Red Bull owner and co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz has died, the company’s Formula One team confirmed Saturday. He was 78.
There was no immediate word on where he died or the cause of death.
The Austrian billionaire gained fame as the public face of Red Bull, an Austrian-Thai conglomerate that says it sold nearly 10 billion cans of its caffeine and taurine-based drink in 172 countries worldwide last year.
Mateschitz was keen on extreme sports at an early age and soon brought Red Bull into the sporting world, where it has enjoyed success across multiple disciplines.
It has done so most famously in Formula One.
Red Bull has won four constructors’ championships (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) and six drivers’ titles, the most recent being secured by Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The team is on the verge of clinching its fifth constructors’ title and can do so at the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday.
“It’s been hard news for everyone — what he has meant for Red Bull, and of course the sport, and especially for me,” Verstappen said.
“What he has done for me, my career so far, and in general my life, it’s really tough, it’s a really tough day. There’s still a race ahead and we’re going to try to make him proud tomorrow.”
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of motorsports governing body FIA, called Mateschitz “a towering figure in motorsport.”
“The thoughts of all the FIA family are with his loved ones at this time and he will be greatly missed,” he said.
After years of involvement in the sport as a sponsor, Red Bull purchased the Jaguar F1 team in 2004 and the Minardi team in 2005. The latter, which operates out of Italy as the company’s junior team, was renamed Toro Rosso and today competes as AlphaTauri.
He also purchased the F1 circuit in the town of Spielberg, which is now named the Red Bull Ring and hosts the Austrian Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s famous driver academy has helped produce two world champions, Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, as well as grand prix race winners in Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.
“Desperately sad news that we’ve learned of the passing of Dietrich,” Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said Saturday. “He was a remarkable man, what he’s done for so many, not just in Formula One but in the Red Bull business and the Red Bull world across all the sporting platforms.
“He was…
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