This may be the closest I will ever come to knowing how a Formula 1 driver feels standing on the podium in second place – close, but not close enough to take the win.

My journey to become a Red Bull Intern ended yesterday when I received a phone call from the lovely Jack at Red Bull in London. I’d spoken to him the previous week as he was kind enough to help me negotiate a phone interview when it transpired that I wouldn’t be able to make the chosen interview date. He gave me some feedback from my phone interview on Monday and let me down as gently as he could – not a task that I would relish repeating 40+ times. Disappointed as I am not to be spending a month later this summer engrossed in F1 action every day, I’m still delighted to have made it as far as I did. After all, if this was an Formula 1 race I’d have finished in the points – not bad for a rookie!

It’s been four months since I passed the initial test on Red Bull’s website and it’s been wonderful journey ever since. I’ve met some lovely people on the way and I’ve had the opportunity to genuinely consider what I want to do in the future. Is a career in Formula 1 ahead of me? Perhaps. But for the time being I’m going to take a step back and enjoy the summer with my friends and family.

To all those who have supported me along the way, thank you. It’s been a wonderful experience and insight into the family of F1 fans around the world. Formula 1 is an amazing sport and it’s thanks to the support of the fans that it continues to thrive every season.

I want to wish the chosen candidates and Red Bull Racing all future success. This has been a wonderful idea and I hope you consider doing it again in the future to give more F1 fans the chance to get involved.

But for now – goodbye, adios, adieu

Helen.

The British Grand Prix is one of my favourite circuits on the 2012 calendar – being British it’s hardly surprising that I enjoy seeing some of the world’s most talented race car drivers hurtling round a piece of our local heritage. But despite the relative locality of Silverstone, I’ve yet to actually make it to a Grand Prix weekend. 2012 seemed like it might be the year to quash this record; no house to pay for, no holidays booked, no cars to buy, but alas my brother has chosen to get married on the 7^th July.

In the interests of keeping the atmosphere at family gatherings agreeable, I decided excusing myself from his wedding to go and watch some ‘really fast cars’ would not be one of my better ideas.

Thankfully Red Bull Racing and Wings for Life have come to my rescue and given me the opportunity to be at Silverstone in spirit and help raise money for a wonderful cause at the same time; introducing Faces for Charity.

At this year’s British Grand Prix, both of Red Bull Racing’s Formula One cars will be covered in a collage of pictures in a campaign for the charity Wings for Life. To take part all you have to do is upload photo of yourself and donate 15 Euros to Wings for Life’s world class spinal cord injury research – Red Bull Racing will match every donation made.

I signed up yesterday (although I had been meaning to do it much earlier) and decided to reference my involvement in their intern campaign by including my ‘RBR Hopeful Applicant’ logo alongside my photo. While I may not be able to make it to Silverstone or get the chance to continue with my mission to become a Red Bull Racing intern (more on that unfortunate situation later), I will get to feel as though I’m a part of it. So come on Mark and Seb – I fancy being first across that finish line!

You have until June 17^th to upload a photo and get involved, so what are you waiting for? Be part of the Red Bull Racing team, get close to the action and support this incredible cause.

www.facesforcharity.com

Video interview… two little words that put the fear of God into me when I saw them.

On a blissful high after receiving an email from Red Bull Racing (RBR) to say that I’d made it through to the final 100, the thought of having to answer sensible questions, in a constructive manner, on video, whilst ensuring that it stays within the three minute time window was a daunting prospect.

I’ll admit the most frightening bit as far as I was concerned was the three minute time limit – I struggle to leave voicemail messages shorter than that.

But never one to be deterred, I put my thinking cap on and set to work answering the questions I had been given. The first three, were fairly straightforward:

• Name
• Where you are from
• What you do

If I can’t answer these, I have bigger problems that trying to win an internship…

The following (actual) questions, took slightly more thought:

• Tell us about a brand that you think is an example of good marketing and why
• What specific recent marketing activity of Red Bull Racing appealed to you and why?
• If you were to get the internship position, which Red Bull Racing project (ongoing or new) would you like to get involved in and why?

