Max Verstappen has ordered every Red Bull Racing mechanic, strategist and catering assistant to complete nine hundred standing starts a day on a full-scale replica grid built inside the Milton Keynes factory, declaring that the team will not leave for another circuit until the entire staff can beat him off the line.
The programme, which Verstappen calls «the launch academy», runs from four in the morning until midnight. Each employee must sprint from a marked box the instant a light panel goes dark, then repeat the drill while wearing a full race suit, helmet and radio headset. Those who react slower than the four-time world champion are required to run a further two hundred metres carrying a front wing.
«We have identified the problem, and the problem is that everyone around me is slower than me», Verstappen said. «So we are fixing everyone. The car is fine. The car has always been fine. It is the people.»
Red Bull has converted two nearby warehouses into dormitories so staff can sleep between sessions, and has hired a former Olympic sprint coach to shout split times through the factory loudspeakers. Team principal Christian Horner has reportedly been assigned the same regime and now holds the garage record for a standing start at 0.19 seconds, a figure Verstappen described as «acceptable for a manager».
By the end of the week, the entire factory was said to be leaving the line before the lights went out, and Verstappen was said to be pleased.