Red Bull flies the (Vietnam) flag for F1

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Red Bull's Live Events team has been putting an 'off' weekend to good use with a trip to promote the sport on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam is one of the cities being linked with staging a Grand Prix event in the near future. And gathering from the excited fans who showed up on Friday, it would be a very popular move!

Former driver David Coulthard was at the wheel of the legendary championship-winning RB7 from 2011 for F1’s first live performance in the country.

He completed three runs through the 650m course, which had been laid out on Nguyễn Cơ Thạch Street. The runs were split between daylight, twilight and in the evening under floodlights.

“It really feels somewhat emotional when you bring a Formula One car to a new country,” Coulthard said. "In a sport that’s been so kind to me, you feel that you’re sharing it with a new generation.

"I’m sure the people that were here today and the media coverage this gets will make people tune in and watch Formula 1. That’s something which, as a passionate fan of motor racing, makes me very proud.

"It’s my first visit [to Vietnam] too. It’s great to be in a place that’s clearly full of very friendly, educated, enthusiastic people," he added. "To be able to let them hear first-hand and see, up close, the engineering art of Formula 1."

Sadly, a downpour made it impossible for him to perform any burn-outs. But what Heineken’s Perfect Experience with F1 festival lacked in tyre smoke it more than made up for in ear-splitting noise from the Renault V8 engine!

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.