The co-owner of Red Bull and the heiress to one of the biggest jewelry brands in the world are rally raiders, but you probably wouldn’t have noticed unless you knew them directly.

Mark Mustermann and Vic Flip, both drivers who’ve been doing bajas and W2RC races since 2024 and are set to race January’s Dakar Rally, are actually Mark Mateschitz and Victoria Swarovski. Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung revealed their true identities in an article published Monday.

Mateschitz is the son of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and one of the wealthiest businessmen in Austria, holding a 49% stake in the energy drink company. Due to his family’s wealth, he used to go by Mark Gerhardter (his mother’s last name) to avoid public attention, which gave him a bit of experience working under another name that he applied for “Mark Mustermann”.

As Flip’s real surname suggests, her family runs the legendary Swarovski glassmaking and jewelry company. Swarovski herself isn’t as involved in the business as she’s a singer, model, and TV host, even teasing her Dakar prep on one of her segments as the latter.

Mateschitz and Swarovski have been in a relationship since 2023.

In 2024, they appeared under their fake names for the first time at the Baja Aragón; Flip finished 34th in class while Mustermann retired. While Flip has exclusively raced Can-Ams, Mustermann switched to a Toyota Hilux in 2025. Still, both of them were teammates under the MM Rallye banner. Mustermann finished runner-up in Ultimate at the Baja TT Dehesa Extremadura and Baja Greece.

The totally-not-a-couple made their World Rally-Raid Championship debuts at the BP Ultimate Rally-Raid Portugal in September, but neither finished. At the Rallye du Maroc a month later, Mustermann placed 28th in Ultimate while Flip was 16th in SSV.

For Dakar, Mustermann will remain in his Hilux with Michael Zajc as navigator. Flip is in her Maverick alongside Stefan Henken.

Athletes using assumed names is a phenomenon that goes back a long way. When pro football was in its infancy and seen as worse than sin in the eyes of its collegiate counterpart, students would take on fake monikers to play as ringers to avoid losing their amateur status.

This extends to motorsports as well: Louis Krages won the 1985 24 Hours of le Mans as John Winter, a name he used to compete behind his mother’s back, while 1950s IndyCar icons Dick and Jim Rathmann went by each other’s names when they were younger because Jim was underage. It still happens today even in an age where everybody’s name is attached to their faces, such as Max Verstappen going by Franz Hermann for sports car testing.

Featured image credit: Daniel Götzhaber / GEPA pictures / Red Bull Content Pool