Who is Lee Stevenson, Verstappen's chief mechanic leaving Red Bull

Stevenson's career in motorsport began at the age of 15 at Jordan Grand Prix. He started working as a mechanic in 1999 and gained his first work experience there as a trainee. Five years later, in 2004, Stevenson was transferred to the racing team and in 2005, he worked on the back of Tiago Monteiro's car, which would finish 16th in the Formula 1 world championship that year with seven points.

Switch to Red Bull

This laid the foundations for Stevenson's eventual very successful career. In 2006, he made the move to Red Bull Racing, unaware at the time that he was joining a team that would later go on to compete for pole positions, race wins, and even world titles.

From the fourth mechanic, Stevenson became the second mechanic at Red Bull, eventually becoming the first mechanic on Daniil Kvyat's car in 2015. When the Russian was replaced by Max Verstappen in 2016, Stevenson first met now three-time world champion Verstappen.

Good relationship with Verstappen

The pair got along extremely well. "You can relate to their excitement," Stevenson told Formula 1's official channels in early 2020. "We have fun at the track and away from it – but Max knows 100 percent that in the garage, we’ll get the job done and that he can trust us."

For five seasons, the two worked intimately together, but after the 2020 season, Stevenson was given a different role within the team at his own request. Chris Gent became Verstappen's new first mechanic, and Stevenson took up the job as Support Team Chief Mechanic, the position below that of chief mechanic. "He has just had a small one and wants to move up in the team. Then he has to make this move, I totally understand. Fortunately, we have a lot of good guys in the team," Verstappen told De Telegraaf about it during the 2021 winter tests.

Undoubtedly one of Stevenson's highlights will have been repairing Verstappen's RB16 just before the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Verstappen damaged his car badly on the warm-up lap and looked unable to take part in the race. Thanks to a masterclass in tinkering from the mechanics - with Stevenson leading the way - Max was able to start anyway and crossed the finish line second just over an hour and a half later.

Promotion

So Stevenson wanted to move up after 2020, Red Bull offered him that opportunity and he grabbed it with both hands. The Austrian racing stable was very satisfied with his work and promotion followed before the start of the 2023 season: Stevenson became chief mechanic. Until the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, that is, because he will leave and move to 'the other end of the pit lane', without saying who his next client will be. At his new team, he will start as early as next weekend in Japan.

After nearly 20 years of service, Stevenson wanted something different. In a video message, he said goodbye. "Working on the first car over here, which is the RB2, then the RB16B, and then obviously the RB19. It's been an incredible journey. I just want to say thanks for everyone here. It's been an amazing time that I've had here. In 2006 when I started, I never thought we'd win races, get poles, win championships, but we've managed to do all of that."

Red Bull will miss Stevenson

Behind the scenes, Stevenson played an incredibly important - not always visible - role in recent years. Thanks in part to his efforts, Verstappen drove the most competitive car and perhaps the most reliable car in Formula 1 in recent years, leading to multiple world titles. It is also no coincidence that before his DNF, Verstappen finished in the points no less than 43 times in a row!

Stevenson's departure is a hard sell for Red Bull. One thing is certain: the team that got Stevenson is going to have a lot of fun with him.