F1 in 13 years comes at the Austrian Grand Prix.

More wins follow, in Germany and Brazil, and in 2020, Verstappen wins the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix and the season finale in Abu Dhabi. More importantly, in 2020 he finishes on the podium 11 times.

A crucial technical rule change enacted before the 2021 season that arguably hurts Mercedes more than other teams doesn’t hurt Verstappen’s chances. And so the stage is set for the Dutchman to finally become world champion.

“Did it surprise me it took that long to win the title? Honestly, I never thought about it too much,” says Verstappen in 2022, reflecting on his triumphant 2021 season. “You need to get the opportunities right, to drive for the fastest team or at least have a car capable of winning races.

We finally had that last year—you could clearly see as a team as well we were really in the fight, and we managed to win the championship.”

Verstappen made his Formula 1 debut in 2015 and never looked back. Above he radiates calm intensity at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November 2016, where he would finish fourth.

THE RED BULLETIN

The mark of a champion

Now it’s 2014. Midway through his rookie F3 season, Verstappen joins the Red Bull Junior Team and just days later it’s announced that the following year he’ll race in F1 for Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri). He’s still just 16 years old.

In his debut at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the teenager becomes F1’s youngest race driver. At the following race he becomes the sport’s youngest points scorer. And by the end of a solid, if occasionally wayward, first season, he’s awarded Rookie of the Year.

But if Verstappen’s maiden campaign lights a fire of excitement, the next one goes supernova as he fully reveals his ability to drag the outstanding from the ordinary and to do it in double-quick time.

In early 2016, at Red Bull Racing, Russian hopeful Daniil Kvyat, who was vaulted to the senior team with unseemly haste following four-time champion Sebastian Vettel’s defection to Ferrari, starts the season with a series of hapless collisions, earning him the nickname “the Torpedo.” The Russian’s travails give Verstappen, who is desperate to get into a more competitive package, and his team all the ammunition they need. Ten days before the fifth race of the season, Kvyat is sent back to the junior squad and Verstappen is elevated to the senior team.

However, anyone expecting the Dutchman to settle into his new squad with a low-key weekend of cautious progress and steady integration knows nothing of the intensity and capacity to deal with multiple inputs that Verstappen would bring to his opening race.

In qualifying, Verstappen claims a stunning fourth place on the grid behind experienced teammate Daniel Ricciardo and front-row Mercedes pair Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. And on Sunday, when the warring Mercedes-title rivals collide at the start and Ricciardo drops out of contention due to a questionable pit-stop strategy, Verstappen seizes the opportunity to take the lead with a third of the race remaining.

Chasing him down is 2007 champion and Ferrari veteran Kimi Räikkönen.

Verstappen remains ice-cool, however, and after faultlessly fending off repeated attacks, the Dutch teenager crosses the line to become F1’s youngest-ever winner—at the tender age of 18 years, 7 months and 16 days. “It’s a nice record,” Verstappen says afterward. “But it doesn’t matter at what age you win, as long as you win.”

25

The tough love

Now it’s way back in 2012. The kid is still months away from his 15th birthday. He’s already been racing for a decade, already been racing karts on an international stage for a couple years.

Verstappen has been winning since he first stepped into a go-kart at the age of 4 and a half. “It was at Genk [in Belgium], it was on the rental circuit, it was with a very small go-kart,” Verstappen’s father, Jos, would recount on Red Bull Racing’s podcast in a 2020 interview. “After a few laps, he did the whole track flat out. And because of the vibration of the kart the carburetor was falling off. We did it for one day, and then immediately bought him a bigger go-kart.”

This success isn’t really a surprise if you examine his family pedigree. The younger Verstappen’s mother, Sophie Kumpen, was a championship-winning go-karter in her own right. His uncle Anthony Kumpen competed at Le Mans and in NASCAR’s European Series. It was father Jos, though, who best understood the path to Formula 1. A solid if ultimately unsuccessful F1 driver in the 1990s, Jos’s brightest moment came in 1994, when he was teammate to F1

legend Michael Schumacher at Benetton.

After losing that seat he toughed it out for a further nine seasons at a variety of struggling lower-tier teams before eventually admitting defeat. He did everything he could to make sure the same fate would not befall his son.

Practice was relentless, with Jos at the wheel of the family van as he and Max drove 60,000 miles across Europe every year pursuing title after title. This road-worn camaraderie gives father and son a unique bond. There is a lot of what writers and analysts might describe as “tough love.”

The intense nature of their relationship is in full effect following a 2012 world championship kart race. After a dominant start to the week, Max, overeager to regain a lost place, fluffs an overtaking move, crashes and loses out on the glory.

He finishes second. And his father is apoplectic.

“I was upset, but he was really upset and disappointed in me,” Max says, recounting the episode on Red Bull Racing’s podcast. “We sat in the van on the way home. I wanted to talk to my dad, but he didn’t want to talk. I kept trying, and at one point he said ‘Get out. I don’t want to talk to you anymore!’ ”

Verstappen, backed by his father, Jos, at a 2010 race in Italy. With a mix of love and tough love from his dad, an F1 driver himself, Max developed an intense competitive fire.

26

The elder Verstappen says that he wanted his son to understand “the pain” of racing. “It was too easy for him; he was winning all the time,” Jos says on the podcast. “I really wanted him to feel the pain. It should hurt. He had to think about what he was doing. I [went back], picked him up, we drove 1,800 kilometers back home and I didn’t say a word to him and the whole week after I didn’t speak to him. I wanted him to understand. The season afterward we won everything.”

For better or for worse, the lesson stuck with the young man.

Verstappen says it all flooded back while standing atop the podium in Abu Dhabi. A decade has passed since those long road trips. He has spent half a lifetime with his dad practicing in the rain after his childhood rivals have packed up and gone home. He remembers the expectations and the pain of abandonment and the intense focus on his success. The love and the tough love.

“It’s incredible, especially with my dad [being here],” Verstappen says on the podium. “All the things come back to your mind … the years you spent together, traveling for that goal … and then you are here and everything comes together on the last lap. Insane.”

The open road

Now it is time to look forward. Like most elite sportspeople, Verstappen is a restless animal. “We don’t need to think about it anymore,” he says, basically ending the conversation about the past.

“Every single year I just go into my season trying to beat everyone else, and it’s the same this year.”

No doubt, the 2022 season will bring new challenges. F1 has undergone its biggest makeover in decades. The cars are radically different, the driving demands vastly altered. And after three inconclusive opening rounds, there’s a new race to contend with, in Miami.

“The circuit looks interesting and I will need to approach it a bit differently,” he says. “You can’t be as on the limit straight away as you might be at a normal track. If you make a mistake, it’s easier to hit the wall. The cars are fine, but the tires are quite a bit bigger.

Visibility is reduced. On a track like Barcelona that’s less of a problem, but when you go to street circuits like Miami, it’s going to be more challenging. But we’ve done these things many times before. It’s what you want. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”

THE RED BULLETIN

MOTORSPORT IMAGES, MARK THOMPSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“Every single year I just go into my season trying to beat everyone else, and it’s the same this year.”

Verstappen in a moment of repose on the first day of testing at Bahrain International Circuit in March 2022. The Dutch driver is hardly worried to defend his title.

He was, after all, born to race.

Behind the visor is Red Bull Racing’s Sergio “Checo” Pérez during a day of testing in Barcelona back in February.

MARK THOMPSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

F1: DECONSTRUCTED New builds, new tires, a new defending champ—the 2022 F1 season is shaping up to be the most exciting yet. Buckle up for a look at the newest circuit, a peek into pit stops and the cockpit, all the teams on the track and much more.

Words CAT AUER

THE RED BULLETIN

29

PIT STOP ANATOMY OF A

GONE IN 2 SECONDS

Team colors help drivers visually identify their garage so they don’t pull into the wrong one —it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

When an F1 driver wheels into the pit lane, a highstakes and dangerous dance begins. Success is measured in millimeters—and milliseconds. The goal: Remove and replace all four tires in the time it takes to read this sentence. Below we take an annotated look at the art of the pit stop.

WHEEL GUNNER TIRE OFF

TIRE ON

REAR JACK FRONT AND REAR JACKS Lift and position the car so pit stop work can be done.

WHEEL GUNNERS Use a pneumatic tool to loosen the wheel nut so the tire can be removed and then tighten when the new tire is in place. Calm nerves and a steady hand are key.

TIRE OFF (4) Must remove tire as soon as the wheel nut is loosened and clear the used tire safely out of the way.

Driver enters the pit lane no faster than 60 kph.

TIRE ON (4) Fit a fresh tire on as quickly as possible. Crews have had to adjust to the new 18-inch versions mandated this season.

SIDE STABILIZER (2) Hold the body of the car steady so the rest of the crew can work.

SPARE JACK In place as a backup should something go wrong with main jack.

LOLLIPOP MAN Monitors signals and controls car’s entry to pit lane traffic.

FRONT WING ADJUSTER (2) Raises or lowers front flaps at the race engineer’s direction.

SPARE JACK

TIRE ON

WHEEL GUNNER

TIRE OFF

EVOLUTION OF RED BULL CARS

From its first full season in 2005 to its 2021 championship win—gathering eight others along the way—Red Bull Racing has evolved from a tough challenger into a reliable contender and now title defender. Here are a few Red Bull Racing milestones and livery landmarks.

30

2005: RB1

2006: RB2

Red Bull Racing’s first car hits the track. At the Monaco Grand Prix, the livery features a “powered by the Dark Side” Star Wars promo, but even the Force couldn’t help the team to the podium.

Another Monaco Grand Prix, another promo livery— this time featuring Superman Returns. Red Bull’s Mark Webber (at right) flew to third and wore a red cape to the podium.

THE RED BULLETIN

Red Bull Racing set the record for the fastest pit stop, ever—1.82 seconds—at the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and has won the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award for four seasons running. In fact, Red Bull holds nine out of 10 of the records for fastest stop. Plus—no other pit crew has done its job in zero gravity, as the Red Bull team did in 2019.

The crew are always prepared to do a rare five-wheel pit stop: replacing all tires as well as the steering wheel.

1965

1970

1985

2010

2020

SECONDS

SECONDS

SECONDS

SECONDS

SECONDS

45 20 8 4.2 2.5 AVERAGE F1 PIT STOP TIMES OVER THE YEARS

The driver must hit his mark exactly so crew members don’t lose valuable microseconds adjusting their positions.

TIRE ON WHEEL GUNNER TIRE OFF

SIDE STABILIZER

FRONT WING ADJUSTER

LOLLIPOP MAN

DRIVER

GETTY IMAGES(4), REUTERS, RED BULL CONTENT POOL

FRONT JACK

As the crew works, the driver keeps the car in neutral and his foot on the brake.

SIDE STABILIZER Clear communications between team engineers, crew and driver are key.

TIRE OFF TIRE ON

FRONT WING ADJUSTER

WHEEL GUNNER

2007: RB3

2008: RB4

2010: RB6

Renault comes on board as engine partner. The team’s British Grand Prix livery (above) features thousands of fan photos to promote the Wings for Life charity, raising more than 1 million euros.

A “shark fin” engine cover, so named for the shape of its profile, caused a stir with its debut, though the RB4 was generally considered a continuity car.

After only a handful of years in F1, Red Bull Racing snags both drivers’ and constructors’ championships with the Renault engine, the start of a well-deserved win streak.

THE RED BULLETIN

31

INSIDE THE

COCKPIT

Differential adjustment

W H E E L TA L K

The fate of a race is at a driver’s fingertips; he’d better know his steering wheel. With more than 120 functions and around two dozen buttons, dials and paddles, it’s no easy feat. Get up to speed here with a Red Bull Racing steering wheel and its controls.

Shift indicator lights

Limits speed when in pit lane

Neutral for pit stops

Confirm pit stop

Data display, including speed, gear, delta, brake temps and battery charge

Warm rear tires

Radio comms

Clear sensor data Brake balance to adjust toward front or back

Reverse gear (with clutch)

Delivers fluid through a tube that snakes from a vessel inside the cockpit wall, through the helmet, to the driver’s mouth

Fuel usage dial

Adjustable tire settings

WHAT’S THE MAGIC BUTTON? Made famous—or more accurately infamous—by Lewis Hamilton’s snafu at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the “magic button” is Mercedes’ back-of-the-wheel preset used to throw brake balance sharply to the front, helping heat the brakes and therefore the

32

Clutch adjustment dial

Battery charge dial (fill or drain)

Engine mode selector

Gear shifters and clutch paddles at back of wheel

tires. Hamilton pressed the button ahead of a restart in Azerbaijan, giving his tires a chance to hit an optimum temperature. Problem was, after the restart, he apparently accidentally hit the button again, locking his front tires ahead of a turn and forcing him offtrack and out of points.

2015: RB11

2016: RB12

2018: RB14

The eye-catching (and detail-obscuring) black-and-white livery (above) used for testing at Jerez was dubbed “CamoBull” by the team.

A partnership with Tag Heuer begins, and the livery goes matte for the first time, deepening the blue of the classic Red Bull scheme.

The Y-shaped “halo” bar atop the cockpit was introduced in 2018. Controversial at first, the halo soon proved effective at protecting drivers and improving safety.

THE RED BULLETIN

TIRE

PRIMER

TIRES ON T H E TA R M AC

2022 is the 12th straight partnership season for Pirelli, Formula 1’s OG tire partner. This year marks the introduction of Pirelli’s brand-new P Zero F1s, designed for endurance, less overheating and closer competition.

The new 18-inch tires add 5 inches to the rim diameter over last season.

Flush rim covers (not pictured) will reduce turbulence.

GETTY IMAGES, RED BULL CONTENT POOL(5), COURTESY OF PIRELLI

A higher, slimmer sidewall means improved agility and aerodynamics.

PROTOTYPES DEVELOPED

SLICK TIRES (DRY WEATHER) C1: The hardest tire option takes the longest to warm up but lasts longer. Good for hot locales.

