Red Bull’s dominance in F1 translates into increased energy drink sales, says team principal

Red Bull Racing’s dominance in Formula 1 this year is directly translating into increased sales of its namesake energy drink, team principal and CEO Christian Horner told CNBC.

“There’s an old saying: ‘Win on Sunday and sell on Monday.’ Well what we do for the Red Bull brand and for the energy drink by advertising the product globally for 23 race weekends a year, we have the biggest marketing impact of the beverage company ” Horner told CNBC’s Sara Eisen in the documentary. “The Inside Track: The Business of Formula 1“.

The Red Bull team, which also includes the tech giant Oracle as title sponsor, has dominated the grid this season, winning 19 of the 20 Grand Prix weekends so far. His world champion driver, Max Verstappen, took 17 of those victories, while his teammate Sergio Perez took victories in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.

Verstappen already clinched the 2023 drivers’ title – his third world championship – in early October during the 17th Grand Prix weekend of the season, in Qatar. The Red Bull team won the constructors’ championship the previous weekend in Japan.

The drivers will return to the track on Sunday in Las Vegas before the end of the season at the end of the month in Abu Dhabi.

Red Bull declined to share specific sales figures, but a company spokesperson reiterated F1’s “rise” and said it was particularly visible in corresponding racing markets.

“They see it, they can measure it. It’s incredible the amount of Red Bull consumption that’s happening,” Horner told CNBC.

Red Bull is the second most popular energy drink brand in the world, with 13% market share, according to data from Euromonitor International. He only hangs out Monster drinkthe eponymous brand of , which holds 16.4% of the global market share.

But the energy drink market has become increasingly crowded, putting pressure on Red Bull. The company’s market share increased from 13.5% in 2021 to 13% this year due to the entry of new players, such as PepsiCoenter the category.

In recent years, beverage giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi have both set their sights on the fast-growing energy drink category – with varying degrees of success. Soda consumption has declined over the past two decades, but sugary energy drinks have bucked the trend due to their caffeine content and associated effects.

Coke launched its own energy drink in the UK in 2019. But Coke Energy failed to gain a foothold with US consumers; the company discontinued the drink in North America in 2021, about a year after its launch.

Pepsi, its rival to Coca-Cola, has become more successful through deal-making. He bought Rockstar Energy for $3.85 billion in 2020, gaining ownership of both the company’s namesake energy drink and fast-growing Sting Energy.

Last year, Pepsi took a $550 million setting game Celsius, which bills itself as a healthier energy drink that boosts workouts. These deals add to efforts such as Mountain Dew’s move into the energy drink category and the addition of caffeine to Gatorade.

Find rebroadcast times “The Inside Track: The Business of Formula 1” on CNBC.