Red Bull Showrun

A few weeks ago, one of my friends shared a picture of a Red Bull Racing F1 car in front of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. While I considered hopping onto the ferry and going to SF to take a picture or several, this stirred a larger question in my mind: why?

I mean, do they really think that rope is gonna keep people from breaking into it? This is San Francisco!

After a quick search, I found that Red Bull is hosting a “showrun” (their term for general hooliganery in bespoke racing cars on public streets) in San Francisco on Feb 21! This was an immediate “yes” for me, as well as an immediate “must take Cora”. So I told her that I’m going to take her to SF on the 21st with no additional context; she agreed because she likes San Francisco.

Let me tell you friend; it was hard to keep this a secret, but I managed.

We pull into the city and I give her a vague sense of the plan; park by Fisherman’s Wharf, then walk through Fort Mason and on up the coast (the event was on Marina Blvd, just west of Fort Mason). She was game as she likes the vibe of the city. On the way, as she does, she pointed out that someone is wearing Red Bull gear. Then a bit later, “oh there’s another person wearing Red Bull”. Not long after that: “wow, that’s three people I’ve seen wearing Red Bull”.

Me: “huh, that’s weird”

Her: “I wonder why?”

Me: “Probably because the season starts in a couple weeks and people are excited”

Her: “Yeah, I guess that’s it”

This was on the far side of Fort Mason, where the event space is visible if you know to look; she wasn’t aware. However, about 5 min after that, she couldn’t help but notice the huge signage about the Red Bull Showrun.

Her: “What’s a show run?”

Me: “Oh, that’s where Red Bull closes off a large section of street and runs their high performance cars up and down doing donuts and such. I heard of this one; they’ll have an F-150 Lightning SuperTruck, a Raptor T1+, a sport bike doing stunts, an RBR and VCARB F1 car….”

Her: “What???”

Me: “Yeah, this is why we’re here”

Her: * visible glee *

Me: “Oh, and the RBR is gonna be piloted by some guy named Yuki Tsunoda….”

Her: * visible glee intensifies *

There were tons of people there, as you can imagine. However, we were just able to get a couple pictures of the cars in the paddock getting prepped. The were older spec cars, running the V-8 engines, so they were gonna be loud and screaming, definitely a feature you want at a demo of this type of thing.

They also had a more recent car (2024, maybe?) but with the current livery applied; it is a really good looking livery

After observing the ~100+ people long line at the merch and the ~75+ people long lines at the food stalls, we decided to go find a place on the course; I’d heard that these things get packed and, if you don’t get a place early, you don’t get any visibility. We walked the length of the course (half-mile down or so) then found a spot behind a very short family (Cora was just about half a head taller than the tallest of them) so we had excellent visibility.

Then the wait started. And continued. And people gradually built up. And more waiting. We figured that we’d have to wait for the very end for the F1 cars, but nope; Yuki was the first out of the gate, right on time (respect!). And lemme tell you; this thing sounded great. It was amazing having the sonic build-up; it’s getting louder so you know it’s getting closer, but you can’t hear it, and it keeps getting louder, but you still can’t hear it, and just when you think it can’t get any louder, the car finally pops into view and is even louder! The sound of the F1 cars kinda physically tickle your brain; it’s awesome.

We were at the end, so none of the cars really screamed past; they were either slowing to turn around or they were accelerating. But man was the acceleration great; just pegged throttle on the limiter… very impressive!

Much of the show was like this; loud, fast cars flying down the road, doing a quick spin or several donuts to turn it around, and then flying back up the road. We saw the VCARB F1 car (same generation of car, but perhaps different year), a Raptor T1+ truck for racing in like Dakar, and an F-150 Lightning SuperTruck (2000HP, but it was practically silent because it’s fully electric). There was also a Mustang GT3 car which I really wanted to see, but it kept breaking down, so we only heard it from a distance; very deep sound, more growly than screamy, so I wish it had come down to our side.

However, as the afternoon kept going, the people kept packing in; by the time Cora and I were done (just before the “grand finale”, which is just “several cars doing a bunch of donuts all at once”) and were trying to leave, we were incredibly hemmed in; it took us a good 15 minutes to get to a spot where we could actually walk and weren’t shoulder-to-shoulder with other people. Made us both wish we had some other vantage points that some innovative people had taken advantage of.

However, once we were out of the fracas, it was also enjoyable to hear the cars doing their runs from a distance; it’s eerie to hear the F1 V8 screaming without seeing it, sending up a bit of tire smoke at one end of the run, but other than that just the etheral high-pitched shriek of the engine.

As mentioned, the finale was just “all the cars you’d seen so far, all at once, doing donuts”. Very impressive to see at a distance; gave a great photo, for sure!

Any rate, we took some time getting back to the car, stopping at Ben and Jerry’s, and then the drive home took forever for reasons nobody could discern. But all in all, was a great day!

Thanks for reading!