{"id":510770,"date":"2026-03-01T00:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510770\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:57:11","slug":"red-bull-strategy-engineer-honoured-at-australian-grand-prix-for-international-womens-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/510770\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull strategy engineer honoured at Australian Grand Prix for International Women’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schmitz said the honour was a lovely recognition of women in F1 and admitted \u201cit\u2019s not something I ever expected\u201d.<\/p>\n

For those unfamiliar with the intricacies behind F1, Schmitz\u2019s role boils down to analysing the weather, tyres, the track and pit stops times to prepare the best possible strategy for the weekend. When unexpected circumstances hit like a red flag or collision, she has to make the most optimal decision \u2013 typically in under 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

Red Bull principal strategy engineer Hannah Schmitz will have Turn 6 of the Aus GP named in her honour. Credit: Red Bull <\/p>\n

Schmitz said she has always been a quick thinker, joking she always \u201cliked organising everybody and making sure everyone knew what they were doing\u201d.<\/p>\n

A childhood love of murder mystery game Cluedo and chess instilled a passion for problem-solving, which propelled her towards a master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering at Cambridge.<\/p>\n

Schmitz came from a sport-loving family, but wouldn\u2019t describe herself as a lifelong F1 fan. She\u2019d always had an interest in cars and started watching motor sport when she was a teenager, compelled by the strategic thinking behind race wins.<\/p>\n

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Red Bull and Schmitz are busy preparing for the Australian Grand Prix this week \u2013 the first time fans will get to see the new cars and new regulations in racing action.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

As F1 teams brace to see how their new cars fare on Albert Park\u2019s street circuit, Red Bull is also dealing with significant personnel change.<\/p>\n

The team lost revered designer Adrian Newey in 2024 \u2013 who later defected to Aston Martin \u2013 and abruptly fired longtime team principal Christian Horner in 2025 and replaced him with Laurent Mekies. The announcement came more than a year after Horner was accused of misconduct toward a team employee, allegations which were dismissed after an investigation.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Six months after Horner\u2019s departure, the team announced their motor sport advisor Helmut Marko was stepping down after more than 20 years with the team.<\/p>\n

I ask Schmitz how the team as a whole feels in 2026 and whether they have adapted to the changes in management? Before Schmitz can answer, Red Bull\u2019s communication manager politely interrupts and tell us to skip past that question.<\/p>\n

\"Schmitz<\/p>\n

Schmitz has worked with Verstappen for a long timeCredit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Schmitz is allowed to talk about Verstappen though, describing the Dutchman as one of the drivers she has worked with the longest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of trust there,\u201d she said when asked abut their working relationship. \u201cI think that\u2019s really important from a strategy point of view, that the drivers can trust that you\u2019re going to be making the best decisions, and that you can also quite openly discuss [things] before a race.\u201d<\/p>\n

In preparation for International Women\u2019s Day, Schmitz \u2013 a mother to two daughters \u2013 wants to reflect on her grandmother Jackie\u2019s legacy, who sadly died a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

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Schmitz described her grandmother as an incredibly strong and intelligent woman who fought against expectations she should leave school at 14 to go work at a cotton mill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it made me realise that a lot of the women in the family have the attitude \u2026 where if someone tells you that you can\u2019t do something or that\u2019s not really an appropriate job, it\u2019s just something we tend to ignore and do anyway,\u201d Schmitz said.<\/p>\n

When asked about the future of women in motorsport, Schmitz said the possibility of seeing a female F1 driver within the decade would be wonderful, but concedes it\u2019s not an even playing field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019ll be so much extra pressure, on [a woman] which is the thing that\u2019s really difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s not many women \u2013 engineers or driver or anything \u2013 so they end up with kind of this extra pressure to deal with as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think initiatives like the F1 Academy are at least giving people a lot more opportunity to race in motorsport and get that experience,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I really hope so, I think it is a sport where gender shouldn\u2019t really impact your ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schmitz said the honour was a lovely recognition of women in F1 and admitted \u201cit\u2019s not something I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-510770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}