Red Bull F1 Mastermind Hannah Schmitz Reveals the Game Plan That Gifted Max Verstappen His 8th Win of the Season

When Max Verstappen limped his way to P10 during the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, it almost seemed like the Dutchman’s hard-earned championship lead had gone to waste. But, boy did Red Bull revive the tumbling hopes with an ecstatic show on Sunday. The Milton Keynes outfit stunned the entire racing community with mind-blowing strategies and crucial last-minute decisions, which ultimately led Verstappen to stump his rival, Charles Leclerc.

As a matter of fact, one of those decisions pretty much defined Verstappen’s result at the Hungaroring. Prior to the start of the race, it looked like both Verstappen and his teammate, Sergio Perez, were prepping to start on the hard tires, considering the short straights and consequent difficulty in overtaking.

However, somehow, when the blankets came off the cars ahead of the formation lap, the raging bulls had soft tires on them instead. Of course, an awful lot of fans looked perplexed by Red Bull’s strategy. But, in the end, it was nothing but a sheer masterclass from the Christian Horner-led squad.

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Red Bull engineer reveals behind-the-scenes of Max Verstappen strategy

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Red Bull’s principal strategy engineer, Hannah Schmitz, unraveled the thought process behind the game-changing Hungarian GP strategy.

When asked about the pre-race tire change, she said, “Yeah, so, because we’re starting out of position, one of the maybe more classic strategies to do is to start on the harder tire and go much longer, particularly with overtaking being difficult in Hungary. So, that was our plan.

“But, we had also actually talked a lot pre-race about if the conditions are a bit damp and very cool as they might have been and that we could consider the soft tire as the alternative just because that might be better in those conditions. And then the lap to the grid both the drivers very vocal about having hardly any grip even though they’re already on the soft tire. 

“So, yeah, the race engineers were like, ‘I don’t think the hard’s a good idea’. We all had a long discussion about it with Christian as well and decided to change the soft tires. There was a little bit of rain in the air as well. So, really, that was the better tire for those conditions,” she added.

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Overall, Red Bull will be marching into the summer break with a massive championship advantage over Ferrari. But, can Ferrari pull off a miracle over the second half and re-ignite their title-winning hopes? Well, only time will tell.