C2: Hard but versatile tire.

C3: Its medium hardness means the C3 could be used as the softest tire in the range—or the hardest.

C4: On the softer side, this tire heats up quickly but is great on twisty circuits.

C5: Extra soft with super grip, it’s the fastest tire. The tradeoff: the shortest life span.

Tread width remains the same on both front and rear sets.

2022 TIRES, BY THE NUMBERS

70

The compounds will be new but the grading remains the same; three types will be chosen for use in each race.

30

TYPES TESTED ON TRACK

36

TOTAL DAYS OF TRACK TESTING

392 SETS OF TIRES USED

4,267

TEST LAPS DRIVEN

2030

WET-WEATHER TIRES Intermediate: designed for effectiveness in both wet and dry conditions.

YEAR BY WHICH F1 AIMS TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL

Full wet: For use in heavy rains or standing water, fullwet tires are made to displace water and reduce potential of hydroplaning.

2019: RB15

2021: RB16B

The first season with Honda engines had a livery highlight during a one-off filming day, featuring a striking pattern of red and dark blue chevrons (above).

In the electrifying final grand prix of the season, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen clinched a lastlap victory over Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, nabbing the drivers’ championship.

THE RED BULLETIN

33

F1 FACTOIDS

2022

F1 DRIVERS NETHERLANDS MAX VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)

6-9 lbs

Average cockpit temperature during a race

Weight a driver can lose over the course of a single race

FINLAND VALTTERI BOTTAS (Alfa Romeo)

DENMARK KEVIN MAGNUSSEN (Haas)

GERMANY SEBASTIAN VETTEL (Aston Martin), MICK SCHUMACHER (Haas)

ENGLAND LEWIS HAMILTON & GEORGE RUSSELL (Mercedes), LANDO NORRIS (McLaren)

CANADA LANCE STROLL (Aston Martin), NICHOLAS LATIFI (Williams)

122°F

15 10

FRANCE ESTEBAN OCON (Alpine), PIERRE GASLY (AlphaTauri)

9

14

12

7

11

16

13

4

6

19 5 20

SPAIN CARLOS SAINZ (Ferrari), FERNANDO ALONSO (Alpine) MONACO CHARLES LECLERC (Ferrari)

MEXICO SERGIO PÉREZ (Red Bull Racing)

21

F1 RACE LOCATIONS 34

1. Sakhir, Bahrain: Bahrain Grand Prix 2. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 3. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Grand Prix 4. Imola, Italy: Emilia Romagna Grand Prix 5. Miami Gardens, FL: Miami Grand Prix 6. Barcelona, Spain: Spanish Grand Prix 7. Monte Carlo, Monaco: Monaco Grand Prix 8. Baku, Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan Grand Prix 9. Montreal, Canada: Canadian Grand Prix 10. Silverstone, England: British Grand Prix 11. Spielberg, Austria: Austrian Grand Prix

12. Le Castellet, France: French Grand Prix 13. Budapest, Hungary: Hungarian Grand Prix 14. Spa, Belgium: Belgian Grand Prix 15. Zandvoort, Netherlands: Dutch Grand Prix 16. Monza, Italy: Italian Grand Prix 17. Singapore: Singapore Grand Prix 18. Suzuka, Japan: Japanese Grand Prix 19. Austin, TX: U.S. Grand Prix 20. Mexico City, Mexico: Mexico City Grand Prix 21. São Paulo, Brazil: São Paulo Grand Prix 22. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

THE RED BULLETIN

2,595

1.82

Longest F1 pit stop (Mercedes)

Shortest F1 pit stop (Red Bull Racing)

minutes

sec

400 GB

Data collected

by F1 car sensors over a single race

1 month

Time it took Red Bull Racing Esports to win a podium after team founding

$140

million

263

2022 F1 team budget cap

Number of Legos needed to build a miniature 2021 Red Bull Racing car

MIAMI BY THE NUMBERS

It’s been 38 years since the U.S. hosted not one but two grand prix in a single season. Get to know the lay of the land at the Miami International Autodrome, F1’s latest circuit— designed with the help of Formula 1 experts.

MAY 8

INAUGURAL GRAND PRIX

3.36 MILES CIRCUIT LENGTH

CHINA GUANYU ZHOU (Alfa Romeo)

JAPAN YUKI TSUNODA (AlphaTauri)

191

MILES: TOTAL RACE DISTANCE

57

LAPS PER RACE 8 18

1

19 3

CORNERS/TURNS

22

2

AUSTRALIA DANIEL RICCIARDO (McLaren) 17

STRAIGHTAWAYS

3

THAILAND ALEXANDER ALBON (Williams)

DRS ZONES

199 MPH EXPECTED TOP SPEED

RED BULL TEAMS

GETTY IMAGES

3

RED BULL RACING

Year founded: 2005 Previously: Jaguar Racing Home base: Milton Keynes, England THROUGH 2021: Wins: 75 Poles: 73 Podiums: 205 Fastest laps: 76 Championships: 9

THE RED BULLETIN

2022 TEAM Drivers: Verstappen, Pérez Team chief: Christian Horner Technical chief: Adrian Newey Technical director: Pierre Waché Chassis: RB18 Power unit: Red Bull Powertrains

ALPHATAURI

Year founded: 2020 Previously: Scuderia Toro Rosso Home base: Faenza, Italy THROUGH 2021: Wins: 2 Poles: 1 Podiums: 2 Fastest laps: 2 Championships: 0

2022 TEAM Drivers: Gasly, Tsunoda Team chief: Franz Tost Technical chief: Jody Egginton Team manager: Graham Watson Chassis: AT03 Power unit: Red Bull Powertrains

3

LAYERS OF ASPHALT LAID FOR THE BRAND-NEW TRACK

11

OTHER GRAND PRIX SITES IN THE U.S. BEFORE MIAMI GARDENS

35

THE RIGHT STUFF

For decades, an international competition called Formula SAE has challenged college engineering students to dream up the race cars of the future— and then make them a reality.

Words SCOTT JOHNSON

Global Formula Racing took its 2021 car for a spin for The Red Bulletin on February 19.

36

Photography KENNETT MOHRMAN

I

t was the summer of 2021 and the competition was just days away. Rijen Shonka, a second-year grad student at Oregon State University, was helping prepare a car for an upcoming tournament in Las Vegas. The event was important and would determine where the team would place in that year’s rankings of Formula SAE, a 40-year-old racing and design competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Every year, 600 teams from more than 20 countries compete to design and build a Formula-style racing car that takes automotive innovation to a whole new level. The competitions, which showcase the latest in student engineering and ingenuity, are held in different places each year, attracting car manufacturers, race teams and, increasingly, aerospace companies looking for the next generation of talented young engineers.

None of the cars weighs more than 400 pounds, but while they’re small, they’re fiercely designed.

One of the most successful teams is Global Formula Racing, or GFR, an internationally collaborative Formula SAE team that started in 2009 and comprises students from Oregon State University and Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Friedrichschafen, Germany. GFR was the first international collaborative within Formula SAE, and the transatlantic partnership has helped cement the team as a top contender year after year, with three No. 1 world rankings since its inception.

Shonka was eager to get to the track and start competing. But now, suddenly, there were problems.

Just days before competition was set to begin, the wheels on the car, quite literally, started coming off when the bolts began to unscrew themselves.

Shonka and his teammates got to work, stripping the car down to its bones and looking for problems.

“I ripped it all apart, cleaned it out, put it back together,” the sandy-haired 24-year-old recalls.

But it didn’t end there. Every day of the week leading up to the tournament, something or another broke. Finally, the GFR team patched the car together and headed to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the temperatures hovered over 100 degrees, turning the tarmac into scorching bedrock. Thanks to some epoxy, a little duct tape and a whole lot of hard work, the car held together.

And despite the early setback, the GFR team won anyway. That kind of last-minute improvisation and engineering know-how is a hallmark of the people who work on Formula SAE teams. “If we don’t finish it, the car doesn’t run,” says Shonka.

Companies are paying attention. Tesla recruiters were on hand that day in Las Vegas and were keen to see the results. The Formula SAE world has become a laboratory of sorts, churning out engineering students who will one day work not just on fast cars but the whole booming electric vehicle revolution,

not to mention automated cars, drones, satellites, spaceships and all the inevitable transformations in clean energy. The feedback loop between university SAE teams and corporations has become so fluid that the world’s top manufacturers are active participants and sponsors of the competition, offering guidance, supplies and support. Last December, Tesla announced it would provide up to 1,000 free battery cells and discounted hardware to college SAE teams as a way to encourage innovation around electric cars, as well as an effective recruitment tool for the company. “The companies have come to know over the last several years that the students who are driven are the ones who are going to make great employees,” says Joe Piacenza, the faculty adviser for Oregon State’s GFR team (which is also known as Beaver Racing). “Doing this competition and ranking so high, there’s only one reason—and it’s that they’re really dedicated.”

The GFR team performs driven and driverless tests in a parking lot at the Linn County Fairgrounds in Albany, Oregon.

39

Competitions for Formula SAE go back all the way to the early 1980s, where they started in a parking lot at the University of Texas.

40

The Ford Motor Company hosted the next year’s event, followed by Chrysler the year after that, and the circuit soon exploded. In 1994, the three companies formed a consortium and moved the event to the then–crown jewel of NFL stadiums, the Pontiac Silverdome, with seats for more than 82,000 people. Europe was getting in on the action, too, founding its own student-led racing network called Formula Student. “It was getting to the stage where it was for the benefit of the whole automotive industry,” says Dean Case, a press officer for SRO Motorsports America and longtime FSAE advocate.

By 2006, the circuit had grown so large—there were 130 entries for the Michigan event that year—that they established Formula SAE West.

But it was never just a race. From the beginning, Formula SAE oriented the competition around a set of metrics to reward cars that weren’t only fast as hell but also cost effective, structurally sound and marketable—the ingredients that large firms demanded. Four decades later, those standards still hold. Winning teams dominate in both the “static” and “dynamic” elements of the competition. For the former, they must present a business plan and a detailed cost breakdown of materials that will pass muster with budget-conscious and consumer-driven companies competing for market share. A good designer can make a super-fast, ultralight car with huge amounts of carbon fiber instead of mild steel, but it’s going to cost more. But teams also have to perform well in a good old-fashioned 22-kilometer race, during which judges score them on everything from the car’s efficiency to its acceleration. Teams that strike the best overall balance—making fast, affordable and well-built cars on a hard deadline— win the day. “The premise here is not who can build a one-off prototype,” says Case. “It has to be something that is realistic.”

For years, the quintessential American STEM universities snubbed Formula SAE, dismissing the competition as a mechanical engineering problem.

But that changed in 2013 when the organization saw Elon Musk gazing at the stars and added electric cars to its racing roster. (A few years later, self-driving cars got themselves a ticket.) Suddenly, top-tier schools like MIT and Cal Tech, which had never before participated, began to express interest.

Electric is now the fastest-growing class within Formula SAE. Today, the series acts as a huge hub for both professional and amateur racing networks across the world, with club racing, drag racing and road racing feeding into the larger ecosystem of professional teams and mass-market car companies eager for motivated engineering and racing talent.

In Southern California alone there are 17 universities building SAE or Baja cars. “I don’t think anybody in the ’70s had any idea that these competitions would grow as large as they have,” says Case.

“Now there are people building Formula and Baja cars around the world.”

One day recently, four 20-somethings huddled around a half-built car with a bright orange shell in THE RED BULLETIN

COURTESY OF DEAN CASE

L

ike many revolutions, this one began in the desert. During the 1970s, the Society of Automotive Engineers partnered with the lawnmower and engine manufacturing company Briggs & Stratton to create a vehicle engineering competition. Briggs & Stratton supplied an 8-horsepower engine to every vehicle and soon a Cannonball Run–style desert dune buggy race, the SAE Mini Baja, was underway, much to the delight of America’s college-age population. The competition soon blossomed to include dozens of schools, and while the sands of Mexico were plenty fun, the lure of hairpin turns on hard pavement beckoned. The first official Formula SAE event took place in a parking lot at the University of Texas in 1981. The cars, half-pint versions of the real Formula monsters, were fun and spunky but also light and fast.

Even without the internet, word quickly spread, and by the early 1980s the ad hoc racing circuit was expanding rapidly as students scoured torn and fading racing magazines for ideas and traded pictures of cars they liked. About 20 schools across the country were participating in the Formula SAE races by then, but the network was scattered and students often had trouble generating the kind of critical mass they needed to create a large-scale event.

That changed in 1991, when General Motors offered to host the competition. It was a generous move for the corporation but also a savvy one, and it foretold the advent of a relationship between universities and corporations that continues to this day. GM understood that the best, most committed engineers were also most likely to be Formula SAE fans. So rather than spending a small fortune and lots of time visiting campus job fairs around the country, the company brought the students to them.

The first sanctioned race got underway over two days that year at the 4,000-acre Milford Proving Ground in Michigan, one of the biggest stretches of dead flat pavement in the world, where cars could spin off on its 132 miles of roads without fear of hitting anything.

One of the most successful teams in Formula SAE is Global Formula Racing, an internationally collaborative team that started in 2009 and comprises students from Oregon State University in Corvallis and Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Friedrichschafen, Germany.

the basement of Rogers Hall on the campus of one half of GFR’s home at Oregon State University, in Corvallis. The college, which sits in the flat farmlands of southern Oregon, is sandwiched in the rain shadow between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Winning races is still a goal, says Joe Piacenza, the faculty adviser, but the students he oversees are just as keen on tackling bigger issues. “The part that’s so innovative is that they’re helping to solve today’s problems for driverless vehicles,” adds Piacenza. It’s no wonder that so many students, engineering and otherwise, are keen to participate in the GFR project. Building any car is an achievement, but being a part of such an advanced creation gives them boasting rights in the real world. Team members refer to the cars they make as “rolling résumés” when they head out into the job market. “These are the car geeks,” says Case, “the ones who will do whatever it takes to get the job done.”

