"I'd Like To Try My Hand At The Pit Crew!" Tom Beahon with Oracle Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner

Christian, of course, goes without saying a number of things. I think the story of Red Bull, what Dietrich has built with the Red Bull brand, is nothing short of phenomenal. I don't think it's an overstatement to say one of the most pioneering, visionary entrepreneurs of his generation. So that is hugely inspiring. And then of course the story of Red Bull Racing and what you, Christian, and the wider team have built with the team—from being a real challenger on the outside at the beginning through to where, of course, we are now as the Constructors' Champions, the Drivers' Champions—those two things combined I think are, of course, immensely attractive and something that anyone would be immensely proud to partner with. And then of course the people—on any business endeavor, anything you're looking to achieve in life, personal relationships are really important. The wider culture across the racing team really shines through from the first interaction. So for us there was really no question whatsoever. Should the opportunity, even a glimmer of an opportunity, present itself to partner with the team, we as a business knew it was one we had to grasp with both hands. The foundation, the principle of any Castore partnership has to be innovation. We are a challenger brand. My brother and I started Castore six years ago as a challenger to the superpowers, the mega-brands of the sportswear market. So for us to compete, to survive and thrive in that world, we have to be more competitive, more creative, more innovative than our larger competitors. And it will be that philosophy that we bring to this partnership and creating more bespoke, more exciting products not just for the team but for the global Oracle Red Bull Racing fan base, connecting the team ever more closely with that global fan base as the world continues to digitize and then of course as the sport continues its global growth journey, which has been absolutely amazing in the last couple of years and in my mind will absolutely continue, making sure that this partnership is at the forefront of that change, pioneering the future.

Really well aligned. We haven't—I don't know what the business equivalent of winning Constructors' Championships and Drivers' Championships is, but we're certainly on that journey. But absolutely the mindset is the same. And I think for me it all comes from passion. You have to be so, so passionate about what you do. For us, for my brother and I, for the wider Castore team—we love creating amazing products that people are going to love. We love partnering with teams and helping them connect with their fans. It's that deep and genuine passion about what you do, building a brand that we're incredibly proud of, that gets you out of bed every day at 5 AM and keeps you going during the tough times and the inevitable setbacks. So if you can combine that passion with fear of failure, hopefully we're on an exciting journey together.

Oh, so much. I think Formula One—there's probably not many, if any, more exciting sports in the world at the moment. We have all seen the fantastic growth in recent years, partly driven by Drive to Survive, but also more broadly the amazing competition in the sport at the moment, which of course Oracle Red Bull Racing are absolutely at the forefront of. And for us, we talk a lot internally about 'Better Never Stops.' Again, we're a challenger brand. We're competing against a kind of blue-chip names that are far more established than us. We need to work harder, we need to be more creative. That for us manifests itself in 'Better Never Stops.' And I think the mindset across Formula One with Red Bull Racing—it very well aligns with that. We need to find the marginal gains. We need to have that attention to detail, leaving no stone unturned in the search for improvement. So to partner with a team in Formula One, and to be partnering with Red Bull Racing, is really special. It absolutely is, thank you. Personally, I'm not the right size—you're small and skinny. So I've got half a job. A good driver—I'll be honest Christian, I'm not the best driver. I failed my test four times, all major fails rather than filled with minors. So it does not qualify me to even get in an F1 car—I'm not so sure. So I think as much as I would love to fancy myself as an F1 driver, I'll stick to sportswear for now.

I think it takes a huge amount of dedication. It's a matter of leaving no stone unturned. It's all about the marginal gains. It's all about attention to detail. In this business, I think, you know, we have 22 different departments across the whole company, and each one of those departments has got to step up and deliver and go that extra yard. And I think that's where the team's done an incredible job the last couple of years, coming out of the back of COVID and so on. And again, a massive regulation change for this year has been a big challenge for the business, but the way it's applied itself, it's adapted to changing rules and regulations and challenges—that's been part of the dynamism of the team and how we've taken on these challenges. So yeah, I'd say that as a key factor.

It's incredibly important for Castore to partner with teams like Red Bull Racing that have had the unbelievable success that you guys have. I think if you look back at the history of the sportswear industry, the best brands have often used partnerships like this one to really propel themselves to the next level. There's myriad examples of that. And for me, there's a lot of hard work ahead of us, of course, and as always in life you can only control the controllables, but I absolutely think there's an opportunity for this partnership, Castore with Oracle Red Bull Racing, to be the type of partnership that helps take us to the next level as a brand. And when you're building a brand, there's a lot of tangible, logical reasons why customers will engage with you and support you and buy your products, but there is also many intangible—and we call them internally the magic, the gold dust. You can sprinkle magic gold dust on your brand, and this partnership has the opportunity to do that. And there's very, very few of those opportunities globally, which is why we're so excited by this partnership.

That disruptive mindset that Red Bull Racing as a team have had right from the beginning was so inspiring to us. My brother and I really started our business back in 2016, and the journey that you guys have been on since then—disruption, innovation, commitment to push those boundaries—I think have been at the heart of your team right the way through that journey. So when you've got that alignment of interests combined with culture, actually as you say Christian, we always need to work hard, we always need to be seeing how far we can push the boundaries, but we all want to enjoy the journey along the way. That is a really compelling foundation on which to build any partnership.

'Better Never Stops' for us is in our DNA. It's at the center of everything that we do. Whether that be product quality, which we always have to create higher quality products than our competitors, whether that's with our digital platform, whether that's with the way that we engage with our customers—we have to always find that one percent, find those marginal gains. And there is such a close alignment and very, very like-minded thought process that goes into everything that we're doing with Red Bull Racing as part of this partnership, as well as the sport more generally. You used the word earlier, Christian—competitive. This is such a competitive sport. This is such a competitive industry that we're in. You have to be people, you have to be teams that rise to that challenge. You can't shrink from it. So 'Better Never Stops' is always at the core of what Castore does, and I think will be at the core of this partnership as well.

To that point, Christian, my brother and I found Castore with a founding vision, which remains our North Star that drives us to this day. We wanted to create Castore and build the number one premium sportswear brand in the world and become a genuinely global brand. I think we're still on that journey. So for you guys as a team that's right at the pinnacle of your sport, to partner with and be surrounded by people that are still the hunters rather than the hunted—I think hopefully we'll instill that mindset as well, which will hopefully benefit us both.

Maybe Christian's job for just a week. I don't know if I could survive any more than that, Christian, but a week doing your job—might be an interesting experience. But if it was for any longer, I'd quite like to try my hand at the pit crew. So as you said earlier, when the lights go out at 2 PM on a Sunday afternoon, to be part of that team—and of course the whole team make a huge contribution—but a direct impact. We all know that races often come down to those tiny details, those marginal gains. I think that would be a really interesting experience.

I completely agree with that. And there are no shortcuts in business. Everybody is very good at talking about strategy, strategic vision, and then tactical plans that will help us achieve the strategic objective. Both of which are, of course, really important. But the cultural aspect, which is inherently less tangible—you can't write it on a piece of paper necessarily, you can't measure it in a spreadsheet—but it's how people feel when they walk through the doors of that building every day. It's whether they are going the extra mile in one of the many departments that contribute to the ultimate objective of the organization. It's the things that nobody sees often, and it takes a long time to establish that and it requires constant stewardship. If you're off the ball for even a moment, the culture can disintegrate from where you want it to be. But I completely agree, Christian—in any business, whether that's sporting or in the commercial world, culture is a genuine competitive advantage.

Absolutely.