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Ed Hemsworth strides by the Crimson Bull Racing hospitality unit on a cold Las Vegas night time, mixing seamlessly into the polo-clad military of mechanics, engineers and executives who make up some of the profitable groups within the historical past of Components 1. However Hemsworth’s position — Race Components and Lifing Controller — is a linchpin, an invisible but indispensable thread that ties the manufacturing facility to the monitor. The job of managing the 1000’s of elements used to construct a $15 million automobile calls for an obsessive degree of consideration to element and a deep love for the game. “It’s solely taking care of little bits of steel and carbon,” Hemsworth advised me, “however once you add all of it collectively, it could possibly be the one factor that stops you from placing an engine on the automobile.”
Very similar to Max Verstappen, the driving force Hemsworth has labored with over the previous 4 years, F1 wasn’t only a profession aspiration — it was a household legacy. And like Verstappen, Hemsworth’s father instilled in him a relentless drive for perfection. “My dad was the testing supervisor at Arrows within the ’90s,” Hemsworth recalled. “I put all of [my success] all the way down to what he taught us as children: once you’re 12 years outdated raking grass within the backyard and he tells you the piles are too far aside, you are like ‘what the hell?’ However now I look again on it and understand I’ve gotten to the place I’m by being a little bit of a perfectionist and a workaholic.”
Ed Hemsworth joined the crew in 2021
Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing
The teachings discovered in his childhood backyard ready Hemsworth for the all-encompassing calls for of Components 1. “I used to be used to my dad not being round a lot of the time … it is a arduous life and it may be tough to handle stuff at dwelling, however spending your Sunday on the grid and doing the pit stops is simply the very best factor on this planet. I would not be the identical particular person if I used to be away from the monitor.” (That dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed: within the quick time since we spoke in Las Vegas, Hemsworth has been promoted. His youthful brother, Oscar, impressed to hitch the racing crew after seeing Hemsworth’s ardour for the position, stepped into his footwear.)
“I can identify each half quantity, the outline, and what number of we’ve acquired.”
So what precisely does the job of a race components and lifing controller entail? As Hemsworth places it, “I’m the primary hyperlink to the manufacturing facility for components and operations.” He primarily works on Verstappen’s facet of the storage, however supplies assist to his counterpart on Crimson Bull’s second crew — quickly to be Liam Lawson’s — within the occasion of a crash. “I make certain we’ve acquired all the suitable components on the monitor, handle what bits we’re eradicating and including every week, and be certain that all of it will get there on Wednesday in order that when the mechanics flip up on Thursday to arrange the automobile, it’s prepared.” And if — like me — you’re questioning what the “lifing” a part of his job entails, in an F1 context, it’s the method of evaluating the sturdiness of a part or half. As in, its lifespan.
Ed Hemsworth rather more actually supporting Max Verstappen
Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing
For Hemsworth, each season begins lengthy earlier than testing, with a reset of the crew’s components system. “All the pieces will get taken out of the cupboards and also you return to zero. You’ve clearly acquired all the usual nuts and bolts which you will maintain yearly since you at all times want inventory of these, however we fully rethink the structure of the cupboards and frequently attempt to enhance. As soon as you have began racing, you do not have time to do the admin or have as a lot time within the manufacturing facility.” That meticulous preparation is vital: the processes established in preseason will proceed by to the ultimate race in Abu Dhabi.
When Hemsworth hits the highway, he’s additionally tasked with guaranteeing each nut and bolt is accounted for in compliance with FIA laws. “Now we have to declare each half that we run due to the fee cap, so one of many largest facets of our job is ensuring that when the FIA seems at our automobile on a Sunday night time, we are able to show all of the components that we ran,” he stated. “We make it possible for the pc model of the automobile matches the bodily automobiles within the storage all over the weekend.” At this level in his profession, Hemsworth is an encyclopedia. And if he’s doing his job completely, no person would know he’s there.
“I can identify each half quantity, the outline, and what number of we’ve acquired,” he stated with a touch of delight. “The mechanics do a tremendous job, and once they flip round and say, ‘I would like my subsequent bit on the ground,’ we must be invisible behind them, and they need to by no means know we’re there,” he defined. “If one thing breaks on the automobile, and the blokes haven’t even needed to come and ask, or they haven’t even had to consider it being changed and it’s there behind them — that’s my job achieved properly.” 