My initial reaction to the first question was to say “Red Bull and how they launched their energy drink in the UK” (find out more here). But given that this application is for a company that is part of the Red Bull empire, I felt they would be quite familiar with their own marketing strategies and chose instead to talk about another brand. The name that stood out to me was Mulberry; a staunchly British leather accessories company which was about to go bankrupt at the end of the 1990s. Brought back to life by a cash investment and some very clever marketing, Mulberry has since gone on to establish itself as one of the UK’s top fashion houses. Clever marketing ideas combined with a well executed strategy has brought Mulberry back from the brink of extinction – a great example of a brand making the most of it’s marketing.

The next question led me back round to talking about RBR; specifically which of their recent marketing activities had appealed to me. My answer to this question will likely come as no surprise, but the marketing campaign that stood out to me was their Internship Campaign. Go figure.

Aside from the obvious reasons (giving individuals like myself the chance to spend a month working with them), I actually chose this campaign due to the many discussions I’ve seen between fans on social networking sites and forums around the world. The buzz this campaign has created both online and offline has been huge and more importantly, it’s done wonders for making people feel engaged with RBR as a team and offered fans a chance to get involved with Formula 1.

The final question asked me to talk about a project that I’d be interested in getting involved with should I win an internship. I actually had two projects in mind that I already admired and another idea that I thought would become more applicable the nearer we get to the inaugural U.S Grand Prix.

The two projects I greatly admire and only recently launched are Faces for Charity (a wonderful chance to get involved with RBR whilst supporting a great cause) and the new Red Bull Racing Spy App. Both are projects I would have loved to be involved with; Faces for Charity makes great use of multichannel marketing and I really enjoy the personal insight into RBR as a team that the Spy App offers. The final area that I would love to get involved with would be introducing RBR and Formula 1 to a new audience. This could be focused specifically on the U.S or extended worldwide. Red Bull is a well-established brand in the U.S, but Formula 1 seems to have struggled over the years to get its foot through the proverbial door. With the first race taking place at the Circuit of the Americas this year, there is no better time to grab the bull by the horns (intended) and reveal what Red Bull Racing and Formula 1 have in store for the United States. The End.

Once I’d finished rambling I quickly checked the stopwatch to see whether I’d kept it less than three minutes… I had… albeit just… 2 minutes and 59 seconds to be exact. Phew!

The video has now been uploaded and submitted for review, so there’s nothing left to do but wait – whilst keeping everything crossed.

I’ve consciously tried to avoid writing an essay for this post – preferring to show you my application instead. So here’s a very quick introduction to my Red Bull Racing internship application…

As you may or may not be aware, I’m a bit of a marketing/graphics geek, so simply writing a traditional CV was never going to be an option. Instead I’ve tried to create something that I hope will showcase my individually and stand out from the hundreds of applications they must have received.

My idea was pretty simple; take a trait from each of this season’s circuits and compare it to a similar trait of my own. For example, Malaysia requires a great deal of perseverance from the drivers, as did this application for me!

I went on to create a standard ‘2012 F1 Circuit Guide’ and then added a note to each track referencing a different characteristic that I felt gave you an insight into my skills, hobbies, personality etc…

The finished result is a PDF which is viewable on any computer, but looks particularly nice when displayed on a tablet, such as an iPad.

On the actual application form I drew the outline of an iPad, with a QR code in the centre for accessing the guide simply and quickly. Around this I included some of my notes from my initial brainstorming ideas.

Here’s a quick video to show you how the whole thing comes together:

Since the deadline date has now passed, if anyone else is prepared to show their application then please leave a comment in the box below. Thanks!

Over the past week I’ve received a couple of messages and tweets asking me why I’m applying to win an internship. It’s a pretty simple question and one that I hope to be able to answer effectively in my application. But in the meantime, I thought I’d share a bit more about me and explain why I want to win an internship with Red Bull Racing.

If you follow me on Twitter (@redbullintern) you may have already gleaned some information about my interests and education, but for those of you that haven’t, I’ll give you a quick overview.

After completing my A-Levels with a focus on art, business and computers, I knew I wanted to choose an undergraduate course that would combine all of these elements. This led me to the University of Huddersfield where I completed my degree in Multimedia Design achieving a First. During my third year at the university, and as part of my course I took a year out doing freelance website development and design work. This attributed in part to my decision to pursue a job in website design when I graduated.