The students are making improvements on last year’s car, which they humbly dubbed “21 Orange,” but it’s a feat of engineering by any standard, student or otherwise. Resembling a Formula car in miniature, it boasts an array of features that would dazzle Michael Schumacher and Neil Armstrong alike. The car is all-wheel-drive and fully electric, with three layers of carbon fiber on the nose cone, capable of speeds of up to 130 mph. The driver is protected by a wraparound “crash structure” that THE RED BULLETIN

can withstand a 1,000-pound impact from a distance of 6 feet. Each wheel has its own 40-horsepower motor that operates independently of the other three, giving the vehicle enhanced cornering ability and more subtle, precise control. With two cameras and a lidar (laser-sensing radar) system, it can also drive itself. And it doesn’t brake like a normal car. Instead, when pressure is eased on the throttle, the wheels start regenerating power, which slows them down.

Several components are 3D printed.

41

GFR was one of the first teams to switch to building electric (and autonomous) cars.

Students like Rijen Shonka (pictured) must be prepared for last-minute adjustments so their car is race ready—even if that means using a little duct tape.

42

THE RED BULLETIN

I

n part because of these innovations, Formula SAE has become a kind of neutral testing ground for products and standards that ultimately find their way into the broader automotive community. “We’re kind of like Switzerland,” says Case. Typically, car companies design most of the industry’s broadly shared features—bolts and gears, historically, but now increasingly things like electric plugs—by committee. But before consumer companies adopt anything, the products go through rigorous on-theground testing during the Formula SAE competitions.

“If you have a Chevy Volt, and your neighbor has a Nissan Leaf, and three doors down someone has a BMW AI, they can all plug into the same plot,” says Case. “That was an SAE-developed standard.”

And it’s not just an American phenomenon.

Technologists the world over speak the same language, and so it is in the automotive industry.

Marcel Dirschinger, a 22-year-old engineering student from Bavaria, arrived in Corvallis late last year after graduating from the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, OSU’s partner school in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Like many Germans, Dirschinger grew up surrounded by motorsports but only really got into Formula 1 racing at the suggestion of a high school friend. The idea that he would ever be able to participate on a team was a “pipe dream.” But after joining the German side of GFR, his dream started to seem a little more realistic.

He studied hard in his engineering classes and worked harder as a team member and he soon found himself thriving. Deeply competitive by nature, he relished the challenge of making the fastest, lightest car possible. “I just couldn’t get enough of it,” he says.

He joined the master’s program at OSU in the winter of 2022 as a teaching assistant and is now helping oversee the high-level design and construction of this year’s model. Dirschinger describes the work that he and his students are doing as “pushing the limits” of a car’s engineering. One day recently, in a classroom that doubles as an automotive shop, where wrenches and welding masks compete for attention with drawings and design plans, and the walls are plastered with racing decals and dozens of trophies, Dirschinger and several teammates took turns pointing out the car’s more advanced features. Right now, the team is working on ways to improve the vehicle’s “torque vectoring” abilities. By taking the motor out of the chassis and relocating the power sources in the wheels themselves, the car the team is devising is a pretty radical departure from your father’s souped-up Mustang.

As far back as the early 1990s, Formula SAE teams from overseas were attracting the attention of American companies. Alba Colon, who grew up in Puerto Rico, remembers struggling through a competition at the Milford Proving Ground in 1991 as part of a Puerto Rican team. The team didn’t do especially well, but Colon’s dedication and skill caught the eye of a couple of executives from General Motors, who offered her a job. After 23 years at GM, Colon is now the director of competition systems at

THE RED BULLETIN

Marcel Dirschinger, a graduate student from Germany, helps oversee the engineering of this year’s car.

Hendrick Motorsports, a NASCAR affiliate based in North Carolina. She attributes her professional success almost entirely to her participation in Formula SAE. In more recent years, SAE has become such an attractive thing to have on a résumé that students often choose schools precisely because of their SAE programs. “I owe everything in my career to SAE,” says Colon, who hasn’t missed a competition since the first one she attended as a competitor in 1991. Adds Case: “If you don’t have SAE on your résumé, you’re four years behind the curve.”

Michael Hilliker, a second-year grad student and Beaver driver, would agree. Hilliker, 25, was practically born into racing in the small town of 700 people where he grew up in the picturesque southwest corner of Montana. His brother, older by eight years, had always enjoyed go-karting, running one vehicle after another into the ground in the driveway of their rural home. When Hilliker was 5 years old, his parents bought him a Quarter Midget go-kart and entered him in a local competition. By the age of 10, he had graduated to a Bandolero, a sleek midway racing car that could reach speeds of up to 70 mph. It could be dangerous, but the safety equipment was good enough that even Hilliker’s mother signed off on it. By 15 he was clocking 90 mph in a Baby Grand, about half the size of a fully loaded NASCAR rig. Racing became an all-consuming passion, and in summer and winter he and his family would attend competitions all over the country, arranging schoolwork with accommodating teachers who were happy to fuel his dreams.

His parents owned a small business and his father, a self-taught machinist, repaired hydraulic cylinders for heavy farming equipment. Hilliker grew up watching his dad tool around in the shop and picked up tips along the way that would come in handy later on. When it came time to head off to college, Hilliker’s brother, who was also pursuing a racing 43

A résumé on wheels: Formula SAE cars attract the attention of companies looking for the next generation of talented engineers.

T

Michael Hilliker, a second-year grad student and Beaver driver, started kart racing at an early age.

career, urged him to attend a school with a Formula SAE club. Pretty soon he was headed off to Oregon State, one of the nation’s premier SAE schools. His freshman year he traveled with the team to Europe, and in 2019 he was part of the team that took second place overall in the German competition.

These days, Hilliker works as the aerodynamic manufacturing lead on this year’s model and oversees 12 undergrads. When he graduates this summer, he hopes to return to the passion that set him off two decades ago, but with a twist born of his experience building the car. “My dreams of being a professional racer have turned into being a professional engineer,” he says, gazing admiringly at the half-built car taking shape in Rogers Hall.

In a time of economic uncertainty, the job market for engineers like Hilliker looks rosy. Unsurprisingly, there is a huge amount of crossover between automotive and aerospace. Dan Gurney’s All American Racers built hundreds of race cars in Southern California before pivoting to build aerospace components; today they are a big supplier to SpaceX and others. Swift Engineering built Indy and Formula 2000 cars for years before moving into the unmanned-drone market. Another small company with Formula SAE connections, called Motivo, developed an electric autonomous tractor.

“The things you need for a successful aerospace company include aerodynamics and composites, and those are two core skill sets of modern-day race cars,” says Case. Whereas in the past mechanical engineering grads were most in demand, with the rise of electric and self-driving cars, electrical engineers are increasingly sought out. “The same problems that companies like Tesla and Rivian are trying to solve, these guys are working on,” says Piacenza, the Beaver Racing faculty adviser. The technology being developed has been put to other uses as well. A Portland plant is building solar panels for unhoused communities. “This is a spearhead for much larger programming,” says Piacenza, “so students can get the same quality of experience that the Formula team has gotten for a long time.”

he basement of Rogers Hall thrums with activity.

In the room next door to the studio where this year’s model is being conceived, another group of students plays with computer drawings and discusses their latest engineering problems. A pyramid made of Red Bull cans stands on top of a refrigerator, a testament to the hours they spend working.

When she graduates in June, Katarina Rodak will head south to Irvine, California, where she has a job already lined up with electric car manufacturer Rivian. Rodak, 24, grew up just north of Corvallis, in Beaverton. Her mom is an accountant; her dad works in computers. In high school, through her involvement with a competitive business club, Rodak learned about an electric motorcycle company called Zero Motorcycles. Once she got to OSU, she changed her major from business to engineering and joined GFR when she heard that the team was building electric cars. Engineering taught her to think critically, and she says her experience with SAE “accelerated” her education and fueled her passion for tackling fossilfuel dependency.

As Rodak looks at the creation she helped build, she sees the results of all her efforts contained in a single, sleek instrument of innovation, and it makes her hopeful for the challenges that are still ahead.

“It’s a super-complex problem that we’re hopefully going to solve the next 20 years,” she says. “What if you lived in a world before electricity and everyone used candles, and you had the chance to help Edison?” she muses. “This is the brave new world. Who’s going to be the first over the finish line in terms of making that product that’s, like, fast and efficient and light and environmentally friendly?”

Judging by the passion and knowledge displayed by this Formula SAE team, it’s not hard to imagine it might be one of these bright lights.

Katarina Rodak already has a job lined up at Rivian, an electric car manufacturer, after she graduates in June.

45

In its time, the 1953 French Grand Prix was called the “Race of the Century” because of the near-constant lead changes. Luigi Villoresi, shown here, finished sixth.

46

GETTY IMAGES

Glorious Legacy

Formula 1 has become the most rarefied and technologically advanced corner of motorsports. But back in the early decades, the cars were muscular and the racing was raw.

Words PETER FLAX

T So much of the early history of Formula 1 was shaped by World War II and its aftermath. Here, at the 1954 French Grand Prix, Mercedes-Benz returned to international motor racing after a 15-year absence with a bang, as Argentinian driver Juan Manuel Fangio won for the German team.

48

hese days, a successful Formula 1 team is constructed like a space program. The cars are modeled in 3D on powerful computers, the drivers are monitored and pampered and fine-tuned like multimillion-dollar thoroughbreds, and every tiny detail is studied and perfected to yield maximal performance. Though the pure thrills of racing are still present—perhaps even heightened due to the high speeds and extraordinary finesse—F1 is clearly the pinnacle of innovation in the world of motorsports.

But the origins of the discipline are rooted in romance, engineering entrepreneurism and swashbuckling racing—elements that were considerably rougher around the edges than the modern rendition of Formula 1. This romance is still embedded in the DNA of the sport.

Formula 1 as we know it was born out of the ashes of World War II. The word “formula” refers to a set of standards and rules—related to the size and output of the engine, the size of the tires and tons more—that every car must meet. The first Formula 1 race was held in 1946, and four years later, a season-long championship series was inaugurated.

Even in those early days, many of the races took place at venues that remain household names today—Silverstone in Great Britain, Monaco, Monza near Milan. From the start, the races were a mix of street courses and purpose-built

circuits, many of the latter constructed at decommissioned military bases sitting dormant after the war.

Though Formula 1 was born and raised in Europe, the U.S. was a part of the scene in the early days, too. The Indianapolis 500 was one of seven stops in the first FIA World Championship of Drivers. Other Formula 1 races were held in the 1950s and early ’60s in Riverside, California; Sebring, Florida; and Watkins Glen, New York. And American drivers were a part of the early days, too. Harry Schell raced in 1950 to become the first U.S. driver in F1. In the early 1960s, Phil Hill won a championship. And in the late ’70s, the iconic Mario Andretti repeated the feat.

The photos in this feature capture the soul of Formula 1 racing, qualities that inform the past, present and future of the sport: the fastest and nimblest race cars on the planet, the most technical courses, venues with international glamour, drivers with extraordinary skill—and outsized personalities.

The cars shown here would be no match for the Formula 1 cars of 2022; technology has pushed the sport into outer space. But the spirit of the cars and drivers and the legions of fans has remained at full-throttle since the start.

The magic that brought Formula 1 to prominence is still very much alive. This magic, it seems, is part of the formula for the discipline’s success.

THE RED BULLETIN

The Monaco Grand Prix was included in the new Formula One World Drivers’ Championship in 1950. From 1955 to the present the race has been an iconic fixture on the F1 calendar.

GETTY IMAGES

Stirling Moss, driving for Vanwall, won the British Grand Prix in 1957. It was the start of an era of British dominance that would last 15 years. In the end, Moss would go down in history as the greatest driver never to win a world championship.

THE RED BULLETIN

49

The 1950 British Grand Prix was held to great fanfare, with the British royal family in attendance. Fangio, shown here, ultimately finished second in the season standings and won five F1 world titles on four different teams.

With a weary smile and a mud-caked face, Moss wears the victor’s laurels and hoists the trophy after winning the British Grand Prix in 1955. Moss finished second or third in the final championship standings an astounding seven times.

50

THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES

Racers storm down the backstretch at the 1953 French Grand Prix. The two Maseratis shown here would finish the race in second and third, narrowly beaten

by British driver Mike Hawthorn, racing a Ferrari.

THE RED BULLETIN

51

52

GETTY IMAGES

The start of the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. Due to the glamour of the location—and a technical course with tight corners, elevation changes and a tunnel— Monaco has been a prestigious event since the early days.

The final event of the 1960 World Championship took place in Riverside, California. Stirling Moss, driving for the Lotus-Climax team, won the United States Grand Prix, which moved to Watkins Glen, New York, the following year.

54

THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES

The Cooper T86, which was raced with moderate success in 1966 and 1967, was powered by a V12 Maserati engine.

At the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, Harry Schell—the first American driver to race Formula 1—rips a practice lap in his V12 Maserati 250F T2. Schell never won a race but twice finished on the podium.

THE RED BULLETIN

55

Driving for the Lotus team, American racing legend Mario Andretti had a dominant year in 1978, winning six races en route to a world championship.

56

THE RED BULLETIN

GETTY IMAGES

Andretti (right) and his Swedish teammate, Ronnie Peterson, spray onlookers with champagne from the podium after the conclusion of the Belgian Grand Prix on May 21, 1978. Racing for Lotus, Andretti won and Peterson finished second. They repeated that same 1-2 sweep two weeks later at the Spanish Grand Prix, but that September, Peterson died in a crash at the Italian Grand Prix.

THE RED BULLETIN

57

Grit Is Not Giving Up Saray Khumalo is the first Black African woman to climb Mount Everest. But the summit was never the real prize.

The goal is to transform the lives of South African kids.

