Webber in Naples demonstration (Pictures)

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Mark Webber appeared in front of a crowd of 40,000 at a Red Bull show in Naples on Saturday.

Speed limit restrictions at public events like this are far less strict in Italy than they are here in Britain, so Webber covered the 1.2km strip from Piazza della Repubblica to Piazza Vittori at speeds of up to 256kph (159mph).

The Red Bull running show car was also driven by Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi.

Red Bull in Naples

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Images (C) Getty Images/Red Bull

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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28 comments on “Webber in Naples demonstration (Pictures)”

  1. I would be so scared of blowing the engine..

    1. They won’t have used one from their 2010 race allocation.

      1. MouseNightshirt
        26th April 2010, 12:56

        I’d be scared for the crowd rather than the safety allocation. A blown engine would eject searing hot car parts into the crowd just feet away.

        1. Yeah MouseNightshirt but what a way to go!.

          1. Or a way to suffer 3rd degree burns! :/

          2. Red Bull were also in Belfast last month – look at how close the car was to the crowd here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-U7ZVQZGhU

    2. Red Bull have a car entirely built to spec known as the running show car. A team builds and supports it completely separate to the actual competing cars. This allows them to show the cars in different places, such as in Belfast the other week and now in Naples.

      Amazing that RB would head to Naples of all places in Italy, there’s quite a mafia there!

      1. nah it’s a kool place i’ve been on holiday there loads of times. They are mostly a bunch of car/bike nutters, same for the police.

      2. Nothing like sweeping all encompassing statements.

      3. Not only that but the car got special setup with special gear box, springs and other things to allow handling on less then perfect roads as well handle burn outs with minimal risk of blowing gear box or engine.

        Blowing the engine is the least I would be worried about. Rather the 250kmph down the road with minimal barriers and people less then 5-10 meters on each side, or the donuts spins on a strip of road no more then 20meters wide, simple crowd control fencing in most cases and all the smoke. How easy would it not be to loose control of the car or start drifting and not see because of all the tire smoke. Amazing takes guts and a superior car control.
        Awesome to see.
        One day I would love to be at one of these shows be standing right next to the fence and hope for a donut right in front of me with camera ready.. I trust the guys if tehre was any doubt in their minds or the team they wouldn’t do this or would ensure enough safety barriers was installed to protect the people.

  2. I wish drivers were allowed to celebrate race victories by doing doughnuts…

    1. Vettel said “F that” in Abu Dhabi last year =)

      1. Actually it was Webber doing doughnuts in Abu Dhabi.

        1. Correct was Webber. To bad the TV producers didn’t show it you could see in one shot as he setup for it then they cut. But there at least was more then one clip on youtube where people uploaded their own videos of him doing donuts. Sweet. DC had planned in 08 to do Donuts in his last race but got punted out of the race in a first lap accident :(

        2. and Button lets not forget! he did his under the grandstand bit.

    2. Agreed GeeMac! I’d love to see even if it isn’t for race victories! Rememeber Hamilton in Silverstone last yr? :-)

  3. Great to see this. I should think all teams need to do some of these events. Renault is doing a lot of great events as well.

    Shame the biggest teams do not do this (Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes)

  4. It’s great to see that F1 teams are connecting with the fans by having things like this.

  5. Last year Vettel came to our university here in Milan and we had the chance to see his Toro Rosso of 08, the one which won at Monza. F1 teams should do more special events like these to attract more people!

  6. lol! what’s that car???

    it certainly isn’t this or last year car!

    it looks so weird!!!

    1. It’s the RB5 with the front wing introduced for Silverstone (The fat duck bill nose)

      http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1113/diapo123u.jpg
      Looks familiar?

      1. no, it clearly isn’t. Look at the exhaust

      2. no its not as wide as that silverstone wing. it looks more like half way between thin and thick.

      3. It is not an RB5 – It is actually an old RB1 with the V10 engine still fitted to it – it looks modern because they have updated it with more current wing designs and engine cover etc.

        Here you can see it at Goodwood in 2010, and is described as an RB1 on the Red Bull website:
        http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Gallery/Speeding-through-Goodwood-in-2010/Kicking-things-off-021242869831322?GImageId=1242869615327

  7. I was at the event on saturday, a great show! pfeiffer made the people go crazy!
    one of the staff tolf me the car was the 2005 RB with 2009 aero and mods. buemi got stuck 2 times with the rb and the nascar trying to burnout XD
    thanks to rb for the event :D

    1. Make sense after looking at the pic I posted recently the air intake above the drivers head on the Show car is round vs oval on the RB5. RB1 in one generation had a pretty round intake but so did the RB4. They however always tried to have a late version of the aero package on the car to make it look as much as possible as the race car.

      1. sagittarius27r
        26th April 2010, 22:25

        This car is STR1(overhead Airintake pod)

  8. @lello4ever-

    It makes sense that this is a re-bodies RB1 (2005 car)

    It certainly looks like the RB5 at first glance, but the exhaust is completely different, and I dont remember seeing that shark fin configuration last year (where the fin doesnt intersect the elements of the rear wing). But most interestingly, the car in these pictures appears to have PUSHROD rear suspension instead of the pullrod stup of the RB5.

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