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The <strong>Red</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> 4 July, 2021 redbulletin.com/f1special<br />
F1 <strong>Red</strong> Bull Ring Team Talk 11<br />
GETTY IMAGES/RED BULL RACING, GETTY IMAGES, KONSTANTIN REYER<br />
Performance Engineer:<br />
TOM HART<br />
What’s the difference between a<br />
Race and a Performance Engineer?<br />
The Race Engineer is responsible for<br />
the overview of his or her driver’s<br />
whole weekend, looking at the big<br />
picture of run plans, working with<br />
the strategists and decision-making<br />
on the pit wall during the race, while<br />
the Performance Engineer is there to<br />
sift through the data and the driver’s<br />
feedback in order to build the best race<br />
car for the conditions. On Max’s crew<br />
that job falls to new boy Tom Hart.<br />
Until this year Max’s Performance<br />
Engineer was Hugh Bird who has<br />
now moved to the other side of the<br />
garage to work as Sergio Pérez’s Race<br />
Engineer. Hart has stepped into the<br />
role on Max’s side of the garage.<br />
“It’s working really well,” says Max.<br />
“It always needs a bit of time to settle<br />
in but I would say straight from the<br />
start Tom is doing a great job. He’s<br />
very social as well; he can be pretty<br />
funny. He’s not a total nerd! He’s very<br />
clever and he knows what I want from<br />
the car and he is very quick in finding<br />
solutions when I have little issues.”<br />
“HE KNOWS<br />
HE HAS TO<br />
TRAIN AND<br />
MAX IS VERY<br />
DISCPLINED.”<br />
BRADLEY SCANES,<br />
PERFORMANCE COACH<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull Racing’s lightningfast<br />
pit stops have been a<br />
major factor in his success.<br />
<strong>Red</strong> Bull Motorsport Advisor:<br />
HELMUT MARKO<br />
A famously hard taskmaster, Dr<br />
Helmut Marko, through the <strong>Red</strong><br />
Bull Junior Programme, has been in<br />
large part responsible for bringing<br />
exceptional talents such as Sebastian<br />
Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos<br />
Sainz to Formula 1. Marko brought<br />
Verstappen to the programme from<br />
Formula 3 in August 2014 and within<br />
days revealed that the 16-year-old<br />
would drive for Toro Rosso in 2015.<br />
Since then the two have developed<br />
a deep alliance, which Max insists is<br />
founded in plain-speaking simplicity.<br />
“Helmut is like a father to me, yes,”<br />
says Verstappen. “He says what he<br />
thinks and is always straightforward<br />
and I like that. With him there are<br />
no bull**** stories. That rapport<br />
with Marko is just very good and the<br />
one with Christian too. We’ve been<br />
through so much over the years. We<br />
get on well together.”<br />
Performance Coach:<br />
BRADLEY SCANES<br />
Another relatively new arrival to Max’s<br />
team is physio and performance coach<br />
Bradley Scanes. The Englishman, who<br />
also works as a consultant to British<br />
Gymnastics, took over the role from<br />
Max’s previous trainer Jake Aliker in<br />
early 2020 and since then has worked<br />
closely with the <strong>Red</strong> Bull driver to<br />
keep him in top shape for the season.<br />
“My wife will say I spend more time<br />
with Max than with her,” he says. “But<br />
it’s going well in our marriage.<br />
“It is really important to be in good<br />
shape,” he adds. “If not, it can cost<br />
you lap time on track. If in the final<br />
laps of a race you are getting fatigued,<br />
it can affect you mentally, which can<br />
have consequences.” Not that the<br />
championship contender is a huge fan<br />
of training. “Max doesn’t really have<br />
favourites. Training isn’t his biggest<br />
hobby, that’s driving a car. But he<br />
knows that he has to, and Max is very<br />
disciplined. If he has to choose, he’d<br />
prefer going for a run and working<br />
with weights on<br />
his balcony.”