The man who keeps track of every single part on Ma...

Ed Hemsworth strides via the Purple Bull Racing hospitality unit on a cold Las Vegas evening, mixing seamlessly into the polo-clad military of mechanics, engineers and executives who make up one of the profitable groups within the historical past of System 1. However Hemsworth’s function — Race Elements and Lifing Controller — is a linchpin, an invisible but indispensable thread that ties the manufacturing unit to the monitor. The job of managing the hundreds of elements used to construct a $15 million automobile calls for an obsessive stage 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 whenever you add all of it collectively, it may very well be the one factor that stops you from placing an engine on the automobile.”

Very like Max Verstappen, the motive 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 “I put all of [my success] all the way down to what he taught us as children: whenever you’re 12 years outdated raking grass within the backyard and he tells you the piles are too far aside, you are like ‘what the hell?’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.”

The teachings realized in his childhood backyard ready Hemsworth for the all-encompassing calls for of System 1. “I used to be used to my dad not being round a lot of the time … it is a onerous life and it may be tough to handle stuff at residence, however spending your Sunday on the grid and doing the pit stops is simply the most effective factor on the earth. I would not be the identical individual 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 affix the racing group after seeing Hemsworth’s ardour for the function, stepped into his sneakers.)

“I can identify each half quantity, the outline, and what number of we’ve bought.”

So what precisely does the job of a race elements and lifing controller entail? As Hemsworth places it, “I’m the primary hyperlink to the manufacturing unit for elements and operations.” He primarily works on Verstappen’s facet of the storage, however offers assist to his counterpart on Purple Bull’s second group — quickly to be Liam Lawson’s — within the occasion of a crash. “I ensure that we’ve bought all the appropriate elements on the monitor, handle what bits we’re eradicating and including every week, and make sure 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 element or half. As in, its lifespan.

Ed Hemsworth rather more actually supporting Max Verstappen

Picture by: Purple Bull Racing

For Hemsworth, each season begins lengthy earlier than testing, with a reset of the group’s elements system. “All the pieces will get taken out of the cupboards and also you return to zero. You’ve clearly bought all the usual nuts and bolts which you may hold yearly since you all the time want inventory of these, however we fully rethink the format of the cupboards and frequently attempt to enhance. As soon as you’ve got began racing, you do not have time to do the admin or have as a lot time within the manufacturing unit.” That meticulous preparation is crucial: the processes established in preseason will proceed via to the ultimate race in Abu Dhabi.

When Hemsworth hits the street, he’s additionally tasked with making certain each nut and bolt is accounted for in compliance with FIA laws. “We’ve got to declare each half that we run due to the associated fee cap, so one of many greatest features of our job is ensuring that when the FIA appears to be like at our automobile on a Sunday evening, we will show all of the elements that we ran,” he stated. “We ensure that the pc model of the automobile matches the bodily automobiles within the storage right through the weekend.” At this level in his profession, Hemsworth is an encyclopedia. And if he’s doing his job completely, no one would know he’s there. 

“I can identify each half quantity, the outline, and what number of we’ve bought,” he stated with a touch of pleasure. “The mechanics do an incredible job, and after they flip round and say, ‘I want my subsequent bit on the ground,’ we needs to 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 executed nicely.” 

“It’s unimaginable to have been on the journey with Max for all of his championships,” he stated

Picture by: Purple Bull Racing

Hemsworth’s initiation into the game was a trial by hearth. He joined the group 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 totally understanding how issues labored, however I needed to rise 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. “Whenever you’re sweeping up elements 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 sport the place you may press the reset button, that is individuals’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 powerful initiation. “2021 was an incredible expertise that set me on this path. If 2023 was your first 12 months [at Red Bull], you’d most likely be considering, ‘‘everybody ought to do that racing factor.’”

The previous few seasons have been outlined by Purple Bull’s dominance, however 2024 introduced new challenges. “It was much more tough. Even in the direction of the top of the season, after we’d usually [continue with the same setup], we had been doing extra each week to try to hold the aggressive edge,” Hemsworth stated. “In 2023 we had been so good that it bought a bit simple. The automobile was inherently fast in every single place we went — we rolled it out the door on Friday morning and we’d be 20 seconds up the street,” 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 also be a member of the pit crew

Picture by: Purple Bull Racing

Although Purple 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 motive force, whom he describes as the best of all time. “It’s unimaginable 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 standard member of the group as a result of the minute the drivers step out the door, they’re these superheroes … it have to 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 most likely all play as much as the cameras a bit of bit, and also you do assume behind 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 screen time comes through the race when he takes on his different job: as rear jack man on Verstappen’s pit crew. “I like doing pit stops. It’s the one time we will actually impression the race end result, so there’s quite a lot of adrenaline. We’re not skilled athletes, but it surely’s good to really feel such as you’re leaned on by the motive force and by the group,” Hemsworth defined. 

Forward of the 2025 season, Hemsworth was promoted to Purple Bull’s Race Group Coordinator

Picture by: Purple Bull Racing

Contemplating the significance positioned on pit stops (Purple 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 principally requested, ‘Do you wish to have a go at that?’ You then mess it up for a few weeks earlier than you discover your rhythm,” Hemsworth advised me. “As soon as you’ve got executed it 1000 occasions it turns into muscle reminiscence, however there’s nonetheless that nervousness at first of each race.” 

As Hemsworth steps into his new function as Race Group Coordinator, his focus is shifting from the technical trivia to the broader problem of managing relationships and operations throughout the group. “I like the technical facet of issues, and I feel I’ll miss that, however stepping again to see the larger image of System 1 as a sport is thrilling,” he stated. Impressed by his father, Hemsworth desires of turning into a group supervisor someday, however he’s aware of the challenges that accompany life within the pit lane. “Sooner or later, there’s going to be a pull residence, and children and household will take precedence. However in the meanwhile, I’m all-in and nonetheless wish to be trackside. I wish to win championships and assist push the group ahead.”