The 2023 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which was held last weekend over 58 laps of the 5.281-kilometre Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island, marked the last race in red for an important figure in the Ferrari entourage: Rupert Manwaring, personal trainer of Carlos Sainz Jr and the son of the engineer of the same name who worked in Formula 1 in the 1980s and 1990s.
The British professional performance coach and sports therapist has been alongside the Spanish driver since 2015, but from the upcoming Formula 1 season, he will be working with Max Verstappen. The latter’s athletic trainer had already announced at the beginning of the year his intention to leave his role to spend more time at home with his family.
The directly involved parties have not commented on the news, which comes from motorsport journalist Chris Medland and De Telegraaf. Little is known about these movements, such as the reasons that led Rupert Manwaring to move to Milton Keynes and who will replace him with the Scuderia Ferrari. “A transfer almost in football style,” wrote the journalist for Motor Sport Magazine, and it will have relevance in a sport that is becoming increasingly physical and extreme.
Manwaring is affiliated with Hintsa Performance, the performance coaching firm founded by the late Dr. Aki Hintsa, known for his collaborations with Lewis Hamilton and Mika Hakkinen. Unfortunately, Dr. Hintsa passed away in 2016 after a battle with cancer. Interestingly, Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, had previously collaborated with Manwaring’s father, who shares the same name, Rupert, during Jos’s racing career.
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