The man who keeps track of every single part on Max Verstappen’s car

Ed Hemsworth strides through the Red Bull Racing hospitality unit on a chilly Las Vegas night, blending seamlessly into the polo-clad army of mechanics, engineers and executives who make up one of the most successful teams in the history of Formula 1. But Hemsworth’s role — Race Parts and Lifing Controller — is a linchpin, an invisible yet indispensable thread that ties the factory to the track. The job of managing the thousands of components used to build a $15 million car demands an obsessive level of attention to detail and a deep love for the sport. “It’s only looking after little bits of metal and carbon,” Hemsworth told me, “but when you add it all together, it could be the one thing that stops you from putting an engine on the car.”

Much like Max Verstappen, the driver Hemsworth has worked with over the past four years, F1 wasn’t just a career aspiration — it was a family legacy. And like Verstappen, Hemsworth’s father instilled in him a relentless drive for perfection. “My dad was the testing manager at Arrows in the ’90s,” Hemsworth recalled. “I put all of [my success] down to what he taught us as kids: when you’re 12 years old raking grass in the garden and he tells you the piles are too far apart, you’re like ‘what the hell?’ But now I look back on it and realize I’ve gotten to where I am by being a bit of a perfectionist and a workaholic.”

The lessons learned in his childhood garden prepared Hemsworth for the all-encompassing demands of Formula 1. “I was used to my dad not being around much of the time … it’s a hard life and it can be difficult to manage stuff at home, but spending your Sunday on the grid and doing the pit stops is just the best thing in the world. I wouldn’t be the same person if I was away from the track.” (That commitment hasn’t gone unnoticed: in the short time since we spoke in Las Vegas, Hemsworth has been promoted. His younger brother, Oscar, inspired to join the racing team after seeing Hemsworth’s passion for the role, stepped into his shoes.)

“I can name every part number, the description, and how many we’ve got.”

So what exactly does the job of a race parts and lifing controller entail? As Hemsworth puts it, “I’m the main link to the factory for parts and operations.” He primarily works on Verstappen’s side of the garage, but provides support to his counterpart on Red Bull’s second team — soon to be Liam Lawson’s — in the event of a crash. “I make sure we’ve got all the right parts at the track, manage what bits we’re removing and adding each week, and ensure that it all gets there on Wednesday so that when the mechanics turn up on Thursday to set up the car, it’s ready.” And if — like me — you’re wondering what the “lifing” part of his job entails, in an F1 context, it’s the process of evaluating the durability of a component or part. As in, its lifespan.

Ed Hemsworth much more literally supporting Max Verstappen

Photo by: Red Bull Racing

For Hemsworth, every season begins long before testing, with a reset of the team’s parts system. “Everything gets taken out of the cabinets and you go back to zero. You’ve obviously got all the standard nuts and bolts which you’ll keep every year because you always need stock of those, but we completely rethink the layout of the cabinets and continually try to improve. Once you’ve started racing, you don’t have time to do the admin or have as much time in the factory.” That meticulous preparation is critical: the processes established in preseason will continue through to the final race in Abu Dhabi.

When Hemsworth hits the road, he’s also tasked with ensuring every nut and bolt is accounted for in compliance with FIA regulations. “We have to declare every part that we run because of the cost cap, so one of the biggest aspects of our job is making sure that when the FIA looks at our car on a Sunday night, we can prove all the parts that we ran,” he said. “We make sure that the computer version of the car matches the physical cars in the garage all the way through the weekend.” At this point in his career, Hemsworth is an encyclopedia. And if he’s doing his job perfectly, nobody would know he’s there. 

“I can name every part number, the description, and how many we’ve got,” he said with a hint of pride. “The mechanics do an amazing job, and when they turn around and say, ‘I need my next bit on the floor,’ we should be invisible behind them, and they should never know we’re there,” he explained. “If something breaks on the car, and the guys haven’t even had to come and ask, or they haven’t even had to think about it being replaced and it’s there behind them — that’s my job done well.” 

