WASHINGTON (CN) — Congress was the only thing in Washington moving slowly this weekend.
As the House gathered on Capitol Hill to vote on a billion-dollar foreign aid package — the product of weeks of political squabbling and delays which forced lawmakers to convene for a rare Saturday session — the ear-shattering scream of a V8 engine laying down nearly 800 horsepower surely turned some heads.
The source of the disruption: Formula One legend David Coulthard, tearing up Pennsylvania Avenue with the Capitol as backdrop, at Red Bull Racing’s first ever showcase event in the nation’s capital.
Formula One is enjoying burgeoning popularity in the U.S., as Americans warm to the sport’s signature brand which blends larger-than-life athletes with high-pressure competition. And Red Bull, the Austrian energy drinks company and extreme sports mainstay, is angling to put itself at the center of the moment.
The firm's racing division has been on a U.S. marketing blitz in recent months, shutting down city streets in New York, Nashville and Chicago to show off their racing chops and put people in front of the biggest names in the sport, such as Coulthard and current F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Red Bull Racing, headquartered in the U.K., already enjoys a foothold in the American market. According to a 2021 study from Nielsen and Motorsport Network, the team is the second most popular F1 outfit in the U.S. and their star driver, Dutch-born Max Verstappen, ranks first.
But despite its growing notoriety with American audiences, the F1 titan hadn’t been to Washington until this weekend.
“It’s a lovely city,” Tony Burrows, Red Bull Racing’s support team manager, told Courthouse News Saturday.
Speaking from a makeshift racing paddock erected along Pennsylvania Avenue as engineers tinkered on Coulthard’s race car, Burrows quipped that he had been on a bike ride through Washington just the day before.
“It’s amazing to ride around and think of all the movies you’ve seen through the years … the iconic buildings,” he said. “That as a backdrop — the Capitol building — it’s amazing.”
Burrows also marveled at the turnout for Saturday’s event.
“I knew it was going to be big, because [Formula One] is hugely big now in the States, but everyone is so buzzing and they seem so knowledgeable about Formula One,” he told reporters. “It’s great to see so many people.”
According to event organizers, roughly 50,000 people packed in to watch Coulthard, 53, bomb around in the Red Bull RB7 — which enthusiasts will know as one of the vehicles driven by four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel. The Scottish former Formula One driver was a Red Bull team member from 2005 until his retirement in 2008.
Coulthard, fittingly known by the moniker “DC,” told the reporters that it was a surreal experience driving a Formula One car in the streets of Washington — if a little bumpier than expected.
“I come from a village in Scotland of 300 people,” he said, “and here I am 50 years later, driving a Formula One car in your capital. It’s something that I never imagined would happen.”
Asked by Courthouse News how it felt knowing members of Congress had been voting just steps from where his RB7 had scorched rubber into the street, Coulthard said it was “not lost on all of us that have been part of organizing this that this is a significant day.”
“It shows the power of what can happen if people want to put on an event,” he said. “People have choices. They could have done anything else today, but they wanted to be here.”
On whether Washington could one day play host to a full-fledged Formula One grand prix, Coulthard observed that such an event would sell out, if Saturday’s crowd was any indicator of interest. But Formula One fans might have to wait until after November to see whether something like that could happen, he joked.
“We need to see who wins the presidency, and then speak nicely to them,” Coulthard said.
Red Bull’s exhibition capped off the racing team’s two-day event in Washington which started Friday with a fan experience at Union Market, not far from where the Formula One organization is planning to open an F1-themed bar later this year.
Coulthard’s demonstration Saturday was accompanied by similar tire-shredding displays from Scott Speed, three-time Global Rallycross title winner, and street freestyle motorbike pro Aaron Colton.
It’s unclear whether any members of Congress were able to hear the action on Pennsylvania Avenue during the weekend votes.
While tire smoke filled the air just down the street, lawmakers voted to advance a $95 billion foreign aid package which included assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The measure, which divided Republicans and appears to have put House Speaker Mike Johnson’s job in peril, also included language aimed at forcing social media platform TikTok to divest from its parent company.
The Senate has yet to vote on the aid legislation, although it passed a near-identical version earlier this year.
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