During the first practice session for the Belgian Grand Prix, Sergio Perez was unhappy with his car. He complained about its balance over the team radio.
The surprising part was hearing a different voice responding to Perez instead of Hugh Bird.
Who is Perez’s new race engineer?
Red Bull Racing shared that Richard Wood was on the radio with Perez during FP1. Wood, who usually works as Perez’s performance engineer, stepped in temporarily while Bird remained on the pit wall in Belgium.
Richard Wood has been at Red Bull since 2012. Initially involved in race strategy, he transitioned to an analyst role in 2013. By 2016, he became a Race Support Engineer and later moved to Simulator Performance Engineer in 2020. From the start of 2021, he’s been working closely with Perez as his Performance Engineer.
Red Bull often switches engineers during practice sessions for training purposes. In 2023, Gianpiero Lambiase also let Max Verstappen‘s performance engineers take charge during some sessions before stepping back in for crucial moments. Bird did something similar for Perez this weekend.
Fans might think it’s interesting to see how teams rotate their engineers like this.
This kind of rotation helps engineers gain experience and be ready for any situation .
What do you think about teams rotating their engineers?
