Former Verstappen Control Engineer Michael Manning Joins Williams

Michael Manning, the Red Bull veteran who spent nearly 15 years managing Max Verstappen's race starts and clutch procedures, has joined Williams as Chief Engineer, Trackside Engineering. His arrival marks another key recruitment from Milton Keynes as the Grove outfit continues its rebuild.

Why it matters:

Williams has been aggressively targeting proven talent from championship-winning teams to fix its trackside operations. Manning's intimate knowledge of start sequences and launch control offers precisely the kind of marginal-gain expertise that can turn grid positions into points.

The Details:

• Manning joined Red Bull in January 2011 and served as Verstappen's control engineer, overseeing clutch and launch systems during the team's dominant run.
• He left the team after the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, stepping back following a decade and a half at Milton Keynes.
• Performance engineer Tom Hart made the same switch to Williams around the same period, highlighting a growing technical pipeline between the two teams.
• In his LinkedIn announcement, Manning praised Williams' historic pedigree but stressed that the team's future ambition drew him to Grove.
• He noted he would reunite with Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon, having worked with both drivers during their earlier Red Bull-affiliated careers.

What's next:

Manning's appointment signals Williams' intent to sharpen race-day execution as it pushes toward the front of the midfield. His expertise should help translate factory progress into cleaner weekends—starting with the launches that set the tone on lap one.