Christian Horner leads tributes to Red Bull icon after heartbreaking news
Christian Horner has left his role as Red Bull team principal after more than 20 years
Christian Horner, the former Red Bull F1 team principal, has led tributes to Felix Baumgartner following the death of the iconic daredevil and skydiver.
Baumgartner, 56, died on Thursday following a paragliding accident in Italy.
Christian Horner pays tribute to Red Bull legend Felix Baumgartner
Baumgartner was in Porto Sant’Elpidio, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, when he got into difficulties while flying a motorised paraglider.
He lost control and fell close to a hotel swimming pool that was being used by holidaymakers and children.
Reports say that Baumgartner was killed instantly in the impact, with others indicating that he may have suffered a medical episode and died before the crash.
A hotel employee was struck by the paraglider and was taken to hospital with neck injuries.
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In a post on Instagram’s story function, which allows images and videos to be uploaded for a maximum 24-hour period, Horner, who left his role as Red Bull team principal earlier this month, paid tribute to Baumgartner.
He wrote: “Rest in peace Felix Baumgartner.”
Baumgartner rose to fame in 2012 when he jumped to Earth from the edge of space as part of the Red Bull Stratos project.
The Austrian reached an estimated top speed of Mach 1.25 (843.6mph) during the stunt, becoming the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power.
He took 10 minutes to fall from the upper stratosphere, with only the last few thousand feet negotiated with the aid of a parachute.
Baumgartner’s achievement famously led to Sebastian Vettel, at the time a Red Bull driver and the reigning F1 World Champion, donning a special astronaut-inspired helmet design at the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix (below).
The Red Bull Racing team shared images of Vettel’s tribute helmet on Friday with the accompanying caption: “Seb’s stratospheric helmet. Inspired by Felix’s record-breaking jump.”
Speaking after his record-breaking 2012 jump, Baumgartner, who went on to race an Audi in the Nurburgring 24-hour race in 2014, recalled the moment he opened the door of his capsule on the edge of space.
He said: “I looked up and the sky was black.
“It was completely silent. All you can hear is yourself breathing. It was very peaceful.
“Let me tell you, when I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble.
“You don’t think about breaking records any more, you don’t think about gaining scientific data; the only thing that you want is to come back alive.”
He added: “It’s a very hostile environment up there.
“If the suit fails, your blood would start to boil and you’d die in 15 seconds.
“The parachute could malfunction or you could flat spin, which pushes all your blood into your skull.
“If that happens, at a certain RPM your blood only has one way out — through your eyeballs.”
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