BMX rider Kriss Kyle undertakes jump over Red Bull RB7 driven by David Coulthard in a historic feat of jumping a F1 car.
Legendary BMX rider and Red Bull athlete, Kriss Kyle, has completed an historic feat as he successfully jumped over an oncoming Oracle Red Bull Racing Formula One car (RB7), Sebastian Vettel’s 2011 championship-winning model, which was something no athlete has ever done before.
The jump was successfully completed using a custom-built kicker that was designed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the high-performance engineering arm of Red Bull Technology Group. The kicker was a bespoke design; the Team needed Kriss to have a solid platform to lift from to jump over the car as well as something lightweight so the car could move out of the way. A lot of design work went into this: from the materials, height, shape and size to creating a crumple zone at the front, so as not to damage the car.
Over seven months of preparation was put into the feat by Kriss and he described the feat as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to complete it. On completing the recent challenge, Kriss Kyle said: “It was one of the scariest things that I have ever done! Hearing and seeing the car come hurtling towards me was crazy but I just had to clear my mind and concentrate on what I needed to do to make it over. It has been a dream come true to achieve this feat.”
Greg Borrill, Heritage Chief Mechanic, said: “We like doing crazy things and driving a BMX bike at an F1 car was a challenge we thought we were up to. We put the wheels in motion with Red Bull Advanced Technologies and Kriss and needed to make sure that safety was paramount. A lot of design work by Red Bull Advanced Technologies went into creating a bespoke kicker that Kriss could use to jump over the car and would enable the car to get out of the way safely. Overall, the stunt was nailed and it was amazing to see.”
Kriss, who has been on a BMX since the age of ten, ripping around his family hometown of Stranraer, Scotland, is widely known as one of the most exciting and innovative riders on the scene. This is not Kriss’ first daring project as the latest feat continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible on a BMX. Following the hugely successful ‘Don’t Look Down’ film (here), where Kriss rode a skatepark suspended underneath a hot air balloon.
Kriss’ daring idea at 2,000ft inspired him to dream big and tackle another mind-boggling challenge. Albeit a little closer to the ground this time, the risk of danger was equally as high. The result was something truly spectacular as he decided he wanted to jump over a F1 car hurtling towards him.
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[The story is as per press release]