Following my graduation I spent 18 months working for a company as their Junior Website Developer. I subsequently accepted a job offer from another company whom I had worked with previously during my placement year. This new job offered me a different role and the opportunity to work with experienced marketing professionals, which is where you find me now.

Having established a firm interest in both traditional and online marketing methods, an opportunity to work with a company at the forefront of both could not have come at a better time. Equally passionate about Formula 1 as I am the application of marketing within this unique and ever-changing environment, I would relish the opportunity to spend a month totally immersed in it all.

As for what I could bring to Red Bull Racing (with the risk of sounding like a pretentious politico), I’m reliable and conscientious, but most importantly I have enthusiasm for what I do. I enjoy the work, and this is reflected through the finished product and my relationships with both my colleagues and clients.

And, in addition to rambling on above, I am FINALLY making some headway with my ‘actual’ application. Judging by the length of time it’s taken you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m developing a double DRS to rival Mercedes, but I’m not. The time consuming part has proven to be the writing. Rarely lost for words (literally or figuratively), I have on this occasion found writing about myself to be a real struggle. Sounding both arrogant and self-deprecating in equal measure is a regrettable talent I appeared to have mastered. But as I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel I am hopeful that it will have proven to be a useful exercise.

My aim is to submit my application by the end of the month and then I’ll finally be able to share it with you. But in the meantime, if anyone else has already submitted their application and is brave enough to share it, please leave details in the comment box below.

I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use the phrase ‘Pin It to Win It’ for the past month, but needed to wait until my recent competition on Twitter had ended.  It has now finished and I’m delighted to be able to launch my first ever competition on the social media darling that is Pinterest.

The prize on offer is the brilliant ‘Senna’, on a region free Blu-Ray. I watched it for the first time on Boxing Day 2011 – a Christmas gift from a family member. Several of us sat and watched it, some interested in F1, others not so much, but we all really enjoyed it.

Senna gives you a wonderful insight into one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) racing drivers to have competed in Formula 1. You don’t have to be familiar with Formula 1, or the tragic destiny of Ayrton Senna to be able to enjoy this visceral encounter with one of racing’s finest talents. Spanning a decade of Formula One from 1984, Senna picks through archive footage to show a world where traditional driving skills are under threat from the unsporting forces of big business and technical engineering.

Most people will already be aware of how tragically the film ends. The fatal weekend at Imola is covered in depth; from the death of Roland Ratzenberger in practice to on-board footage of Senna’s final lap. The scenes in Brazil on the return of his body and during his funeral make it clear how important he was to ordinary Brazilians, at a time when they had few reasons to be proud of their country.

If you have yet to see this wonderful ‘docufilm’, or if you would like to watch it again, then this is your opportunity to win a copy of your own. The Blu-Ray disc is region free, which means it can be enjoyed anywhere in the world.

To enter you need to follow me on Pinterest and simply pin the Senna image above onto one of your boards. You have until 4^th May to enter, you can enter as many times as you like. But remember… you must be following me on Pinterest AND pin the Senna image in order to be in with a chance to win!

A winner will be chosen at random on 4th May 2012.

Competition T&Cs

-  In order to participate, you must have a Pinterest account.
-  The winner will be randomly selected from all valid pins.

Debacle seems an appropriate choice of expression for the Vettel/Karthikeyan saga that’s been raging over the past couple of weeks. What initially appeared to be nothing more than a racing incident has exploded across the F1 community and press; with Twitter feeds in particular lighting up with divided opinions.

So where do I stand?!

The FIA have reproached Narain Karthikeyan as the guilty party, giving him a 20 second penalty, but would it have been a different story had they been racing for places? As it was, Sebastian Vettel was lapping Karthikeyan and as such, Narain was obliged to get out of this way. Perhaps the stewards felt Karthikeyan did not take sufficient avoiding action and that’s why they punished him. I think had they been racing for a place the stewards would have ruled it to be a racing incident, but as that was not the case, I think they felt the need to punish Karthikeyan. Whether that decision was right or wrong is not a debate I wish to wade in on, but what happened after the race is a different story.

