Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz dies aged 78

Red Bull owner and co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz has died after a long illness, the company’s F1 team confirmed Saturday. He was 78.

The Austrian founded the energy drinks company in 1984 with Chaleo Yoovidhya and helped establish it as the world leader in its industry.

Mateschitz was keen on extreme sports at an early age and soon brought Red Bull into the sporting world, where it has enjoyed success across multiple disciplines.

It has done so most famously in Formula One.

Red Bull has won four constructors’ championships (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) and six drivers’ titles, the most recent being secured by Max Verstappen at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The team is on the verge of clinching its fifth constructors’ title and can do so at the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday.

After years of involvement in the sport as a sponsor, Red Bull purchased the Jaguar F1 team in 2004 and the Minardi team in 2005. The latter, which operates out of Italy as the company’s junior team, was renamed Toro Rosso and today competes as AlphaTauri.

He also purchased the F1 circuit in the town of Spielberg, which is now named the Red Bull Ring and hosts the Austrian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s famous driver academy has helped produce two world champions, Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel, as well as grand prix race winners in Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.

“Desperately sad news that we’ve learned of the passing of Dietrich,” Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner said Saturday afternoon. “He was a remarkable man, what he’s done for so many, not just in Formula One but in the Red Bull business and the Red Bull world across all the sporting platforms.

“He was a man that inspired so much. He is the reason that we are here, it was his passion for Formula One and his vision that is the reason he has two teams in the Formula One pit lane. He was always enthusiastic, encouraging and supportive on the good days and the bad days.

“So many owe him so much and I feel privileged to have known him and I think for the whole team now, despite the shock, we are going to do exactly what he would have wanted, which is to go out there and with his cars do the very best that we can and to try and close the constructors’ championship down. It’s important that we recognise everything he has contributed to the sport, but not just the sport because it goes way, way beyond that.”

Away from F1, Red Bull Salzburg has won 13 Austrian football championships since taking on the company name in 2006.

Other football teams owned by the company are the New York Red Bulls, RB Liepzig and Red Bull Brasil, and hockey teams are EHC Munchen and EC Red Bull Salzburg. It also owns esports team Red Bull OG.