Words MARK JENKINS

58

Photography ROSS GARRETT

THE RED BULLETIN

“I am not climbing for myself,” says Khumalo, who was photographed near Johannesburg on January 29. “I am climbing for every Black child in South Africa.”

W

“We must build our outdoor community from the ground up,” says Khumalo, who leads wilderness trips for people of color.

60

e are as far away from civilization as you can get in South Africa, deep in the dreary, dripping Drakensberg Mountains, yet Saray Khumalo is still working. When her cell phone gets a signal, she’s on it.

When it’s pouring rain, she opens her umbrella, marching through the puddles.

In the evenings, I can hear her working from inside her tent. Khumalo, 49, is a veteran banking and insurance executive who lives in Johannesburg. She is also the first Black African woman to summit Mount Everest.

Khumalo climbed Everest via the standard southeast ridge route in 2019—after three difficult, disappointing attempts in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Given that Africa is a continent of 54 countries and 1.3 billion people, it is shocking

that it took so long for a Black African female to make the ascent.

But it makes sense that Khumalo is the one who did it: Her determination is at once understated and undefeatable.

Though she is brilliant, stylish (she has graced the cover of fashion magazines), cosmopolitan and successful, if you get her into the mountains she can suffer like an old-school mountaineer. She also knows her way around a boardroom and the value of PR. She understands better than anyone I’ve ever met how to leverage her mountaineering success for a larger purpose.

After all, Khumalo isn’t out there for fame. She’s out there to build libraries and opportunities for poor Black South African kids. She’s climbing for them.

O

ur hike in the Drakensberg has an inauspicious beginning. For the past five months, Saray (pronounced “Sarah,” with a rolling of the r) has been leading weekend hikes, hoping to prepare a team of beginners for a trek through the Drakensberg. All of the participants are successful South African Black people or Indians—IT consultants, business owners, CEOs. They have good gear and the flexibility to take a week off work. Packing lists and pointers were emailed weeks in advance.

The trip is being led by Khumalo and Sibusiso Vilane, 51, the first Black African man to climb Everest and the rest of the Seven Summits. A young local guide named Lungela and two porters complete the team.

The first day turns into a disaster.

Our goal was to hike to the rim of the Drakensberg escarpment, but by late afternoon we are nowhere close. We are trapped in a steep, narrow ravine with cold rain blowing sideways and the black blanket of night almost upon us. We should have stopped hours ago, but now it is too late.

Khumalo and I decide that I should immediately scout for a possible campsite, but there are none—the mountainsides are too steep. Vilane keeps insisting that the top of the escarpment is not far. “It’s just right there,” he shouts, pointing up to a notch in the misty skyline. But it is too far for this team of newbies.

I later learn that we have come to the jagged, verdure Drakensberg, “Dragon’s Mountains” in Afrikaans, the highest range in the country of South Africa—600 miles of castlelike walls and deep gorges—in the wrong season. It’s November—the start of

summertime—when it rains incessantly.

And when you climb above 10,000 feet, that often means snow.

After it gets dark, we are dangerously strung out in the precipitous gully.

Surveying downward, headlamps, like stars one can barely see, reveal that some of our team members are still stumbling upward on the slick scree, while others have simply stopped like worn-out donkeys, crushed by the weight of their heavy backpacks.

At the rim of the gorge, I drop my pack and head back down. I first get Metsi’s pack and bring it up, then Kholiwe’s, then I discover Beaula sitting in the dark in a cleft of boulders. Her headlamp has stopped working. The batteries are wet.

Dried off, they function, and she continues upward while I descend for yet another backpack.

It is midnight by the time we finally make our camp atop the escarpment.

Most of the team members don’t have a clue how to set up their tents. The wind and sleet certainly don’t help. Eventually everyone is zipped inside their billowing nylon shelters, shivering inside their damp sleeping bags, too exhausted to move. The two cooks-cum-porters are too whipped to boil water, let alone fix dinner.

The next morning we sorely need the sun, but it is drizzling. The porters manage a pot of inedible pasta and I bring them water from rock puddles to boil tea for everyone. Vilane is in good spirits and Khumalo is stolid, as befits their characters, but everyone else is as gloomy as the weather. We pack up and set out along the crest of the Drakensberg, slow and dispirited. It is a comically miserable beginning for our team of neophytes.

T

he last time I was in the Drakensberg was in 1987, when apartheid was tearing the country apart. My father, a mathematics professor, was teaching Black math teachers in Soweto, the most dangerous homeland ghetto in the world.

Homelands, like Indian reservations in the U.S., had been created to force Black people out of white South Africa. White police were indiscriminately murdering Black youth; in retaliation, Black youth were murdering random white people.

Everyone saw a civil war on the horizon—whites fearing Blacks would win the conflict and treat them as brutally as they had treated Blacks. One man, however, believed his country was better than this and envisioned a more hopeful future: Nelson Mandela, although he had already been in prison for 24 years in 1987.

Ignoring the obvious dangers, my brothers and I bicycled across eastern South Africa, from coastal Durban to Johannesburg, right through the heart of former Zululand, and we were treated

with nothing but kindness throughout.

We ate what the locals ate—biltong (jerky) and meilie pap (cornmeal porridge) and tripe—and slept in the round mud-and-thatch rondavels of villagers. We heard the voices of Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing on battery-powered radios and breathed the blue exhaust of overloaded bakkies (small pickups) with farmhands crowded in the bed.

Some weeks later, I hiked into the Drakensberg with future Mountain Club of South Africa president Paul Fatti and climbed the north ridge of the Eastern Injisuthi Triplet, a hard eight-pitch route that Fatti had put up a decade earlier. It was classic Drakensberg alpine climbing—slippery vertical basalt, long runouts, delicate moves grasping fistfuls of grass—and I loved it! I swore I would return to the Drakensberg the following year.

Alas, work and life took me other places, although South Africa, a country that could teach my own so much about truth and reconciliation, stayed in my

heart. Now, almost 35 years later, I have returned. Apartheid has since been vanquished, Mandela established a peaceful path forward, and Saray Khumalo, the first Black African woman to summit Everest, was trying to jumpstart a new generation of Black outdoor athletes. “We must build our outdoor community from the ground up,” Khumalo tells me on the second day of our Drakensberg hike.

Khumalo is a tall, strong, striking woman. She has a commanding presence that belies her soft but direct voice. You can imagine her in a suit making difficult business decisions with calm precision.

“What about the MCSA,” I ask, splashing along the trail, “the Mountain Club of South Africa? They do lots of outings and clinics and climbing meets.”

Khumalo gives me a sour look. She had joined the prestigious MCSA years ago and did some climbing with them but felt distinctly unwelcome and eventually quit.

“Sibusiso had the same experience,” Khumalo says.

Khumalo lost multiple fingers to frostbite on her 2017 attempt of Everest. “That’s when Everest got personal for me,” she says.

62

THE RED BULLETIN

In 2022, Khumalo plans to climb Denali (in Alaska), Vinson (in Antarctica) and Carstensz (in New Guinea) to complete the Seven Summits.

“I decided I could not live in a world where we were limited because of the color of our skin.”

(I would later check with Fatti about this issue. He said the MCSA encourages all new members, regardless of color, providing clinics on rock climbing, ice climbing, rescue and mountaineering.

However, he acknowledged that the club was still predominantly white and said he could “see how she felt that way.”)

“I would welcome a partnership with the MCSA,” Khumalo exclaims, stabbing her ski pole into the mud. “But we must still begin to create our own outdoor community. That’s precisely why we’re here.”

I

t rains the entire second day. I first walk with Metsi Makhetha, 55, who, unlike the others, is a fit, accomplished hiker. She has worked for the U.N. for 25 years and lived all over the world. Her most recent posting is in Burkina Faso as the U.N.’s resident

64

coordinator. Makhetha grew up in Soweto and both her politically active parents had been imprisoned by the apartheid government.

When she was 11 the police came to her house in the middle of the night.

Makhetha told her mother to hide and stood in the doorway, but the police pushed right past her, grabbed her mother and began dragging her out of the house.

“I was trying to stop this huge Afrikaner policeman,” she explains. “And I looked up into his eyes … and you know what I saw? Fear. He knew he was perpetrating injustice. I have never forgotten that.”

Makhetha has spent her career at the U.N. working for equality and justice, from fair housing laws in South Africa to continent-wide energy policies for Africa.

“This country has strong, determined women,” says Makhetha. “And Saray is one of them.”

Hours later, we’re still slogging through the mud and I’m trying to get Khumalo to talk to me about her Everest climb. She walks with resolve and little conversation with anyone.

“Everest is just a metaphor,” she says, admitting that she is not much of a rock climber or an ice climber: She climbs mountains, big mountains.

She would rather talk about the charities she funds through her climbs.

“Education has always been my focus, education and representation,” she says, lifting her umbrella to look me straight in the eyes.

From the very beginning of her mountaineering career, Saray Khumalo was climbing for a purpose—indeed, her foundation is called Summits with a Purpose. In 2012, she climbed Kilimanjaro to raise money to build a library for Kids Haven, a home for street kids in Benoni, a poor suburb outside Johannesburg.

Following her ascent, she went to Kids Haven to give a program and afterward a young Black girl said to her, “People like you don’t do this sort of thing.”

Khumalo was stunned. “She meant Black people don’t do this sort of thing.

And she was right. She had never seen anyone like me.”

That child changed Khumalo’s life.

“I decided I could not live in a world where we were limited—and worse, limiting ourselves—because of the color of our skin. I have two sons. I needed to leave them a better world.”

THE RED BULLETIN

South African students have no library.

And more than 14 percent of Black South Africans are illiterate, a rate 45 times higher than for the white population.

“My number one is to make sure the next generation of Black children can reach their own goals,” says Coutts. “And they can’t do it without an education.”

We’ve spent the entire day walking in cold, driving rain down a muddy track.

The team is just as somber as it was when we started at 5 this morning. When we finally make camp, I boil water for the team in my tent while the porters work up mashed potatoes and meat gravy.

Nobody wants to hang out in the rain and talk—we’re already soaked to the bone—so we all retire to our tents and pray for sunshine.

T

he next morning, almost unbelievably, it is sunny. Suddenly everyone is voluble. The sun comes out and so do the smiles. It’s natural. I can tell some of our beginners are thinking maybe backpacking isn’t so bad after all.

Vilane gathers the team in a circle and wants to talk about the meaning of a single word: grit. We are each asked to give our definition of the word. When it is Khumalo’s turn, she steps forward, surveys the team, pauses, then says only: “Don’t give up.”

On cue, heavy clouds roll up over the horizon and it begins to sprinkle. After our recent pounding, we’re all wary, but it doesn’t get worse. We are even gifted

COURTESY OF SARAY KHUMALO

In 2014, Khumalo attempted Everest for the first time, raising money for the Lunchbox Fund, a program that provides school meals. A 2021 South Africa National Income Dynamics Study found that many people can’t afford food. Some 2.3 million households reported child hunger, and “40 percent of all South Africans of all age groups were affected by hunger.”

“You can’t learn if you’re hungry,” Khumalo says.

She was in Base Camp on April 18, 2014, when the Khumbu Icefall collapsed, killing 16 Sherpas. That was the end of that expedition, but Khumalo still managed to raise money to provide 60,000 school meals through the Lunchbox Fund.

Khumalo returned to Everest the next year to raise money for the Mandela Library Project, which serves over 200,000 kids. On April 25, 2015, Nepal was struck by a 7.8 earthquake and 22 people died in avalanches on Everest.

Again, she didn’t get close to the summit, but she raised enough money to build her first library.

“Saray was deeply committed,” says Robert Coutts, CEO of the Mandela Library Project. “She gave her word and never gave up. It became quite a significant partnership for us.”

South Africa has 48 million Black citizens and only 4 million whites. Only 14 percent of Black students there finish high school, compared with 65 percent of white students. Almost 80 percent of all

Through her 2015 Everest climb, Khumalo raised money to build a library in Thembisa township.

THE RED BULLETIN

with a few random rays of sunshine at lunch. Sabelo Myeza, an engineer and the only one who always has a smile on his face, cuts off strips of biltong for everyone.

Our plan is to cross right over Thabana Ntlenyana, 11,424 feet, the highest peak in all of southern Africa.

Myeza leads the charge, shouting, “We’re taking the bull by the horns!”

On the summit, he is rejoicing, despite the hail stinging our faces, and I realize that Khumalo has once again been successful. Myeza is a convert. He will be back out here the next chance he gets.

Crunching down through the snow, I catch up with Khumalo and her Everest saga.

Undaunted by defeat in 2014 and 2015, Khumalo returned to Everest in 2017. This time her plan was to raise enough money to build three libraries for the Mandela Library Project.

“I am not climbing for myself,” she says. “I am climbing for every Black child in South Africa.”

In 2017, she made it to the South Summit, tantalizingly close to the top, before high winds turned her back.

Somewhere below the Balcony, at around 27,000 feet, she collapsed and lost consciousness. Her Sherpa rallied other Sherpas at Camp IV and they managed to carry her down and get her in a tent, but then they just left her there. She was unable to help herself and spent the night without a sleeping bag on the frozen snow. The next morning a Sherpa named Lakpa found her in the tent, touched her and she moved.

“Oh, you are alive!” said Lakpa, surprised.

“Of course I am alive!” Khumalo replied.

With the help of Sherpas, she made it back down to Camp II, but she had lost her mitten shells and frostbit her fingers.

Two middle fingers on her right hand and the tips of her middle fingers on her left hand were amputated in a hospital in Kathmandu.

“That’s when Everest got personal for me,” says Khumalo. “I had unfinished business.”

Nonetheless, she still raised the money to build three libraries for the Mandela Library Project.

“It’s rare to meet a person so exceptional,” says Coutts. “Sary Khumalo believes, and she does.”

65

“I don’t think anything happens that we can’t manage. Everything is there to teach us something.”

L

ocal Lesotho shepherds show up at our camp on our third night and take pity on us and build a fire.

