Former engineer discusses CHALLENGES of working with Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen, Helmut Marko, Gianpiero Lambiase & Blake Hinsey — Photo: © LAT Images

Red Bull

Former engineer discusses CHALLENGES of working with Verstappen

Verstappen's former performance engineer has opened up on what it is like to work with a Formula 1 world champion

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 24 August 2023 07:57 Updated: 09:12

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Max Verstappen's former performance engineer Blake Hinsey has said he left his role with the world champion because of the challenges faced by travelling around the world.

Hinsey worked with Verstappen in 2016 and 2017, following the now two-time world champion from an 18-year-old at Toro Rosso to his first steps as a Red Bull driver.

During this time, Verstappen won his first ever grand prix in Spain in his first race at Red Bull, before winning two more with Hinsey at his side.

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Of course, the Dutchman has now gone on to win 45 (and counting) grands prix, two world championships and is well on course to win his third following a blistering start to the season.

Speaking to the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Hinsey said: "Do I miss it? I don't miss the travelling. That's why I quit travelling at the end of 17.

"The, you know, 19 races looking at 24 races was a lot and it's a bit of a different story between Max. Max is sitting here winning world championships and I was at the time performance engineering a second/third place team and he's, like driving effectively on easy mode, not much challenge and all the races and travel.

"I get it, but even me, like I didn't have any aspirations to be like, 'Oh, I have to be a world championship winning engineer.' I was like, I do this because it's challenging and interesting and when it became too rinse and repeat, I was like, I'd like another challenge and that's when I decided to go back to the factory to focus on development rather than operation."

Verstappen "one of the easiest" to work with

Verstappen has been known to be a little bit short on the radio with his engineers, even this season when he seems to be cruising to race win after race win.

Verstappen has looked unstoppable in 2023, winning 10 of the 12 races so far

Despite this, Hinsey has said that Verstappen was actually very easy to work with, particularly when it came to race days.

"I'll be honest, like working with him was probably one of the easiest drivers I had to work with. The communication loop was super tight.

"A lot of it was nonverbal. I'd look through the data at night, have a chat with him, you know, before he left Friday night. What do you think about this? The tools, talk with GP [Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen’s race engineer] about the setup and that was it."