“It’s unbelievable to have been on the journey with Max for all of his championships,” he stated
Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing
Hemsworth’s initiation into the game was a trial by hearth. He joined the crew in 2021 on the peak of Verstappen’s rivalry with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. “I used to be nonetheless so inexperienced and was going to races not absolutely understanding how issues labored, however I needed to stand up to hurry shortly as a result of we had been preventing with Mercedes and crashing into one another,” he stated. Silverstone 2021 — solely the tenth race of Hemsworth’s profession — stays etched in his reminiscence as his hardest day on the job.
“It was the worst crash anybody right here had ever seen,” he stated of Verstappen’s lap-one tangle with Hamilton, which despatched the Dutchman hurtling into the barrier at 180mph. “Once you’re sweeping up components of the automobile that our driver sat in, there’s the belief that we’re not simply messing round with toys right here. This is not a recreation the place you may press the reset button, that is folks’s lives — and it was a large eye opener.”
Regardless of the challenges of the season, which noticed Verstappen clinch his maiden world title on the eleventh hour in Abu Dhabi, Hemsworth is grateful for the robust initiation. “2021 was a tremendous expertise that set me on this path. If 2023 was your first yr [at Red Bull], you’d in all probability be pondering, ‘‘everybody ought to do that racing factor.’”
The previous few seasons have been outlined by Crimson Bull’s dominance, however 2024 introduced new challenges. “It was much more tough. Even in direction of the tip of the season, after we’d usually [continue with the same setup], we had been doing extra each week to attempt to maintain the aggressive edge,” Hemsworth stated. “In 2023 we had been so good that it acquired a bit simple. The automobile was inherently fast all over the place we went — we rolled it out the door on Friday morning and we’d be 20 seconds up the highway,” he stated. “Now we’re preventing each week, but it surely’s good for everybody as a result of the [competition] is what retains us all right here.”
Hemsworth can be a member of the pit crew
Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing
Although Crimson Bull completed third within the constructors, Verstappen maintained his lead over Lando Norris to safe his fourth world championship. Hemsworth is unequivocal in his reward for the driving force, whom he describes as the best of all time. “It’s unbelievable to have been on the journey with Max for all of his championships, and to say you had been a part of that, even simply by being trackside,” he stated. “We deal with him like a traditional member of the crew as a result of the minute the drivers step out the door, they’re these superheroes … it should be so tough to be placed on such a pedestal.”
Hemsworth has gotten his personal style of fame, albeit on a a lot smaller scale, due to Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the F1 broadcast. “We in all probability all play as much as the cameras slightly bit, and also you do assume at the back of your head, ‘that is superior,’” he admitted. “It’ll be good enjoyable to point out your grandchildren in 50 years’ time.”
Most of his display time comes throughout the race when he takes on his different job: as rear jack man on Verstappen’s pit crew. “I really like doing pit stops. It’s the one time we are able to actually impression the race end result, so there’s plenty of adrenaline. We’re not skilled athletes, but it surely’s good to really feel such as you’re leaned on by the driving force and by the crew,” Hemsworth defined. 
Forward of the 2025 season, Hemsworth was promoted to Crimson Bull’s Race Crew Coordinator
Picture by: Crimson Bull Racing
Contemplating the significance positioned on pit stops (Crimson Bull’s quickest cease in 2024 was 1.90 seconds), the entire course of is surprisingly advert hoc. “There is not any coaching for it. You’re mainly requested, ‘Do you need to have a go at that?’ Then you definitely mess it up for a few weeks earlier than you discover your rhythm,” Hemsworth advised me. “As soon as you have achieved it 1000 instances it turns into muscle reminiscence, however there’s nonetheless that nervousness firstly of each race.”
As Hemsworth steps into his new position as Race Crew Coordinator, his focus is shifting from the technical trivia to the broader problem of managing relationships and operations throughout the crew. “I really like the technical facet of issues, and I believe I’ll miss that, however stepping again to see the larger image of Components 1 as a sport is thrilling,” he stated. Impressed by his father, Hemsworth desires of turning into a crew supervisor sooner or later, however he’s conscious about the challenges that accompany life within the pit lane. “Sooner or later, there’s going to be a pull dwelling, and youngsters and household will take precedence. However in the meanwhile, I’m all-in and nonetheless need to be trackside. I need to win championships and assist push the crew ahead.”
On this article
Emily Selleck
Components 1
Tradition
Max Verstappen
Crimson Bull Racing
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Author : Motorsports
Publish date : 2025-01-14 20:31:13
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