Vettel was caught on camera showing Karthikeyan his middle finger shortly after the incident and in his post-race interview went on to call Narain an “idiot”. Karthikeyan responded by calling Vettel a “cry baby” and “unprofessional”. Was this a naive dig at a fellow driver or simply post-race adrenaline-fueled frustration? I’m inclined to think it was a bit of both.

Racing drivers depend on adrenaline to get them through a race and give them the courage to make those overtaking manoeuvres that leave many spectators peering through the cracks of their fingers. So it’s probably fair to assume that during the intensity of the race and shortly thereafter, things are said and done that in the light of day would be thought better of. This particular incident would appear to be a classic example of this.

I also believe it’s difficult to judge Sebastian for his actions when you’re not in his position. I have, on many an occasion lost my temper and said things that I ultimately regret. The advantage I have is that these outbursts are not captured live on television and shared with millions of people. As such, you could argue that Sebastian should be more mindful of the situation and choose his words more wisely, but when you feel vindicated it’s easy to get carried away.

I think it’s also worth noting that plenty of his peers have behaved similarly (Alonso vs Hamilton for example); perhaps this incident has grabbed the headlines because it’s more unusual to see this kind of behaviour from Vettel? Notwithstanding the ‘minor incident’ and resulting feud involving Vettel and Webber in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix…

I’ve read through several opinion pieces on this subject, the majority seem to feel that Karthikeyan’s punishment was overly harsh and that Vettel’s comments and actions were a naive and immature response. However, when passing judgement it’s very easy to forget that Sebastian Vettel is only 24 years old. Regardless of his performance last season and in 2010, he is still very young and possibly lacks the years of experience to be able to maturely handle a situation like this. Time will tell whether his foolish remarks will come back to haunt him. But I’m sure he will learn from this experience and will be back to his usual self at the next race meeting in China.

Whatever the final outcome, this situation has raised a few eyebrows and called into question the way drivers handle themselves in media spotlight. But when all’s said and done these guys are racing drivers not diplomats.

Formula 1: All the Races: The World Championship Story Race-by-Race: 1950-2011

What makes a good coffee table book? I guess it depends on your interests, but I know for certain that this book would make a great coffee table accessory for any Forumla 1 fan.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy last week and I haven’t been able to put it down since. As someone whose interest in Formula 1 was fairly sporadic up until 18 months ago, this book has become the perfect companion to guide me through all the classic F1 races leading up to the 2012 season.

This remarkable book, written by Roger Smith, has been meticulously researched and written to capture the character and essence of every one of the 858 World Championship races held since the beginning of Formula 1 in 1950. Roger has had a lifelong interest in Formula 1 and has spent his professional life working with and making use of statistics – the perfect combination for creating such an exhaustive guide.

Although there are already many Formula 1 books covering the different eras, teams, cars and drivers, there has not been a comprehensive review of all the races since 1950. This book fills that niche really well and the level of detail is just enough to engage and tell the story without being inaccessible.

The essential resource to settle any debate over F1 historical fact, for each race you get the top six finishers, stats on who led which laps, pole position, fastest lap and the final points table. It must have taken Roger years to assemble all the information that is included in this book – a true testament to his dedication.

For those of you who would like to own a copy, I have a second book to give away to one of my followers on Twitter! It couldn’t be easier to enter, simply follow me on Twitter (@redbullintern) and retweet the following:
Win ‘Formula 1: All the Races’ with @redbullintern… Follow, Retweet and Win! http://bit.ly/Hnje6E #Competition #F1

Just ensure your tweet contains my Twitter account name ‘@redbullintern’ and a link to this webpage as shown above. I will send a Direct Message to the winner so make sure you’re following me @redbullintern.

A winner will be chosen at random on 12th April 2012.

Competition T&Cs

• In order to participate, you must have a Twitter account.
• Sorry, but this competition is only available to residents of the UK.
• The winner will be randomly selected from all valid tweets.

