A young golfer in the Red Bull simulator

Clearly, Red Bull loves to run F1 cars in unlikely places and put equally surprising ‘drivers’ behind the wheel. After having Tom Cruise drive one of its single-seaters, the world champion team allowed Matteo Manassero to try his hand at the thrills of F1.

Matteo Manassero is a 19-year-old Italian and is the youngest winner of a professional golf tournament. The Austrian team has therefore decided to allow him to do a Formula 1 ‘test’ thanks to the Milton Keynes simulator.

Belgian Grand Prix obliges, it was on the Spa-Francorchamps track that the young Italian was able to get into the shoes of a race car driver. To support him and teach him the basics of driving a Formula 1 single-seater, Red Bull had called Daniel Ricciardo, current HRT driver and a major hope for the energy drink brand.

Matteo’s best time was 2 minutes and 23 seconds compared to 1 minute and 52 seconds for Daniel Ricciardo. Sebastian Vettel’s pole position on Saturday was 1 minute and 48 seconds.