Only a few hikers are willing to get out of their tents and stand in the rain by the fire, but Kholiwe Makhohliso, 46, is one of them. She is singing softly around the campfire.

“It is ‘Empini,’ by Kelly Khumalo,” Makhohliso tells me.

Kelly Khumalo is a famous Zulu pop singer. This is the refrain from “Empini”: Ng’yathemb’ uyabona (I hope you see) Sofela khon’ empini (We will die in battle) Ngeke baskhona (They will not exist) The day is a slow hike in thick fog to reach a stone hostel that houses the “Highest Bar in Africa.”

I walk with Khumalo again and she finally tells me about her fourth and final attempt on Everest. Again, instead of talking about the climb itself, she first wants to talk about education.

“This time I decided to raise money for iSchoolAfrica,” she says. “I want to change the narrative of education in South Africa.” iSchoolAfrica was founded to bridge the digital divide between white and Black students by providing underprivileged schools with iPads.

“I went with Noel Hanna and an Irish team. It was the first time I saw people on Everest drinking every evening,” she laughs.

After three previous attempts on Everest, Khumalo was better prepared physically and mentally. She had learned her lessons and knew the strategy necessary for succeeding on a severely overcrowded mountain.

66

“We got ahead of the crowds and summited in 11 hours from Camp IV on May 16th,” she recalls. During the descent, her oxygen mask froze and she became severely hypoxic, but she made it down alive—although one of her teammates, Seamus Lawless, didn’t. No one knows exactly what happened, but Lawless, an assistant professor of artificial intelligence at Trinity College in Dublin, unclipped from the fixed lines at some point below the Balcony and was blown off the mountain.

“We searched for his body but never found it,” says Khumalo.

Despite this tragedy, as usual, she fulfilled her commitment to iSchoolAfrica, helping the organization to purchase iPads for a number of grade schools.

“I don’t think anything happens that we can’t manage,” says Khumalo.

“Everything is there to teach us something. We can choose to look at the negatives and not grow, or look at all the positives that make us better people. If I didn’t do that I wouldn’t be sane.”

Which is essentially the speech she gave to our team two days later upon the completion of our dreary, dripping trek across the Drakensberg.

Everest is only the beginning for Saray Khumalo, as it was for her white counterpart, Sir Edmund Hillary. At his death in 2008, Hillary had built 42 schools, hospitals and medical clinics in Nepal. Khumalo now has her sights set on becoming the first Black African woman to climb the Seven Summits. She’s done Everest, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Elbrus and has Denali, Vinson and Carstensz left. She wants to do all of them in 2022, and I have no doubt she will.

O

ne of the schools that got iPads was Igugu Primary in Soweto, not far from where my father taught math in the ’80s.

My wife, Martha, a human rights attorney, and I visited this school after the Drakensberg hike.

“We are lucky we are near the Vumatel fiber-optic line,” said Igugu principal Ms. Sonto Tshabalala. “We have 486 students, grades preschool through seventh, and all of them get to use the 10 iPads at least once a week.”

The iPads come preloaded with lessons in math and reading. Tshabalala takes us to the computer classroom, where a group of masked 8- and 9-yearolds are doing arithmetic on the iPads.

When we ask a shy girl named Simphiwe if she enjoys learning via computer, she says yes in a barely audible whisper, then immediately returns to solving math problems. Just behind her is a small boy intensely concentrating on his screen.

When he looks up at us, we ask him if he likes learning math more from the computer or more from his teacher. He breaks into a broad smile and says proudly, “my teacher.”

Michelle Lissoos is the director of iSchool Africa and has been working with Saray Khumalo for two years.

“Saray is so inspirational to our South African youth,” says Lissoos. “When she walks into a room, her background and her childhood are contextually relevant; she makes students believe in themselves. She makes Black kids believe anything is possible. She is taking every one of these African children with her on her climbs.”

THE RED BULLETIN

COURTESY OF SARAY KHUMALO

Khumalo summited Everest in 2019 with an Irish team. Seamus Lawless (right) died on the climb.

After that, she plans to become the first Black African woman to complete the Adventurer’s Grand Slam—the Seven Summits plus the North and South Poles.

By that time, she may well be educating half the kids in South Africa!

Khumalo aspires to become the first Black African woman to climb all of the Seven Summits and reach the North and South Poles.

THE RED BULLETIN

67

Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, wears a waistcoat by Hugo Boss; shirt and tie, vintage.

Float On Rebecca Lucy Taylor is the new voice of patriarchysmashing pop music. Here the British artist known as Self Esteem tells us how she transformed from earnest indie girl to rising pop star, and how she overcame her insecurities to find her true self.

Words LOU BOYD Photography PHILIPP MUELLER

69

Hat by Thora; sparkly green lounge suit by Sleeper.

70

THE RED BULLETIN

T

he opening track of the 2021 album Prioritise Pleasure features a voice note of a group of women discussing their safety in public places. “I always walk home holding my keys in my hand,” one voice says. “It sounds so stupid,” replies another. “But something that me and my friends actually do if we’re approached by a group of men, we will bark like dogs. There’s nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman that appears completely deranged.”

The music swells and we hear a female voice bark and howl, purposefully and deliberately deranged.

Then the first hook-laden pop beat kicks in and the album bursts into life.

Welcome to the world of Self Esteem, the nom de guerre of 35-year-old singer Rebecca Lucy Taylor.

Wearing her insecurities as her stage name, the Brit writes songs that rip up the patriarchal narrative and firmly center all aspects of the female experience— from a fear of walking home alone at night, to shame around whether or not to have children, to being present in your own body—while simultaneously creating sexy, catchy pop music to dance to. Her new album, released last October, was received with an almost frenzied outpouring of appreciation online as people connected with her no-nonsense takes on gender performance, mental health, male violence, sexual identity and more.

“This is the pop star I have been waiting for my whole fucking life,” British journalist Bryony

THE RED BULLETIN

Gordon posted online after hearing the album.

“Listening to Self Esteem makes me feel like I could run through a wall,” another woman posted on Twitter. And along with the fans’ approval came the critics’ endorsement—writers from such outlets as Rolling Stone and The New York Times gave rave reviews as the record crept up the charts.

Then came a flurry of awards and accolades: Taylor picked up Artist of the Year 2021 from BBC Introducing; Album of the Year from The Sunday Times; Best Song of 2021 from The Guardian; Attitude magazine’s 2021 Music Award and, most recently, a 2022 BRIT Awards nomination for Best New Artist.

“Apparently I’m a thing now,” Taylor laughs.

“I mean, I’ve always known I’m a thing, but it’s nice for people to say it.” She’s chatting to The Red Bulletin in the middle of her U.K. tour, a bursting calendar of gigs. “Because of the pandemic, it was like, ‘Will we ever get to tour again?’ So I’m trying not to be too whiny about it. It is a lot, though.” Tickets to the shows are like gold dust, with fans begging for resales online and even privately messaging Taylor for help getting in. “I really have no boundaries, and as a people-pleasing Libran I’m always like, ‘Oh god!

Can I help?’ ” she says, laughing again. “If people message me and they’re sad enough, I’m like, ‘I’ll put you on the guest list!’ So now I have a guest list just full of people I don’t bloody know!”

71

“I never wanted to be dinner-party background music.”

When she launched her solo career in 2017, Taylor had no intention of setting any social conversations—she just wanted to make a sexy pop record. Her debut solo album, 2019’s Compliments Please, quickly revealed she was no cookie-cutter pop star, however. The first single, “Your Wife,” displayed her impressive lyrical chops, while the follow-up, “Girl Crush,” succeeded in expressing an authentic queer voice—Taylor came out publicly as bisexual in 2013—in mainstream music, where pop heavyweights such as Katy Perry and Rita Ora had faltered before her. “I was massively into the album Anti by Rihanna, so I was just like, ‘Let’s rip that off,’ ” she jokes. “Then, at some point, I guess I started realizing my own capabilities and my music began growing into something else.”

The standout track on the new album, “I Do This All the Time,” is a mix of deadpan spoken-word verse—akin to Lou Reed —and uplifting, choir-filled choruses. “It’s the bravest record I’ve ever done and was a real game-changer for me,” Taylor says. “I never wanted to be dinner-party background music.

That’s just not what I’m interested in. Throw in the fact that I love heavy beat and heavy bass, I love strings, I love choir, and I love big, cinematic sounds.

Put that all together and you end up with … this mess,” she cackles.

A choral element is present in all of Taylor’s compositions; a wall of female voices that hold up the backing track of everything she sings. “I was a choir nerd at school and sonically that’s my favorite texture,” she explains. “I think it’s cool that you get this soundscape of women.” The voices on the new album are all Taylor’s personal friends and colleagues. “I was going to pay a session choir, but instead it’s every single woman who’s important to me, and I think there’s something special about that,” she says. “Once upon a time I would have felt like a right dickhead saying this, but I think that the energy—the stuff you can’t hear, the feeling and the intensity—you ultimately do hear that in the music.”

Energy and intensity are in abundance on Prioritise Pleasure. From the opening track, “I’m Fine”—which deals with Taylor’s own experience of sexual assault—the intention is clear. “Do you understand the pain you cause when you see a 72

“Sometimes, when I’m on camera, I wish I’d done this 10 years earlier,” says Self Esteem, who was photographed in January.

“I realize now that if you’re living a lie, you do go mad, and I was.” body just for sport?” she sings. “Tried to let you down so gently, when I had the right to tell you simply: No.” Then there’s the anger-fueled “How Can I Help You?” in which she mocks her previous sexual compliance (“Never grow old, I’ll always be wet, always be up for it”) and the tongue-in-cheek “Moody,” a reclamation of the insult often thrown at women. The tracks have resonated with people in a way that she could not have predicted. “It’s interesting how much people have connected with it, because I’m like, ‘Oh wait, shit, we’re all fucked!’ ” she says. “For me, as a teen and in my 20s, it was just so fucking hard. I couldn’t get my head around what was so wrong with me. If I’ve managed to put that together in a vaguely eloquent way, enough for another girl like me, hating her life, to think, ‘Maybe I might be alright; maybe I should try and stick with it,’ then that is really important to me.”

It seems that there are more than a few of those girls out there, many of whom reach out to Taylor.

“It’s so nice when someone takes the time to message and say that my music has helped them,” she says. “I actually spoke to a guy recently who has daughters in their teens and 20s, and he got super-emotional about how glad he is that I’m doing what I’m doing; that I’ve created this for them.” Earnest for a moment, she says, “It’s kind of really powerful. I can’t think about it too much because I start getting upset.” She sniggers. “Also, I love older men crying.”

S

elf Esteem isn’t Taylor’s first foray into the music industry: For more than a decade, she was known as one half of the soul-infused indie-rock duo Slow Club, formed in 2006 with guitarist Charles Watson. The band enjoyed success, releasing five acclaimed albums and picking up a loyal fan base. Behind the scenes, however, all was not well with the partnership, and Taylor called time in 2017. “I’d been in the band since I was 17 and it was increasingly obvious that I’d become somebody different, a sort of monster of confidence,” she says.

“I felt like I was being too much for every single room I was in and that somehow made me a burden on those around me.”

74

Taylor felt at odds with the role of “pretty girl in a band”—someone who’s expected to conform to the male-dominated industry’s requirements.

“Nothing terrible happened,” she says. “There’s no villain there. It was gradual. I had this constant feeling that something wasn’t right, and I wasn’t happy.” Her experiences in the band partly inspired “I Do This All the Time,” her breakthrough single as Self Esteem, which draws from comments made by a tour manager she worked with. “All you need to do, darlin’, is fit in that little dress of yours,” the song states, deadpan. “If you weren’t doing this, you’d be working in McDonald’s.” It continues, “You’re a good girl, a good sturdy girl.”

The song speaks volumes about the misogynistic and closed-minded industry Taylor had to navigate, but she insists it wasn’t others’ personal deficiencies that pushed her to pursue something new but her own abundance. “I was in a place where it just felt like my ambition and success was a bad thing,” she explains. “For our third album, we put loads of strings and brass in. We were on a label and everything got a bit more exciting. We did a bit of telly and I really thrived in it, but the rest of the band hated it.” She pauses, thinking through her next sentence. “It was as though the things I wanted were kind of gross, and that was melting my brain. We’d go on the telly and I’d really enjoy it and be good on it, and that felt like a real negative in the band.” Another moment’s pause.

“That seems so ludicrous now. It’s no wonder I was fucking miserable. But I really did feel like, ‘Maybe I am a dickhead, and maybe I’m not a real musician because I like doing Sunday Brunch,’ ” she says, referring to the popular British chat/cooking show.

As Self Esteem, Taylor has freed her unabashed pop ambitions and revealed that, far from gross, they’re exactly what the music industry needed, even if it didn’t ask for them. Her new music is the opposite of gentle indie songwriting; it’s big, dramatic, thundering pop that pivots away from the heteronormative and makes you sit up and listen. “I realize now that if you’re living a lie, you do go mad, and I was,” she says of her time in Slow Club. “Sometimes, when I’m on camera, I wish I’d done this 10 years earlier. I mean, my skin would have been a lot better! But I remind myself this career isn’t just for people under 25; in fact, it’s vital that it’s not. The journey is what gets you where you are.”

Now in her mid-30s, Taylor is one of the oldest artists to ever be nominated for the Best New Artist gong at the BRIT Awards. “Whatever happens, being a 35-year-old woman nominated for a BRIT Award is a really proud moment for me,” she said on Twitter after receiving the nomination. “In an industry obsessed with the youth of women, I’m galvanized as fuck by this ...” (She lost to Little Simz.)

THE RED BULLETIN

Bodysuit by Florentina Leitner; coat by Landeros; earrings by Lage.

THE RED BULLETIN

75

Blazer by Ray Chu; rings by Lage; shirt, vintage.

76

THE RED BULLETIN

“Watching Drag Race did something to my brain. It revealed how ludicrous femininity is.”

