A number of prominent personalities entered the F1 paddock during the Miami Grand Prix, with Elon Musk in particular raising a lot of eyebrows.
While Musk was undoubtedly impressed during his visit of the Red Bull garage, he did offer his own $100,000 challenge to the Red Bull hierarchy.
A report in Next Gen Auto claims that Horner has challenged Red Bull team principal Christian Horner with one of his electric vehicles, presumably Model S Plaid since it’s the fastest.
Horner told Musk that his electric car would only be able to complete half the race and that may have made the $175 billion man reconsider his challenge.
Yesterday in the pit pic.twitter.com/NnAdSUxaBq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2023
Musk does reportedly want to get more involved in F1 himself and he embraced the ICE [Internal Combustion Engine] technology during his visit. Alpha geek Musk, who is known to be a long-term admirer of F1 technology, had a detailed conversation with Horner during his visit.
The Austrian boss confessed that the American billionaire spoke in depth about the technology being used in the sport and was mainly discussing the car’s battery, its power, and the overall power of the car.
Musk’s Red Bull paddock visit was not completely random and there is already an association between the two parties.
Elon Musk is in the Red Bull garage 😅 pic.twitter.com/D63tJ5Javz
— Ferrari News 🐎 (@FanaticsFerrari) May 6, 2023
Horner explained the nature of their partnership, even if it is not direct.
Musk has already partnered with Larry Ellison, who is the co-founder and CTO of the Oracle Corporation.
F1 fans know all too well that Oracle is the title sponsor of Red Bull Racing.
Furthermore, Horner hinted that Musk’s interest in F1 was deeper and he may look to become a more active investor in the sport in the coming years, perhaps even as early as the 2026 season when new regulations come into play.
Red Bull is currently enjoying a scintillating campaign so far this year, having won all five races and sour 1-2 finishes between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.