Now, this is properly mental. According to Motorsport.com Deutschland, former Formula 1 driver Patrick Friesacher strapped himself into Sebastian Vettel's 2011 championship-winning machine and absolutely annihilated an Apple Maps estimate on an Irish mountain pass.
Apple Maps reckons the run from Glengarriff to Kenmare in the southwest of Ireland takes thirty minutes. Friesacher, naturally, wanted to do it quicker. The machine beneath him was no ordinary showcar either, but the exact Red Bull RB7 that Sebastian Vettel drove to eleven wins and a record-breaking fifteen pole positions back in 2011.
in Cork. Just a day later, Friesacher piloted the RB7 in front of more than 10,000 spectators along the South Mall in the city center, sharing the asphalt with local drifting hero Conor Shanahan.
The route stretches roughly 27 kilometers across three distinct sections, starting in Glengarriff, climbing over the Caha-Pass on the border of the counties Cork and Kerry, and finishing up in Kenmare. Right at the start, Friesacher laid out his target: "I'll try to do it in under 20 minutes," he said. With a running countdown tracking every second, the clock showed 12:29 remaining before the Caha-Pass, and 8:53 left before the final leg toward Kenmare.
Remarkably, he even had to pause along the way. The fire brigade from Bantry stopped the car in Glengarriff and at the Caha-Pass simply to grab photos with the driver. Despite the interruptions, the clock stopped at 19:54. Friesacher beat the navigation app by a full ten minutes and cleared his own target by six seconds.
Naturally, everything was handled safely. The National Road N71 between Kenmare and Glengarriff was closed off section by section on October 9, with the county of Cork having announced the closures beforehand. In the footage, Friesacher makes sure to point out that the roads were fully blocked, marshals were stationed on-site, and the police were completely informed.
This insane mountain blast served as the opening act for the "Red-Bull-Homerun" in Cork. Just a day later, Friesacher piloted the RB7 in front of more than 10,000 spectators along the South Mall in the city center, sharing the asphalt with local drifting hero Conor Shanahan. "That gives people goosebumps," Friesacher said of the crowd's reaction.
Friesacher's ties to the energy drink brand run deep, having been their very first junior driver back in 1994, long before his eleven Grand Prix starts for Minardi in 2005. Today, he works as an instructor at the Red-Bull-Ring and regularly handles demonstration runs. He seems to be the go-to guy for utterly bizarre routes, too, having driven a converted Formula 1 car through a roughly five-kilometer section of the Madrid subway system just this September.
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