"As a woman unfortunately that was harder" - Red Bull chief strategist opens up about her struggles before finally earning 'respect'

Max Verstappen has taken all the plaudits for Red Bull Racing over the last two years and team principal Christian Horner has been the public face and voice of the organization's success on the management side. However, there is one person who has played a key role in cementing the team at the top of the sport — chief strategist Hannah Schmitz.

Schmitz, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, has played a crucial role in many wins for the team, most notably Sergio Perez‘s Monaco Grand Prix win and Verstappen's triumph at the Hungaroring.

In fact, the Dutchman made special mention of the 38-year-old after his Hungarian GP win last year. He said:

“Today, I think Hannah, our strategist, was insanely calm. Yeah, she’s very good. You can’t afford many mistakes. It’s of course very hard to always be on the good side, let’s say it like that. But I think we have a lot of good guys and girls in the team.”

After graduating in 2009 with a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Schmitz took up an internship with Red Bull Racing that same year, joining as the team's Modelling and Simulation Engineer. In 2011, she was made the Senior Strategy Engineer, a position she held for a decade.

It wasn't all smooth sailing for her though, as she found it tough to gain people's confidence as a strategist, a task she felt was made even more difficult owing to her gender. She told Red Bull's website:

“I think there’s a lot of people that initially maybe don’t have the confidence in you to do the job. As a strategist you have to tell a lot of people what to do and they’ve got to listen to you, so it’s building up that trust and I think as a woman unfortunately that was harder, but now I have that respect and I hope other young women who want to get into the sport will see that you can do it, can embrace it, and we’ll see more diversity.”

However, it was in 2019 that Formula 1 took proper notice of her existence when she made a fantastic call at the Brazilian GP to give Verstappen a win. To reward her for her role in the victory, the team sent Schmitz to the podium to collect the trophy.

Speaking about that moment, she said (via Total Motorsport:)

“It was an incredibly special moment and the pinnacle of my career. I’d actually just come back to work after having my first child so that was quite a big thing for me, to prove I was still here and could do the job well. It was just an incredible experience.”

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Red Bull to unveil 2023 F1 car on February 3

Red Bull Racing have announced that they will reveal their 2023 Formula 1 car on February 3, at 9 am ET (2 pm GMT) in New York. The team will also showcase their new team kits, driver suits, and more.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit has named its 2023 car RB19, following the normal number system from last year. The entire show is set to be streamed online on Red Bull's official YouTube channel.