The linchpin: How F1 strategy expert Hannah Schmitz helps keep Red Bull on top

For all the roaring engines and on-track fury, Formula One is a sport built upon subtleties. The factors that feed into deciding who climbs the podium and who loses their seat — the novel training methods, the last-minute strategy calls, even the more nutritious food — are rarely on full display. The Athletic’s new F1 coverage is designed to throw light on all of them, and that’s what we’ll be doing in Untold Stories. Follow along as we take you beyond the headlines (and the headliners) to understand how teams and drivers climb the pinnacle of motorsports.

Hannah Schmitz sits tall at the Red Bull pit wall every other race weekend, gazing down pit lane with her hands flat on the desk in front of her. It’s a calm scene as Formula One cars zip past on track at well over 100 miles an hour.

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Some may not think twice about this gesture. It’s a common resting place for one’s hands. But for Schmitz, it’s also a technique that projects authority and clarity. As the principal strategy engineer for Red Bull, Schmitz typically rests her palms face down when talking through strategy and sifting through data points — and sometimes during race-defining moments.

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Race strategy is key in a sport where positions and points can boil down to the milliseconds.  Dozens of team members back at the factories and at the circuit are constantly sifting through data points and simulations, feeding gobs of information to the pit wall. When Schmitz is on the pit wall, her job is to account for those messages, the data and her own gut reaction and help produce a winning game plan. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called this pit wall position as “the linchpin.”

To put it in simplest terms, race strategy is about optimizing performance. Strategists like Schmitz take into account factors like tires, the weather forecast, track history and recent race analysis as they think about what rubber to use, when to pit, and more. Her job boils down to preparing strategies ahead of the weekend and making the optimal decisions — the race-winning, championship-caliber calls — in under 30 seconds or less.

And she’s earned her place on the pit wall. “When I started out, I think because strategy is a role where you’re on the pit wall and you’re making decisions and you’re telling people what to do, there was a little bit more resistance,” Schmitz said to The Athletic. “But ever since I’ve been there, I feel I have an equal respect of everybody I work with, and I do a good job.”

A natural fit

Seeing Schmitz in a strategy-focused role is not a surprise given her love for problem-solving.

She is a board game fan, a competitive activity that mirrors the pressures and focus of her everyday job, which she said “is almost like playing a game, but the stakes are kind of high.” Prior to her university days, she had a teacher who encouraged her as she navigated math and physics, and helped her see the opportunities those skills made possible. Her parents were just as supportive of her doing what she loved. “That’s why I wasn’t particularly put off, maybe. That is quite a male-dominated environment.”

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At the University of Cambridge, Schmitz got a masters degree in mechanical engineering, and helped lead the school’s eco-racing team in its first try at the World Solar Challenge in Australia. She gravitates towards problem-solving and has always aimed to understand how things work, which is why Schmitz wanted her career to include engineering. “That’s really what it’s all about: getting to the root of the problem and then trying to find a solution.”

A lover of board games, Schmitz was drawn to F1 for its mix of engineering and problem-solving. (Gongora/NurPhoto / Getty Images)

Working in an automotive-related field became a given because of Schmitz’s love for cars, and as she progressed through her mechanical engineering studies at Cambridge, she honed in on Formula One. Her interest in this sport extends beyond being in the top series.

“It’s also the fact that every couple of weekends, you’ve got that competition,” Schmitz said. “There’s something to drive you. It’s immediate deadlines, it’s a very fast paced environment.”

Schmitz graduated during one of the more difficult times in global history: during the financial crisis in 2009. Nearly every company in the F1 world had a staff hiring freeze, but she landed a placement year at Red Bull, which is similar to a yearlong internship we see in the U.S. That turned into a full-time job when another employee left the company, and Schmitz began working her way up through the ranks. She started as a modeling and simulation engineer before transitioning into a strategy-focused role a few years later.

For nearly 13 years now, Schmitz has worked as a strategy engineer, influencing the formulation of race strategies. In her current job as principal strategy engineer, she looks at the larger picture and how Red Bull can win, she says. The 10,000-foot view sounds simple, but “how you do it is up to you.”

The data Schmitz and her teammates consider when creating race strategy previews include historic track information and recent race analysis so they can better evaluate both car and tire performances. And you can’t forget about the weather forecast, like in Miami this month, when rain the night before the race made the track less grippy. The F1 team generates vast numbers of Monte Carlo simulations that account for all known variables, such as how long a tire will last in specific conditions or likelihood of a safety car, to predict different outcomes and identify the best strategy options.

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“It’s not about always running the race in the fastest possible way,” Schmitz said. “It’s about beating your competitors and finishing ahead of them on track. And that’s not always doing what’s fastest.”

Chase what you love

Schmitz has become a recognizable figure around Formula One in recent years as she guided Red Bull through bold strategy calls.

During the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, she called for Verstappen to pit a third time. The Dutchman had to give up the race lead but later regained it — and she stood on the podium with him to gather the constructors’ trophy that his win secured. Then there’s the bold pit stop plan that shaped Sergio Pérez’s 2022 Monaco Grand Prix victory. Pre-race predictions indicated that a single stop would be Monaco’s quickest strategy, but Pérez went for three. After the race, Red Bull’s team advisor Helmut Marko said, “We were all exceptional, but if we won it was mainly due to Hannah.”

But the Schmitz moment most fans remember is the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix. One pivotal moment, Schmitz said, was changing the starting tire. Originally, Verstappen was going to start on the hard compound, but at the last minute, driver information revealed the “grip was really low” because there had been rain. Red Bull opted to swap the hards for the soft tires and then use mediums for later in the race. In the end, Verstappen navigated his way from a P10 start to what seemed to be an unlikely victory.

“It involved, obviously, having a great driver and a fast car,” Schmitz said. “But also, there were quite a lot of strategic decisions that were made throughout that helped.” Afterward, Verstappen praised Schmitz for being “insanely calm” and “very good.”

She and head of race strategy Will Courtenay alternate who works trackside and who works from Milton Keynes each race weekend. And there’s an entire team around them who “know what information you need to know and to pass it on. So the information I receive when I’m on the pit wall will just be the higher end information that’s really going to impact that decision,” such as tire degradation.

“The most important thing about doing the job, though, is staying calm under pressure,” Schmitz said. “When you’ve got all those voices, there’s always opinions as well as data.” One needs to take into account other’s views, but “it doesn’t mean they’re right over you. So I think you’ve also got to have strength and your own conviction.”

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Debrief meetings, which also happen throughout the weekend, are helpful to “get to the bottom of why they think that and why that’s different to what you think.” That’s where varying points of view can come in handy.

“A diverse team is the best kind of team, and it makes things stronger because then you have more different opinions or points of view coming from different places,” Schmitz said. “And I think that really helps make sure you don’t miss anything and that you can really be the best.

“The pinnacle team in the pinnacle of motorsport.”

Schmitz recognizes that when diversity is often mentioned, people often say they want to hire the best individual for the role. “I think the point is yes, we do want the best people for the job, and that’s not always a man. So you need to open up the opportunities so that you get to meet those people that will be the best people for the job.” Her advice is to chase what you love and study things because they interest you, rather than “because you want to get to x, y or z place.”

“Don’t be deterred just because there aren’t many women. That’s changed all the time, and to be honest, it doesn’t really matter,” Schmitz said. “It’s not like my job is any different to me being here than anyone else.”

The “Untold Stories” series is part of a partnership with Michelob ULTRA. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

(Top image: Mario Renzi, Mark Thompson / Getty Images; Design: Eamonn Dalton)

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