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

Photo by: Red Bull Racing

Hemsworth’s initiation into the sport was a trial by fire. He joined the team in 2021 at the height of Verstappen’s rivalry with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. “I was still so green and was going to races not fully understanding how things worked, but I had to get up to speed quickly because we were fighting with Mercedes and crashing into each other,” he said. Silverstone 2021 — only the 10th race of Hemsworth’s career — remains etched in his memory as his hardest day on the job.

“It was the worst crash anyone here had ever seen,” he said of Verstappen’s lap-one tangle with Hamilton, which sent the Dutchman hurtling into the barrier at 180mph. “When you’re sweeping up parts of the car that our driver sat in, there’s the realization that we’re not just messing around with toys here. This isn’t a game where you can press the reset button, this is people’s lives — and it was a massive eye opener.” 

Despite the challenges of the season, which saw Verstappen clinch his maiden world title at the eleventh hour in Abu Dhabi, Hemsworth is grateful for the tough initiation. “2021 was an amazing experience that set me on this path. If 2023 was your first year [at Red Bull], you’d probably be thinking, ‘‘everyone should do this racing thing.’”

The past few seasons have been defined by Red Bull’s dominance, but 2024 brought new challenges. “It was a lot more difficult. Even towards the end of the season, when we’d normally [continue with the same setup], we were doing more every week to try and keep the competitive edge,” Hemsworth said. “In 2023 we were so good that it got a bit easy. The car was inherently quick everywhere we went — we rolled it out the door on Friday morning and we’d be 20 seconds up the road,” he said. “Now we’re fighting every week, but it’s good for everyone because the [competition] is what keeps us all here.”

Hemsworth is also a member of the pit crew

Photo by: Red Bull Racing

Though Red Bull finished third in the constructors, Verstappen maintained his lead over Lando Norris to secure his fourth world championship. Hemsworth is unequivocal in his praise for the driver, whom he describes as the greatest of all time. “It’s incredible to have been on the journey with Max for all of his championships, and to say you were part of that, even just by being trackside,” he said. “We treat him like a normal member of the team because the minute the drivers step out the door, they’re these superheroes … it must be so difficult to be put on such a pedestal.” 

Hemsworth has gotten his own taste of fame, albeit on a much smaller scale, thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the F1 broadcast. “We probably all play up to the cameras a little bit, and you do think in the back of your head, ‘this is awesome,’” he admitted. “It’ll be good fun to show your grandchildren in 50 years’ time.”

Most of his screen time comes during the race when he takes on his other job: as rear jack man on Verstappen’s pit crew. “I love doing pit stops. It’s the only time we can really impact the race result, so there’s a lot of adrenaline. We’re not professional athletes, but it’s nice to feel like you’re leaned on by the driver and by the team,” Hemsworth explained. 

Ahead of the 2025 season, Hemsworth was promoted to Red Bull’s Race Team Coordinator

Photo by: Red Bull Racing

Considering the importance placed on pit stops (Red Bull’s fastest stop in 2024 was 1.90 seconds), the whole process is surprisingly ad hoc. “There’s no training for it. You’re basically asked, ‘Do you want to have a go at that?’ Then you mess it up for a couple of weeks before you find your rhythm,” Hemsworth told me. “Once you’ve done it 1000 times it becomes muscle memory, but there’s still that nervousness at the start of every race.” 

As Hemsworth steps into his new role as Race Team Coordinator, his focus is shifting from the technical minutiae to the broader challenge of managing relationships and operations across the team. “I love the technical side of things, and I think I’ll miss that, but stepping back to see the bigger picture of Formula 1 as a sport is exciting,” he said. Inspired by his father, Hemsworth dreams of becoming a team manager one day, but he’s acutely aware of the challenges that accompany life in the pit lane. “At some point, there’s going to be a pull home, and kids and family will take priority. But at the moment, I’m all-in and still want to be trackside. I want to win championships and help push the team forward.”