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Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of energy drink company Red Bull and founder and owner of the Red Bull Formula One racing team, has died. He was 78.
Officials with the Red Bull racing team at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, announced Mateschitz’s death Saturday. There was no immediate word where he died, or a cause of death.
Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of motor sports governing body FIA, said Mateschitz was “a towering figure in motor sport.”
“The thoughts of all the FIA family are with his loved ones at this time and he will be greatly missed.”
Mateschitz gained fame as the public face of Red Bull, an Austrian-Thai conglomerate that says it sold nearly 10 billion cans of its caffeine and taurine-based drink in 172 countries worldwide last year.
Mateschitz not only helped the energy drink become popular around the world, but also built up a sports, media, real estate and gastronomy empire around the brand.
With the growing success of Red Bull, he significantly expanded his investments in sports, specifically motorsports and extreme sports, and Red Bull now operates football clubs, ice hockey teams and F1 racing teams. Red Bull also has contracts with hundreds of athletes in various sports and a deep driver development program to get racers to the top level.
“It’s been hard news for everyone — what he has meant for Red Bull, and of course the sport, and especially for me,” said Max Verstappen, who wrapped up his second consecutive F1 title two weeks ago.
Verstappen on Sunday at Circuit of the Americas will try to tie Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel with an F1-record 13 victories in a season, and he’ll also attempt to clinch the constructors championship for Red Bull.