H

Stylist: Taff Williamson; hair and make-up: Gabriella Floyd, using Fenty skincare, Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics and Windle London haircare. Thanks to the Deerhurst Road Shoot Location in London.

THE RED BULLETIN

er journey of transformation was set in motion a decade ago, sparked by a trio of unlikely muses: a breakup, a breakdown and reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race. “I had a really fucking dreadful, classic abusive boyfriend in 2012 and then basically spent all of 2013 hemorrhaging weight and watching Drag Race,” Taylor says with a dark laugh. After a year of living back with her parents and battling with her mental health, she was able to re-examine many of her life choices and opinions. “It was a very weird time in my life where I’d obviously lost my mind and who I was,” she says. “I was dealing with loads of conflicting shit, both with my band and with my relationships, and nothing was really helping. Then I started watching Drag Race, a show where you literally win if you’re the best and you know it. You win if you’re a show-off.”

With its campy catchphrases and bright colors, the show hit a nerve. “My whole life, including that abusive boyfriend, was like, ‘Shut up, be quiet, behave,’ you know?” Taylor explains. “In both my professional and my personal life, it had become a negative for me to try to be as brilliant as possible.

Drag Race was the opposite message and watching it started doing something to my brain.” The representation and dissection of femininity on the show also awoke something in Taylor. “I’ve got the most ridiculous woman body—I’ve got big tits, the biggest arse—and I’ve experienced the greatest shame about it my whole life,” she says. “But in Drag Race, that’s glorified. Being a great big woman is the point of the whole show. It helped me finally think, ‘What if I embraced these parts of me I’m ashamed of? What if I own them more?’ ” Look at Taylor’s stage persona almost 10 years on and you can still clearly see Drag Race’s impact. Her shows are an exercise in performative gender, where she will dress up as a satin-pink pop siren one night, in a comically over-the-top leopard-print outfit the next, then in an androgynous boxy black suit the night after. “Drag Race revealed how ludicrous femininity is—this thing we’ve been fed to believe we should want to be,” she laughs. “It’s so hardcore

taking the piss out of the normativity of femininity and what’s expected of you; it helped me start to take the piss out of it, too.”

So, does she feel at peace with her body now, existing in an industry that still expects its women to be 5 foot 3 and a size 6? “I still struggle, but sometimes I’m like, ‘Let’s go there,’ and I use the things I’ve got shame about to my advantage and to get my message across. The video to the song ‘How Can I Help You?’ is just my boobs bouncing while I’m playing the drums. I knew that would get clicks, but the song itself is a whole feminist fucking sermon.” The video has more than 70,000 views on YouTube at the time of this magazine going to print.

“I know the pervs are there—let’s bring the pervs along!” she says. “They can sit and listen to me for a minute. I know what I’m doing.”

I

t’s no coincidence that Taylor’s message of empowerment, liberation and female anger hit a nerve in 2021. This was a year of multiple high-profile cases of violence against women in the U.K.—including the murders of 33-year-old Sarah Everard and 28-year-old Sabina Nessa by strangers in the street—and a sudden spate of women’s drinks being spiked by injection in clubs and bars. It’s no surprise that people were ready for a musician who is brutally honest and unwavering in her views and demands on women’s rights and the state of society. “When I wrote my first album, I thought the problem was that I was in a band and it was making me unhappy,” says Taylor. “Then, throughout my journey, I realized it’s being a woman in society as a whole. It’s my safety, and my fear and anxiety, and how angry I am in general.

That’s the problem.”

When Taylor steps on stage during her Prioritise Pleasure tour, that opening voice note of the group of women plays over the speakers, but it’s no longer followed by just one woman’s barks and howls— every one of the hundreds of women in the crowd join in. “The Self Esteem crowds are with me,” Taylor says. “There was always a disconnect with Slow Club—not just between me and everyone else in the band, but also with me and the crowd.

That’s no one’s fault; it was just me trying to fit in somewhere that I was never going to fit in.”

She pauses. “But now it feels like I’ve found my people. These crowds are as big and depressed and insane as me. We’re all being too much together. It’s created a beautiful feedback loop of love. It’s life-changing.”

To learn more about Self Esteem’s touring schedule or buy merch, visit selfesteem.love.

77

SUBSCRIBE NOW

10 issues The Red Bulletin

ONLY $12

getredbulletin.com

guide Get it. Do it. See it.

GETTY IMAGES

FAST TIMES

A quintessential Miami nightlife experience at the world-famous Club Space.

THE RED BULLETIN

If you’re heading to Miami for the Grand Prix—or simply seeking a wild night out—here are the best spots to put you under the spell of Magic City.

Words MELISSA SAENZ GORDON

79

G U I D E

Do it

A

ffectionately referred to as “Magic City,” Miami is known for reinventing itself. After incorporating in 1896, Miami quickly transformed itself into a cosmopolitan destination.

Now known for its art deco architecture, megaclub scene and sandy beaches, Miami has become a tropical oasis for many snowbirds in the winter months. Will Smith’s 1998 music video, “Miami,” epitomizes the stereotypical South Beach experience— where everyone wears white outfits and speedboats their way to an outdoor party on the water—but Miami isn’t limited to those offerings.

Many locals will tell you that the true treasure of Miami is its rich cultural diversity—particularly from Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuban culture is palpable here—from the music heard in the city streets to the food. With more than 60 percent of the population identifying as Latino, be prepared to speak a little Spanish while you’re in town.

In the past two decades, Miami has transformed itself—yet again—into a cultural hub for contemporary art. In 2002, the Switzerland-based annual art fair, Art Basel, hosted its first American installment in Miami and is still going strong. In that time, Miami has developed one of the most exciting networks of museums and galleries showcasing local and international talent alike.

With the Formula 1 Grand Prix heading to the Miami area (just north of the city limits) in May, consider this a primer to get you started while you’re in town for the big race or simply looking to get away.

80

Buen Provecho

Since 1971, Versailles Restaurant has been a hub for Miami’s Cuban community, serving up traditional items like savory croquettes and café Cubanos (sweetened espresso). The dining room has a forest-green theme and old-school charm, decked out with mirrored walls and a sincere ’70s vibe. For a little new-school flavor, visit the World Famous House of Mac for spins on Southern comfortfood staples. Before founder Derrick “Teach” Turton launched House of Mac as a food truck, he was the longstanding manager for the Miami native and rapper Pitbull, so don’t be surprised if you bump into a pop star while you place an order.

Seafood options are plentiful and not to be missed.

For a classic Miami moment, visit Joe’s Stone Crab in South Beach. Opened in 1913, it’s a perfect spot to go after cruising the art deco architecture on Ocean Drive. If fried fish is your thing, don’t miss La Camaronera Seafood Joint and Fish Market in Little Havana.

Owned and operated by the three Garcia brothers, this Cuban haunt is another Magic City favorite for its Pan con Minuta—a sandwich with a filet of fried snapper nestled in a Cuban roll—conch fritters and fried shrimp. ¡Disfruta!

Writing on the Walls

Hip-hop has deep roots in “the 305.” Graffiti—one of the four pillars of hip-hop— has become a genuine Miami attraction. Look no further than the Wynwood neighborhood, once referred

The true treasure of Miami is its rich cultural diversity. to as “Little San Juan” after the Puerto Rican community that resided there. Back in the 1980s and ’90s, large industrial buildings, left over from the garment-district era, acted as the perfect canvases for graffiti artists, both local and visiting, looking to leave their mark. Today, Wynwood is a popular weekend hot spot. Check out Wynwood Walls, an outdoor gallery that opened in 2009, featuring a rotating selection of graffiti and street artists. The area is also home to the new

Outdoor gallery Wynwood Walls features a rotating selection of graffiti and street art.

THE RED BULLETIN

Miami

GETTY IMAGES(2), ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION

The Peter Tunney Experience gallery at Wynwood Walls is a permanent display of work by the iconic pop artist.

Museum of Graffiti, opened in 2019, which takes a historical look at the art form.

If you happen to be in Little Haiti, keep an eye out for murals that animate the neighborhood, most of which are done by local artist Serge Toussaint, a Haitian-born muralist who was the recipient of the Florida Folk Heritage Award in 2016.

Creative Expression

Normally, cities have one contemporary-art museum, but Miami has several. The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) may be the city’s flagship art institution, but it

THE RED BULLETIN

still has that fresh Magic City energy. Located at the “crossroads of the Americas,” PAMM is committed to collecting and presenting art from the “U.S. Latino experience, the African diaspora, Latin America and the Caribbean,” so expect to be wowed. The museum’s new space in the Overtown neighborhood has a waterfront view and is a great place to spend an afternoon.

Another must-see is the Rubell Museum—a private collection that focuses on contemporary art—where 80 percent of the holdings are publicly accessible.

At PAMM, the exhibit Marisol and Warhol Take New York charts the emergence of the two artists during the dawn of Pop art in the early 1960s and will be on display through September 5, 2022.

81

G U I D E

Do it Structurally Sound

Did you know that Miami is credited with having the highest concentration of art deco architecture in the world? More than 800 art deco buildings saturate the South Beach area of Miami, from boutique hotels to the post office. Another architectural wonder is the Villa Vizcaya, an extravagant waterfront estate built between 1914 and 1916.

Located in the Coconut Grove neighborhood just south of downtown, it’s a living museum filled with antiquities and artworks and is one of Miami’s most unique attractions (and a popular quinceañera photo op).

Home Base

Let’s face it: Visiting Miami is a great excuse to treat yourself. Since the city is pretty spread out, it’s nice to stay somewhere with beach access and fun amenities on site. If you’re in the mood to splurge, try Faena Hotel Miami Beach, located in MidBeach. The interior was designed by director Baz Luhrmann and his wife, costume and production designer Catherine Martin, so expect opulence and red-andgold everything. The hotel’s founder is also an avid art collector (fancy that!) and hosts a popular arts festival during Miami Art Week under his nonprofit, Faena Art. That

said, the space is accented by the work of contemporary artists throughout. Another option is the Goodtime Hotel, founded by everybody’s favorite music producer, Pharrell Williams, and David Grutman, the nightlife firebrand and entrepreneur.

The rooms are petite but were designed by Ken Fulk, the bicoastal designer known for high-concept interiors.

Bottoms Up

After the grand prix, what’s better than unwinding with a delicious cocktail? Not much.

To get the party started, have a drink at the Broken Shaker.

In 2012, the Broken Shaker popped up at the Freehand

Hotel, but the seasonal cocktail menu was a smashing success, so not surprisingly it was invited to stay on fulltime. Since then, there are Broken Shakers in Freehand Hotels nationwide and the bar has been listed as one of the top 50 bars in the U.S. The setting is a relaxing and lush tropical courtyard that’s only a short jaunt from the beach.

To take the edge off after a long day of museum hopping, try the downtown bar Mama Tried. A nod to the 1970s lounge, this is a local favorite and fun spot to let loose for happy hour or late-night dancing. Think themed music nights, a pool table and carpeted floors.

For eye-popping architecture, check out the extravagant estate Villa Vizcaya.

82

THE RED BULLETIN

Miami

ROBIN HILL, FAENA HOTEL MIAMI BEACH, TODD EBERLE, BILL WISSER

For a baller place to stay, book a room at the Faena Hotel Miami Beach and enjoy a dip in the opulent pool.

If you seek the antithesis of the megaclub scene of South Beach, perhaps you’d prefer a listening bar dedicated to acoustics and a soothing environment.

Dante’s HiFi+ is just that.

Opened in October 2021, this new Wynwood lounge is modeled after the listening bars in Japan and is a true audiophile oasis. The Japanese influence won’t be found in the decor or soundtrack but in the execution and attention to detail. From the speakers to the turntables, this all-vinyl experience is expertly curated

by Rich Medina—a DJ icon in his own right—and features records from his personal collection.

If loud music is your thing, then Ball & Chain is the perfect place. Nestled on Calle Ocho, the anchor of Cuban culture in Little Havana, Ball & Chain is a longtime Miami favorite for live music and performance, loved by tourists and locals. It’s also a

THE RED BULLETIN

full restaurant and all-day café with live music during lunch and late night. Having opened in 1935, it has hosted legendary acts such as Billie Holiday and Chet Baker. If you’re looking to satisfy your mojito craving, make it count here. Speaking of loud music, what is a visit to Miami without dancing until the sun comes up? Nightclubs are as much a part of the cultural fabric of this city as beach life.

Club Space is a quintessential Miami experience. Some locals believe this to be one of the best clubs in the world, so it’s worth a visit to see for yourself. Hot tip: Headlining DJs often hit the decks around 3 a.m.!

Timeless Souvenirs

There’s no better way to remember an amazing trip to Miami than taking something home with you.

Make sure to visit Dale Zine, an independent publisher, gallery space and book shop.

Founded in 2009 by artists

Sip cocktails at the colorful Sun Bar at Faena Hotel Miami Beach.

Lillian Banderas and Steve Saiz, Dale began as a collaboration inspired by Garfield. From independent zines and art books to works by contemporary artists from Miami and across the nation, it’s a carefully curated shop. If you want to capture a moment with some vinyl, Miami is stacked with cool record shops. One of the best is Sweat

Records. This shop in Little Haiti is a local favorite and browsing the inventory is a perfect way to spend an afternoon. Feeling fatigued from all the crate digging?

Grab a caffeinated pick-me-up at the coffee bar and peruse the shop’s fun collection of keepsakes, including Miamithemed pins, tote bags and slip mats (for the diehards).

83

G U I D E

Do it Jak Crawford races during round one of the Formula Regional Asian Championship in Abu Dhabi in January 2022.

He ultimately finished 6th at the end of the series.

TRAIN LIKE A PRO

“I JUST LOVE GOING FAST”

Junior Formula Series driver Jak Crawford reveals how he trains to race the world’s fastest cars.

