Parc Ferme: McLaren needs a woman!

Despite Formula 1’s misogynistic past, women are becoming increasingly represented, fully clad, in the boardroom, in race strategy, pit spannering and TV punditry. Everywhere, apart from the actual racing bit, but hey, that’s another story. In fact, when it comes to pit wall race strategy, they are very much the tour de force.

Without a doubt, Max Verstappen owes a number of his 61 victories to the calculator and cunning of Hannah Schmitz, who became Red Bull Racing’s Principal Race Strategist in 2021. In particular, his 2022 Hungarian and Dutch Grand Prix victories where her decisions were considered a major contribution to the wins. Especially the Hungaroring when he started in tenth, halfway down the grid!

A further example of the female predilection for pit stops and tyre cunning is Rosie Wait, Mercedes AMG F1's Head of Strategy since 2018. Whilst the Silver Arrows form has taken a dip in recent years, she was there when Lewis Hamilton was kicking the doors in.

Ironically, I believe her greatest contribution was to maximise the team’s results in 2022-23, when the W13s and 14s were about as effective as one-legged men in an ass-kicking contest. Excellence in race strategy was one of the key components that helped George Russell and Lewis deliver results beyond the potential of the cars.

As a consequence, the team secured a flattering third and then second place in the F1 Constructors' Championship. Think how much money that result put in the company coffers compared to fourth and fifth place. No doubt Toto Wolff dropped the Ferrari race strategists a €100k cheque in their Xmas card, together with a thank you note.

Fast forward to 2025 and these two ladies are delivering in spadefuls! Both had skin in Lewis’s and Max’s respective finishing games at Silverstone. I’m not belittling the drivers' contribution, which is massive.

However, when the lap times are as close and conditions variable, tyre choice and timing of pit stops are pivotal. Lando Norris had the quickest car and arguably was equal to the two drivers who finished ahead of him. But, he came in third, due to race strategy, or an absence of it.

McLaren have the car and the drivers. However, they don’t seem to have any race game on the pit wall. The converging of team lap times means that race strategy is becoming more significant in defining podium success. A phenomenon that will only grow when the new 2026 anti-race driving regulations come into being.

If McLaren wants to get ahead and regularly reach the top step of the podium, it should invest some serious dollars and poach one of these two ladies. It is ironic that Hannah Schmitz was recognized by the McLaren Autosport Award for Female Engineer of the Year in 2022 but apparently not seen for where her value truly lies.