Florian Bergér has been the man to watch in the Challenger Cup since he first burst onto the circuit in 2015 and almost claimed a podium in his first race, missing out on the win by just 0.572s.

Since then he has gone on to claim two titles, seven race wins, and a total of 15 podiums – the most successful pilot in the history of the Challenger Class. 

Mika Brageot has been turning heads and cited as one to watch since joining the Red Bull Air Race in the first Challenger Class season back in 2014, when he took his first race win in only his third outing. 

Cristian Bolton is now in his third Master Class season, and despite his unquestionable flying skill, the Chilean's raceplane had always struggled to keep on the pace. But towards the latter half of last season, Bolton and his team had time to work on the raceplane, with some positive results soon following.

At the end of the 2018 season Team Spielberg had made it clear that it needed a new engine for its Edge 540 V3. The engine was fitted in the offseason before being shipped to Abu Dhabi for the season opener. 

All was going to schedule for Petr Kopfstein and Team Spielberg, but a landmark visit to the UAE by Pope Francis meant a change-up in the flying schedule, and Kopfstein was unable to run his engine properly. This hindered Kopfstein over the race weekend, as the Czech pilot had to hold back from pushing as hard in the racetrack as he would have liked. 

Since the Red Bull Air Race first took off in 2003, only about 50 pilots have earned the right to race through the Air Gates in the Master Class and Challenger Class. What does it take to break into these elite ranks?

The anticipated season opener is always filled with both jubilation and commiseration for the pilots. So after some reflection, here's an overview of the pilots that made their mark in Race 1, as well as the pilots who will simply be looking forward to a clean slate in Race 2.

As any Red Bull Air Race fan knows, first impressions of the high-speed, high-G action last a lifetime. That is true for the race pilots as well. After an exciting first race of the 2019 season in Abu Dhabi, several World Championship contenders reveal personal memories of their initial encounters with the sport.

It was as if 2018 never happened: At the Red Bull Air Race opener in Abu Dhabi last weekend, Yoshihide Muroya won his first race since closing out the 2017 season with a World Championship-clinching victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What put him back on top? And with his arch-rival Martin Sonka only 0.003s behind – the closest finish in the history of the Red Bull Air Race – can Japan’s hero hold the lead through the seven remaining races?

At last weekend’s season opener in Abu Dhabi Florian Bergér blew away his rivals by topping every single timesheet. But despite his dominating performances, he had close competition from the other Challengers.

On Race Day he knocked Melanie Astles into second place by 0.346s, but if she hadn’t picked up a penalty for an over-G, it would have been Astles standing on top of the podium.