Words JEN SEE

84

A

love for speed came early to Jak Crawford, 17, who has set his sights on racing Formula 1. Crawford started kart racing at age 6, when his father, Tim, gave him a kart. “I got into racing sort of by chance,” Crawford says. During his nine years racing on the kart circuit, Crawford earned the nickname “Jetpak Jak” for his speed and skill.

“I just love going fast,” he says. “I’ve always loved racing and I always will.”

The prospect of racing against the best drivers in the world motivates Crawford to fight his way up the ranks to Formula 1. “I just want to get to F1 and race against the best and beat the best,” he says. “And they’re the fastest

cars.” A breakthrough came in 2019: While racing Formula 4, Crawford won six races, which earned him a spot for 2020 on the Red Bull Junior Team.

This year, Crawford has joined Prema Racing and will compete in both Formula 3 and the Formula Regional Asian Championship. “My next step is Formula 2, and then Formula 1,” he says. “I think it’s a few years away.”

Only the best drivers move up, and Crawford is determined to be one of them. “I try to enjoy every moment because one day, I won’t be driving a car,” he says. “Hopefully, that’s a long ways away, but I try to make sure I’m having fun first. If you love it, it makes it easier to do.”

THE RED BULLETIN

Fitness

E N DU R AN C E

“I do a lot of running” When I’m at home, I do two workouts each day.

The morning workout is intensity.

I do a lot of running, and most of my high-intensity training is threshold intervals. I’ll do 15 minutes flat out, I get a five-minute break, and then 15 minutes again.

My heart rate can get to around 200 bpm. I recently hit my max of 203 while on a treadmill and I thought I was going to pass out.

In the evening, I do a low-intensity effort on the bike. I just pedal for two hours and watch TV. I used to ride outside with my dad, but he has a nice bike and my bike isn’t very good. I don’t want to go out there and get beaten.

SI M U L ATI O N

RED BULL CONTENT POOL

“Simulator work is a big deal” Before every race weekend, I usually have two or three simulator days.

The simulator work is a big deal. It is the same setup as a real car; it has all the same pedals, the same steering wheel. There is quite a lot of engineering in all the software to make it as real as possible. I get to know the track, especially all my lines and all my braking points.

The main thing is braking points. You start the corner by braking, so it’s the most important part. The track models on the simulator are laser scanned, so you can use those same references from the simulator and then I [take that knowledge to] the track. When I arrive at the track, I already know everything.

THE RED BULLETIN

STR E N GTH

“I have an Iron Neck harness” In Formula 3 and Formula 2, we don’t have any power steering, so we’re doing it all with our arms.

And we’re pulling all the g-forces through the corners. Sometimes it feels like my neck is falling off.

I go to the gym when I’m home, and I try to get workout sessions in when I’m on the road on my days off. I don’t have specific days, but I usually do two threshold interval workouts per week and two days of circuit training in the gym. For neck strength, I have an Iron Neck harness. I find that quite helpful, because there are not a lot of ways to train your neck. For upper-body work I mainly use dumbbells. I like to do bench press a lot.

O N TR AC K

“Everything is important” I don’t spend a lot of time in the car each year. During a race weekend, we have a 45-minute practice and a 30-minute qualifying event. Then we drive two 45-minute races. We have nine race weekends this year. We also have six test days per year, and we’ll usually do five hours per day.

We test setup items on the car.

There are engineering changes on the car that I test to see if they’re faster. There’s a lot to do mechanically with the car.

Everything is important. I have to turn, brake and throttle at all the right points. When I think about it, it’s quite a lot. But it just sort of comes naturally.

“I DON’T GO TOO INSANE WITH THE RECOVERY” I just do some stretching and take a cold shower. After a race weekend, I’ll get a massage from my physio, because the muscles in my shoulders and back can get tense. Sometimes I’ll have a smoothie after my workouts. I love bananas.

Sometimes when I’m at the athlete performance center they’ll put some protein in my shake. It’s not really my thing.

I usually just put in a bunch of frozen fruit like blueberries and strawberries. And then a couple of bananas. Add some milk and send it.

85

G U I D E

See it

8

7 May

BROCCOLI CITY FESTIVAL

It’s been almost 40 years since the U.S. hosted not one but two grand prix races, and this inaugural event in the Magic City promises to be a wild ride. Over the course of three days, all eyes will be focused on the brand-new Miami International Autodrome wrapped around the Hard Rock Stadium. After two days of practice runs and a qualifying round, the main event will go down on May 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Will reigning world champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen find his way to the top of the podium? Or could new Mercedes driver George Russell edge his way ahead of Verstappen and his teammate, seven-time F1 champ Lewis Hamilton? If you can’t score tickets, watch the action on ESPN. f1miamigp.com

24

April PLANE SWAP Red Bull is taking to the skies once again for a physics-defying feat 10 years in the making. Skydivers Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington, each piloting their own aircraft to 14,000 feet, will cut the power, jump out in midair at 140 mph and attempt to switch planes as they dive toward the ground. Yes, you read that right. This is more than just a daring stunt; it’s a feat of engineering. Watch it live on Hulu (4 p.m. PT). redbull.com.

86

14 May

CRUEL WORLD FEST AND JUST LIKE HEAVEN There's a new wave of fests marketed toward very specific audiences itching for a dose of nostalgia. For organizers Goldenvoice, that means two different events at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena over two consecutive weekends.

First up: Cruel World, with a lineup that includes Morrissey, Bauhaus, Blondie and Devo. Then Just Like Heaven takes over with Interpol, Modest Mouse, the Shins and more. cruelworldfest.com; justlikeheavenfest.com

THE RED BULLETIN

MARK THOMPSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, RED BULL CONTENT POOL

May MIAMI GRAND PRIX

If 2021 represented a slow trickle for the return of music fests, then get ready for the floodgates to burst open in 2022. In Washington, D.C., this two-day hip-hop fest— which also serves as a social impact event to celebrate and advance Black culture—is back for its 10th anniversary, and the lineup is stellar: 21 Savage, Ari Lennox, Lil Durk and Wale and Friends headline on Day 1; Summer Walker, Gunna and Don Toliver headline Day 2. bcfestival.com

Calendar

20

May RED BULL UCI PUMP TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS QUALIFIER

May

EDC LAS VEGAS Feeling ready for sensory overload? Then get your butt over to Sin City for the flagship event of the Electric Daisy Carnival.

Now a worldwide phenomenon, EDC features hundreds of performers set against an eye-popping backdrop full of rainbow lights, pyrotechnics and whirly carnival rides, all befitting of an acid trip. As of press time, the lineup wasn’t released, but 2021 featured acts like Tiesto, the Chainsmokers, Zedd and Diplo. lasvegas. electricdaisycarnival. com

21

For the first qualifier event in the U.S. in 2022, racers make their way to Gaston County, North Carolina, to compete on a track surrounded by a 344-acre park.

This series brings together local heroes, elite BMX racers and MTB world champions, who go head to head. redbull.com

28

21 May

BRIAN HALL/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, MOVEMENT DETROIT

PURE IMAGINATION This inaugural fest offers something this month’s other music events do not: a stunning outdoor setting surrounded by geological wonders. The Granite Dells at Watson Lake in Prescott, Arizona, serve as the backdrop for an eclectic lineup that includes folkrock band Dawes, hip-hop legend Talib Kweli, indie rockers Atlas Genius and blues artist Fantastic Negrito. Attendees can also enjoy on-site hiking and kayaking. pureimaginationfestival. com

THE RED BULLETIN

May MOVEMENT DETROIT 2022 Like Electric Daisy Carnival, this three-day electronic festival in Detroit was pounding bass years before the explosion of EDM festivals that are around today. More than 110 acts will perform across six stages in Hart Plaza downtown to celebrate the festival’s return after a three-year pandemic-related absence.

This year’s lineup includes local techno legend Carl Craig, Flying Lotus, Skrillex, Jon Hopkins, Maya Jane Coles, Adam Beyer, the Blessed Madonna, Richie Hawtin, Jeff Mills, Juan Maclean, 2 Chainz, Gorgon City, Nina Kraviz, Loco Dice and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. movementfestival.com

87

SOLE TRAIN Whether you’re shredding trails, cruising on roads or logging miles indoors, here’s the best new running gear you need to fly in comfort.

Words CHRISTINE YU

NEW BALANCE FUELCELL REBEL V2

This shoe is the perfect in-between trainer—light and responsive enough for tempo and interval workouts yet provides ample cushioning for longer runs. The FuelCell midsole foam is all about energy return; combine it with the 6 mm offset and you get a smooth, responsive ride that pops at toe-off. Feet feel locked and loaded, thanks to the engineered mesh upper and molded-foam heel collar. $130; newbalance.com

The explosive New Balance FuelCell Rebel V2 can go fast on up-tempo runs—and handle daily training, too.

G U I D E

H I T T I N G

T H E

R OA D

ASICS NOVABLAST 2

These lightweight shoes deliver a springy ride; the secret is in the FlyteFoam Blast midsole. It works with elements like the origami-inspired heel, forked outsole and trampoline pod under the forefoot to provide a soft landing and highenergy rebound. A great trainer for casual runners; for more performance-minded athletes, it’s a versatile addition to your quiver for cruising at a range of paces and longer runs. A third iteration drops later this year. $130; asics.com

TRACKSMITH LANE FIVE SHORT TIGHTS

These women’s shorts are a long-run favorite but hold up during any workout. Made from a supersoft, quick-dry Italian-knit blend, they move with you without riding up, thanks to grips on the legs.

Light rain beads on the fabric’s surface rather than soaking in. The best feature? Five pockets offering plenty of storage for your phone, gels, keys and more. $68; tracksmith.com

VIMHUE X-BOYFRIEND HAT

These hats were designed specifically to fit a woman’s head, from the circumference to the panel height around the ears. Sweatwicking, sun-protective material keeps you cool and dry while shielding you from harmful UV rays. The unique X design with three adjustable straps accommodates any hairstyle, so wear your hair up in a bun, high ponytail or anything in between. $29; vimhue.com

PATAGONIA MEN’S CAPILENE COOL TRAIL SHIRT

While this shirt feels like cotton jersey, it has all the performance features you expect from a technical workout top. Underarm gussets provide greater range of motion and less chafing.

The moisture-wicking fabric is fast drying and infused with a silver-salt-based additive to prevent odor-causing bacteria from growing; in other words, less stink. The classic cut tee works both on and off the run. $39; patagonia.com

NOXGEAR TRACER2 VEST

This waterproof vest works overtime to keep you visible in low-light and nighttime conditions.

Rechargeable multicolor LED lights and a fluorescent chest band create 360-degree illumination visible up to a quarter mile away.

The blinking patterns are scientifically proven to catch the attention of others on the road.

Unlike other LED lights, these don’t fade over time. Adjustable straps ensure a secure fit.

And it weighs only 7 oz. $80; noxgear.com

Patagonia’s Capilene Cool Trail Shirt feels like cotton but performs like a technical workout top.

THE RED BULLETIN

89

G U I D E

A L L -T E R R A I N

HOKA TECTON X

Say hello to the brand’s first carbon-plated trail shoe (out in May). Parallel plates run heel-to-toe and are sandwiched between the midsole foam, creating a smooth, propulsive ride. At less than 10 oz and with a 4 mm drop, it’s light and speedy while retaining Hoka’s signature cushy feel. The jacquard upper hugs the feet and the sticky, grippy Vibram Megagrip Litesole outsole will give you confidence even on the most challenging terrain. $200; hoka.com

BROOKS CATAMOUNT

While designed for runnable ultras like Western States, the Catamount holds its own on technical terrain, too. Nitrogen-infused DNA Flash foam compresses and rebounds quickly for a fast, stable ride. The lug pattern assists with ascents and descents and along with the sticky outsole provides traction in varied conditions. A flexible, not tippy, rock plate protects feet. A mud guard with drainage slits defends against abrasion and quickly releases water. $160; brooksrunning.com

A DV E N T U R E

PATH PROJECTS SYKES PX SHORTS

OISELLE SEATTLE SHOWERS VEST

GARMIN FENIX 7 SOLAR

ULTIMATE DIRECTION ULTRA VEST/VESTA 5.0

The spiral-yarn construction gives the fabric an inherent stretch without elastics. The result is a featherweight, sweat-wicking, abrasion-resistant short. Four pockets—including an internal key pocket—offer ample storage. They’re unlined; separate shorts and liners let you tailor fit based on personal comfort, performance and weather conditions. They come in classic and relaxed fits, with a 5- or 7-inch inseam. $49; pathprojects.com

This new iteration of the Fenix series combines navigation, downloadable maps, an altimeter and barometer with a suite of fitness and healthtracking features. Updates include touchscreen capabilities and more battery life plus solar charging (40 hours if navigating). Racers can get real-time information on current and upcoming ascents, aid stations and key trail points. A safety feature lets you send assistance alerts to emergency contacts. $800; garmin.com

Vests can be a runner’s best friend, especially in fickle weather conditions. This new wind- and water-resistant design features an adjustable hood, rear mesh panel and fabric overlay to dump heat, with side-zips along the bottom hem for better temperature regulation and fit around the hips. When the skies clear, fold it into a stuff sack you can strap around your arm for handsfree running. Available in new floral and graphic prints for spring. $98; oiselle.com

This vest is made for long runs. Front and rear pockets allow easy access to a phone, snacks and other essentials. The micro-mesh promotes air flow and doesn’t soak up sweat. Hook-andloop chest closures and quick-cinch straps offer a close-to-body fit. Corded elastic provides extra compression, pole attachments and storage. It comes with two bottles, and you can add a 2-liter bladder. $140; ultimatedirection.com

In a pinch, the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar can send assistance alerts to your emergency contacts.

90

THE RED BULLETIN

DARN TOUGH MICRO CREW SOCKS

A P PA R E L

Darn Tough’s Micro Crew Socks will help keep your feet comfortable, cool and blister free.

