Infiniti Red Bull Racing 2014

[Harsha]

According to Bild 64 trophies were stolen from the Red Bull factory!
http://sportbild.bild.de/formel-1/2014/ ... sport.html

Wow thats a whole lot of trophies ,it takes away the memories of their victories /Podiums as well

[turbof1]

Confirmed by autosport. Red Bull reports a lot of them were replica's. Essentially they stole a whole lot of plastic, though of course the items hold a high emotional value for the team. These things are basically unsellable, so hopefully the thiefs will realise that and drop it off somewhere where they can be recovered.

Whoever these clowns were, they certainly weren't ocean's eleven! My god, I hate robberies, but if you are going to rob someone, there should be atleast some tact behind it. Nowadays it's just driving a truck right through the entrance and grab what you can. An utterly mindless robbery on a high-tech huge-knowhow facility. The irony.

[Jonnycraig]

Confirmed by autosport. Red Bull reports a lot of them were replica's. Essentially they stole a whole lot of plastic, though of course the items hold a high emotional value for the team. These things are basically unsellable, so hopefully the thiefs will realise that and drop it off somewhere where they can be recovered.

The driver trophies were replicas but the constructors ones were originals. All very strange because as mentioned they aren't likely to have much residual value as scrap and ramraiding an F1 factory specifically to steal probably the least valuable thing there makes it seem a very specifically planned attack.

As Horner says, the worst thing to come out of this is that Red Bull who have historically been very open and engaging to fans at their factory will have to up their security.

[turbof1]

It could be planned yes, although I don't see why anyone would want those trophies. These aren't paintings which both have a financial and non-personal emotional value. They are intricitly worthless and the trophies only hold an emotional value to the team. The clue is that turns such collectors on is that they have something high profile hanging on their wall or lying on a stand. A few year old trophies don't classify as that. If that was the purpose of the endeavour, they probably would have targetted the cars instead.

This might just be my rational and logic self being bugging me and the fact could be that some rich weirdo had a fetisj for the objects. If I do have to follow logic and if we assume this was planned, logic would dictate someone affeliated or former affeliated with the team is behind this. But that's probably too far fetched.

I personally keep it with some idiotic robbers who thought the facility wasn't guarded at night, rammed the entrance, discovered there was security personel or that an alarm was set off, and then just took what was closest to them.

[Writinglife]

This might just be my rational and logic self being bugging me and the fact could be that some rich weirdo had a fetisj for the objects. If I do have to follow logic and if we assume this was planned, logic would dictate someone affeliated or former affeliated with the team is behind this. But that's probably too far fetched.

That's no way to talk about Mr Vettel.


(Please note that this is a joke, and that I am in no way suggesting that he was involved in any way, shape or form etc. etc.)

[Just_a_fan]

Probably the same sort of low life who steal cables to sell to scrap dealers. They probably think the trophies are silver and thus worth something as scrap metal.

I would guess that there will be some collectors around the world who will happily buy stolen trophies for their own private collections but it's going to be a limited market...

[Manoah2u]

Anything goes on the black market.

I don't think however the perps intended to steal it and sell it as trophies.

Knowing RB actually did have security (i'm not sure they were active at that moment but i find it hard to believe a 4-world championship team which houses materials, designs and vehicles that are important to keep secret, didn't have a night-shift security on petrol. which only makes it more confusing anybody is able to get away with 64 trophies.), i'd find it a bit confusing on how they actually got into the building and got away with 64 trophies and not get 'caught', but perhaps barney was asleep.

Regarding motives however;

IIRC, on a RB interview, the trophy room was right at the entrance of the facility, so essentially, you can just crash in and grab and go - even though obviously you;ll have to crash the gate too.

So you might say some punks saw the interview and though; Silver up for the grabs, not knowing they were replicas. You could argue you could melt these things so they're no longer 'trophies' but bars of silver.

Grab an old van, crash the gate and the entrance, trow as much trophies as you can in the bus, speed off to the 'safe house', and do away with the van. Melt the silver and sell.

Nobody knows the origin of the silver, and plenty of market for silver.

Unfortunately for them - It's not silver. They're probably reading this in the newspaper now too when the weed wears off.

[Manoah2u]

[Manoah2u]

2 cars then. estate merc and and a 4x4......security was on site but weren't harmed. I'd say they didn't do anything.

6 men, 60 trophies. 3 men in 1 car. foreign license plates. 10 trophies each. either way a big hassle for arguably not that much to gain. How are you gonna take it abroad?

[Moose]

2 cars then. estate merc and and a 4x4......security was on site but weren't harmed. I'd say they didn't do anything.

If you read between the lines, they're saying "security were put in harms way, and couldn't do anything, but thankfully weren't harmed in the end".

[turbof1]

I'd even doubt the original trophies have any gold or silver worked in them. Perhaps the WDC and WCC ones, but those are at mercedes now. Red bull kept plastic replica's of those.

They probably lost more value on the cars then they won on the trophies. Smart thiefs are a rare occurence these days.

[Manoah2u]

the break in was very upsetting for our night officers who were on duty at the time

[turbof1]

I find the notion that it upset the night officers very wrong. Wonder how that conversation went. Horner: "were you able to chase them?" Officer: "No man, it was horrible! They came with that car, glass everywhere. I was shocked. I need to make an appointment with my psychiatrist because I'm so traumatised."

Maybe red bull needs to look for better officers who don't get upset about the risks they signed for.

Also take note of the RBR close to the cracked glass. A small carbon fibre piece already is more worth then all those trophies. Night Officers who get upset about something they signed to prevent, and burglars unable to notice what's valuable and what not. Yeah... .

[Juzh]

Planned and executed by merc/hamilton fanatics. 10/10 would agree.

[Moose]

I find the notion that it upset the night officers very wrong. Wonder how that conversation went. Horner: "where you able to chase them?" Officer: "No man, it was horrible! They came with that car, glass everywhere. I was shocked. I need to make an appointment with my psychiatrist because I'm so traumatised."

Maybe red bull needs to look for better officers who don't get upset about the risks they signed for.

Also take note of the RBR close to the cracked glass. A small carbon fibre piece already is more worth then all those trophies. Night Officers who get upset about something they signed to prevent, and burglars unable to notice what's valuable and what not. Yeah... .

Alternatively, the conversation could easily have gone like this:
Horner: "Were you able to chase them?"
Officer: "Yes, we initially had them cornered, but two of them were carrying shotguns, and pointed them at Barry and Jim. The others were carrying knives. We had no choice but to back off until the police could get there."

You don't know all the facts, stop assuming that the Security guards were just cowards.