Hannah Schmitz has given an insight into how the strategy decisions are made, and who contributes to the decision-making process. In a race which came down to a battle of pit strategy, Red Bull emerged victorious from the Hungarian Grand Prix after outwitting championship rivals Ferrari. With Red Bull's Max Verstappen running behind the two Ferraris midway through the race at the Hungaroring, Red Bull made the decision to make their final stop before their rivals. Verstappen's stop for fresh Medium tyres triggered a reaction from Ferrari, who fitted then-race leader Charles Leclerc with Hard tyres. The championship leader passed a struggling Leclerc a couple of laps later and went on to take the victory and extend his title advantage to 80 points.
Schmitz praises "collaborative" Red Bull approach
Red Bull were praised for their choice of tactics, including starting Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez on Soft tyres, and their Principal Strategy Engineer, Schmitz, received many plaudits. Speaking on Sky's Any Driven Monday programme, Schmitz gave insight into the decision-making process behind their race-winning strategies. "We're all very much a team. Throughout the weekend it's very collaborative with listening to everybody's different opinions and points of view. It's not always just about the numbers and the data," said Schmitz. "The drivers have a lot of feeling in the car, so we try to take that on board, and take on board what the race engineers are looking at, which may be different data to the strategists. "[We take] all that information on board and we discuss everything, but at the end of the day it is a strategy call. "So then we'll make the final call, but we try and work as a team and use as much information as we can to make those decisions."
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