The natural merino-wool fibers pull moisture away from the skin, keep feet cool in the summer and repel odor. The fit is seamless—they don’t slip or bunch, meaning you won’t get hot spots or blisters. Targeted cushioning provides durability and comfort, and the micro-crew height keeps trail debris out. Darn Tough guarantees its socks for life. Don’t like them? Return them for another pair. $22–$24; darntough.com

NORDICTRACK X32I

On this versatile treadmill, you’ll feel like you’re running outside, thanks to the advanced deck cushioning system. With a 40 percent incline and negative–6 percent decline, you can mimic gnarly climbs and downhill sections. And it’s quiet. With iFit (a membership-based fitness program), you get access to live and on-demand workouts. The 32-inch high-definition touchscreen makes it an immersive experience. $3,999; nordictrack.com

If you want to train for a hilly race, this NordicTrack treadmill can help you prep for anything.

LULULEMON AIRSUPPORT BRA

Finding a supportive and comfortable sports bra is tough, especially for those with larger breasts.

If you wear a C-DDD cup, this racerback hits all the marks. The design is based on seven years of research and testing. Adjustable, padded straps and a triple hook-and-eye closure provide a custom-fit feel. Light foam padding injected into the cups lifts and reduces bounce without leaving you feeling squished. The fabric is supersoft against the skin. $98; shop.lululemon.com 92

RABBIT EZ TANK

This classic tank truly lives up to its name: It’s easy. There’s nothing clingy, boxy or fussy about it. The 94 percent polyester and 6 percent spandex blend gives the top just the right amount of stretch to keep it in place while you’re running. It’s buttery soft, breathable and quick drying. The women’s version features a racerback style, while the men’s tank has a standard cut. Designed and made in California. $45; runinrabbit.com

JANJI AFO MIDDLE SHORT

Make these ultralight, fast-drying, breathable shorts a staple in your running kit. The AFO stretch-woven fabric, made from 88 percent recycled polyester, offers a barely-there feel perfect for warm days. It features a moisturewicking liner, a back zip pocket and an internal key pocket. The men’s shorts come in multiple inseam lengths, while the women’s version has a 3-inch inseam. Janji donates 2 percent of proceeds to clean-water projects. $60; janji.com THE RED BULLETIN

G U I D E

I N D O O R

P E R F O R M A N C E

PUMA VELOCITY NITRO 2

Puma made a big splash on the running scene last year, and this workhorse is a staple in its revamped lineup. The midsole combines two foams—soft, nitrogen-infused Nitro foam and firmer EVA. The result is a cushy landing and a stable platform to push off from. The PumaGrip outsole is well suited for treadmills (as well as roads and smooth trails). The women’s version is built on a last based on the anatomy of a woman’s foot. $120; us.puma.com

LEVER

Previously, if you wanted the benefits of antigravity training, you had to visit a physical therapist. Lever makes body-weight-supported training accessible to anyone. The treadmill attachment is designed on a pulley system and takes up to 45 lbs of weight off your body— helping injured athletes return to running faster or healthy runners up mileage or speed without overtaxing muscles, bones or joints. It weighs 10 lbs and is portable. $1,099; levermovement.com

SHOKZ OPENRUN PRO

The newest addition to the brand’s line of wireless headphones features the latest in bone-conduction technology and improved sound quality. Pads sit near the cheekbone and vibrations channel sound to your aural nerve, leaving your ears free and open to ambient noise. You’ll get 10 hours of playback on a full charge and 90 minutes on a five-minute charge.

The wraparound titanium band keeps the headphones in place, even during your sweatiest runs. $180; shokz.com

A N ATO M Y O F G E A R Two innovative running shoes, deconstructed.

Words CHRISTINE YU

T

hese shoes are like a Formula 1 race car for off-road adventures— high-performance equipment fine-tuned for specific trail conditions and preferences.

SOLID ENDGAME DIALED IN

Dual-direction BOA Li2 Fit System allows for a precise fit and micro-adjustments midrun. Tighten on downhill or rugged trails and loosen when feet swell.

Ship your used shoes back to Speedland; they’ll deconstruct and recycle the individual components.

P L AT E DY N A M I C S

The two-way flex Carbitex carbon plate, which is removable, provides underfoot protection and allows for a propulsive toe-off.

INDESTRUCTIBLE The ripstop upper and stitching is reinforced with Dyneema, a fiber 15 times stronger than steel.

GROUNDED FEEL

SPEEDLAND SL:HSV $375; runspeedland.com

EVA and Pebax SCF foam midsole is springy and comfy while maintaining good ground feel.

ALL TERRAIN

The Michelin-rubber outsole is grippy and durable. Cuttable lugs let you customize traction.

Leave them long for wet, sloppy trails; trim them for drier terrain.

G U I D E

S

hoe companies aren’t known to collaborate, but Adidas and Allbirds came together with one goal for their Futurecraft Footprint project: make the lowest-carbonfootprint sports performance shoe ever.

S U S TA I N A B L E UPPER

Made from 70 percent recycled polyester and 30 percent Tencel—a fabric made from wood pulp—the upper is light and breathable.

Lining, embroidery and laces all incorporate eco-friendly materials.

SMALL FOOTPRINT

Most running shoes have a carbon footprint over 10 kg.

But these clock in at 2.94 kg including manufacturing, packaging, transportation, use and end-of-life use.

FLEET FEET

Featherweight material and a responsive midsole offer a smooth, stable ride—even at race pace.

N AT U R A L COLORS

Low-energy, low-water dyes are used to create four colorways.

SWEET MIDSOLE

Designers mixed Allbirds’ sugarcane-based SweetFoam, a carbon-negative EVA, with Adidas’ Lightstrike EVA for a midsole that gives back plenty of energy.

ADIZERO X ALLBIRDS 2.94 CO2e $120; adidas.com

95

GLOBAL TEAM

THE RED BULLETIN WORLDWIDE

The Red Bulletin is published in six countries. The cover of this month’s Swiss edition features sprinter Ajla Del Ponte, the fastest woman in Switzerland.

For more stories beyond the ordinary, go to redbulletin.com.

Disclaimer If you subscribed to The Red Bulletin magazine in the USA either by mail, online or other method, we may send you offers through direct mail that we feel might be of interest to you and/or share your name and mailing address and certain other information, such as when you first subscribed, with reputable companies that provide marketing offers through direct mail. If you do not want us to send you any offers from third parties through direct mail or share your personal information with other companies so that they can send you direct mail offers about their products and services, please write to us at the street address or subscription email address at right. Please note that even if you opt out of receiving promotional direct mail offers, we may continue to send you service notifications by direct mail that are related to your The Red Bulletin account(s).

96

Head of The Red Bulletin Alexander Müller-Macheck, Sara Car-Varming (deputy) Editors-in-Chief Andreas Rottenschlager, Andreas Wollinger (deputy) Creative Directors Erik Turek, Kasimir Reimann (deputy) Art Directors Marion Bernert-Thomann, Miles English, Tara Thompson Designers Martina de ­Carvalho-Hutter, Kevin Faustmann-Goll, Cornelia Gleichweit Photo Editors Eva Kerschbaum (manager), Marion Batty (deputy), Susie Forman, Tahira Mirza, Rudi Übelhör Digital Editors Christian Eberle-Abasolo (manager), Marie-Maxime Dricot, Melissa Gordon, Lisa Hechenberger, Elena Rodriguez Angelina Head of Audio Florian Obkircher Managing Editors Ulrich Corazza, Marion Lukas-Wildmann Publishing Management Ivona Glibusic, Bernhard Schmied, Melissa Stutz Managing Director Stefan Ebner Head of Media Sales & Partnerships Lukas Scharmbacher Head of Co-Publishing Susanne Degn-Pfleger Project Management Co-Publishing, B2B Marketing & Communication Katrin Sigl (manager), Katrin Dollenz, Thomas Hammerschmied, Sophia Wahl, Teresa Kronreif (B2B), Eva Pech, Valentina Pierer, Stefan Portenkirchner (communication), Jennifer Silberschneider Creative Services Verena Schörkhuber-Zöhrer (manager), Sara Wonka, Julia Bianca Zmek, Edith Zöchling-Marchart, Tanja Zimmermann Commercial Management Co-Publishing Alexandra Ita Editorial Co-Publishing Raffael Fritz (manager), Gundi Bittermann, Michael Hufnagl, Irene Olorode, Mariella Reithoffer, Wolfgang Wieser Executive Creative Director Markus Kietreiber Senior Manager Creative Elisabeth Kopanz Art Direction Commercial & Co-Publishing Peter Knehtl (manager), Erwin Edtmayer, Simone Fischer, Martina Maier, Andreea Parvu, Carina Schaittenberger, Alexandra Schendl, Julia Schinzel, Florian Solly, Dominik Uhl, Sophie Weidinger, Stephan Zenz Head of Direct to Consumer Business Peter Schiffer Direct to Consumer Business Marija Althajm, Victoria Schwärzler, Yoldaş Yarar Retail & Special Projects Manager Klaus Pleninger Advertising Manuela Brandstätter, Monika Spitaler Production Veronika Felder (manager), Martin Brandhofer, Walter O. Sádaba, Sabine Wessig Repro Clemens Ragotzky (manager), Claudia Heis, Nenad Isailović, Sandra Maiko Krutz, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Mariia Gerutska (manager), Simone Kratochwill MIT Christoph Kocsisek, Michael Thaler IT Service Desk Maximilian Auerbach Operations Alice Gafitanu, Melanie Grasserbauer, Alexander Peham, Thomas Platzer Assistant to General Management Sandra Artacker Project Management Dominik Debriacher, Gabriela-Teresa Humer Editor and CEO Andreas Kornhofer Editorial office Am Grünen Prater 3, A-1020 Vienna Phone +43 1 90221-0 Web redbulletin.com Published by Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Straße 11–15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700 Executive Directors Dkfm. Dietrich Mateschitz, Dietmar Otti, Christopher Reindl, Marcus Weber

THE RED BULLETIN USA, Vol. 11 Issue 9, ISSN 2308-586X is published monthly except combined January/February and July/August issues by Red Bull Media House, North America, 1740 Stewart St., Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Periodicals postage paid at Santa Monica, CA, and additional mailing offices.

ATTENTION POSTMASTER: Send address changes to THE RED BULLETIN, PO Box 469002, Escondido, CA 92046.

Editor-in-Chief Peter Flax Deputy Editor Nora O’Donnell Art Director Tara Thompson Copy Chief David Caplan Publishing Management Branden Peters Advertising Sales Todd Peters, todd.peters@redbull.com Dave Szych, dave.szych@redbull.com Tanya Foster, tanya.foster@redbull.com Printed by Quad/Graphics, Inc., 668 Gravel Pike, East Greenville, PA 18041, qg.com Mailing Address PO Box 469002 Escondido, CA 92046 U.S. Office 2700 Pennsylvania Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 Subscribe getredbulletin.com, subscription@us.redbulletin.com.

Basic subscription rate is $29.95 per year. Offer available in the U.S. and U.S. possessions only.

The Red Bulletin is published 10 times a year. Please allow four to six weeks for delivery of the first issue.

Customer Service 855-492-1650; subscription@us.redbulletin.com

THE RED BULLETIN Austria, ISSN 1995-8838 Editor Nina Kaltenböck Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Publishing Management Bernhard Schmied Media Sales & Partnerships Thomas Hutterer (manager), Michael Baidinger, Franz Fellner, Ines Gruber, ­Wolfgang Kröll, Gabriele Matijevic-Beisteiner, Alfred Vrej Minassian, Nicole Okasek-Lang, Britta Pucher, Jennifer Sabejew, Johannes Wahrmann-Schär, Ellen WittmannSochor, Ute Wolker, Christian Wörndle, Sabine Zölß

THE RED BULLETIN France, ISSN 2225-4722 Editor Pierre-Henri Camy Country Coordinator Christine Vitel Country Project M ­ anagement Alexis Bulteau

THE RED BULLETIN Germany, ISSN 2079-4258 Editor Maximilian Reich Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Nina Hahn Media Sales & Partnerships Thomas Hutterer (manager), Michael Baidinger, Franz Fellner, Ines Gruber, ­Wolfgang Kröll, Gabriele Matijevic-Beisteiner, Alfred Vrej Minassian, Nicole Okasek-Lang, Britta Pucher, Jennifer Sabejew, Johannes Wahrmann-Schär, Ellen WittmannSochor, Ute Wolker, Christian Wörndle, Sabine Zölß

THE RED BULLETIN Switzerland, ISSN 2308-5886 Editor Stefania Telesca Proofreaders Hans Fleißner (manager), Petra Hannert, Monika Hasleder, Billy Kirnbauer-Walek Country Project Management Meike Koch Media Sales & Brand Partnerships Christian Bürgi (Team Lead), christian.buergi@redbull.com Marcel Bannwart, marcel.bannwart@redbull.com Jessica Pünchera, jessica.puenchera@redbull.com Goldbach Publishing Marco Nicoli, marco.nicoli@goldbach.com

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom, ISSN 2308-5894 Editor Tom Guise Associate Editor Lou Boyd Chief Sub-Editor Davydd Chong Publishing Management Ollie Stretton Advertising Sales Mark Bishop, mark.bishop@redbull.com

THE RED BULLETIN

2 2 0 2 , 8 Y MA T ’ N A C O H W E S O H T R O F RUN RLD O W E H T R E V O L L SAME TIME A TOGETHER AT THE

JOIN US NOW

Action highlight

Ibiza’s Ullal de na Coloms—aka the Cave of Light—is fiendishly hard to access, via a hazardous road with no signage. But what we might call a deterrent a cliff diver sees as a challenge, as proved by Spain’s Celia Fernandez in this shot by Kiwi photographer Dean Treml—a finalist in the “RAW by Leica” category of Red Bull Illume.

Instagram: @deantreml

98

The next issue of THE RED BULLETIN is out on May 17.

THE RED BULLETIN

DEAN TREML/RED BULL ILLUME

Drop off the radar