Whenever I hear people say “think outside the box” I cringe. I understand what the expression tries to convey, but I think it’s an overworked term that draws to mind several clichés, but not many good ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I use as many clichés as anyone, but there are a few that I will simply not trot out. “Think outside the box” is one of these expressions. Indeed, it is so inside the box! I just did a Google search for the exact phrase and found 6,920,000 hits.

The importance of looking at things in a new way is, after all, one of the defining features of a creative act and a creative person. But increasingly, I hear the expression used as if it were the only defining feature of creativity, which it is not.

When developing ideas for my application I positively focused on thinking inside the box. In this case the box was made up of four well-thought-out sides; ability, ambition, perseverance and enthusiasm. And it was within that remit that I focused my attention.

My first idea was to build a replica of the Red Bull Racing website and amend the content to feature parts of my CV. I quickly rejected this idea as having been ‘done before’ and not offering me the opportunity to really showcase my creativity. Several other ideas went the same way; infographic CV – old hat, video CV – old news, Facebook CV – old fashioned, and as for my idea of using Google maps to highlight places I’ve been and things I’ve done – thoroughly Old Kent Road.

Back to the drawing board I went. Several hours (days/weeks) later, I emerged from my Red Bull absorbed hideaway with an entirely new concept – I wanted to ‘Race Red Bull’. I intended to utilise Pinterest as the instrument for this race, with my challenge being to gain more followers than Red Bull Racing over the course of my internship application. This idea lasted significantly longer than any of its predecessors; I even went as far as registering the domain ‘RacingRedBull.co.uk’. But like all my other ideas I felt it lacked depth, originality and the opportunity to demonstrate my creative side. That being said, I am still updating my Pinterest account (http://pinterest.com/f1fan/) and I am catching up with Red Bull Racing, so I might need to bring this challenge back to the table!

Having spent a little over two weeks thinking of and then rejecting several different ideas, I was understandably frustrated. What I wanted was a quirky application idea that I could be creative with, use to highlight my skill set and clarify why I should get the chance to work with Red Bull Racing this summer. On top of all that I also wanted to be able to leverage social media to back up my application – which this website is helping me to accomplish.

Finally, two weeks after passing the application test, I thought of an original idea. I waited to see whether I would eventually reject it again, but this one stood the test of time. Whether it proves good enough to capture the imagination of the guys over at Red Bull Racing remains to be seen, but it’s providing me with an enjoyable pastime and that makes it worthwhile regardless.

I remember watching Formula 1 with my father in the early 1990’s, the days of Senna, Prost and Mansell. It was a passion I rediscovered in 2010, just in time to enjoy one of the best F1 seasons of recent years. Since then I’ve watched each and every race, albeit some of the 5:00am starts have been recorded and watched later – I’m a dedicated follower, but I also like my sleep!

A couple of weeks ago, I was browsing MSN.com when I came across an article about winning an internship with Red Bull Racing. On further investigation it transpired that Red Bull was offering 5 lucky individuals (from the UK) the chance to spend a month working as part of their all-conquering F1 team. The internships were spread across different departments; marketing, IT, procurement, aerodynamics and electronics.

As an avid Formula 1 fan, I jumped at the opportunity to apply for an internship. And having worked as a marketing assistant for the past few years it wasn’t difficult to choose a department to favour either.

In order to get through to the application stage, you first of all have to pass this test. I’ll admit it took me a couple of attempts to pass, but I got there in the end. Perseverance, or stubbornness, I’m not sure which.

Since I passed the test I’ve been working on various application ideas. I don’t want to give anything away to those of you who have yet to pass, but suffice it to say, Red Bull want you to use your own ingenuity to show them why you should win an internship.

I’ve managed to narrow down my (ever-increasing) list of application ideas to one, but it’s not the motivation behind this website… The reason for building this site is two-fold; firstly, I thought it would be a nice idea to keep a record of the application process and how I get on. And secondly, it allows me to promote this amazing opportunity to all the other F1 fans in the UK.

After a quick tweak of the Red Bull Racing logo and 5 minutes spent installing WordPress I had created this site. I will keep you updated as to how I get on, I’ve yet to complete my application, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do. And if there are any other applicants out there, please leave a comment below and introduce yourself.

Regards,

A Hopeful Applicant