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INEOS have taken the unusual step to hire a Data Science Consultant from the Mercedes-AMG Formula One team, for Manchester United.
Michael Sansoni spent almost 11 years with the Mercedes F1 team, first in race engineering before going on to become a performance simulation engineer.
In 2018 he became a senior performance simulation engineer at trackside, before, in 2023, becoming seven-time World Drivers’ Championship winner Lewis Hamilton’s trackside performance engineer.
In July 2024, Sansoni took to LinkedIn to celebrate 10 years with Mercedes F1.
He posted: “From day 1 as a fresh faced placement student. Graduating to working in vehicle dynamics and simulations.
“Then to trackside tyres and performance and now with eight championships during the time as performance engineer for Lewis. It’s been a mega 10 years – have loved every (milli)second.”
Mercedes F1 won an incredible eight World Constructor’s Championships between 2014 and 2021, but have struggled to adapt to new regulations in 2022.
It’s possible Sansoni’s decision to leave the team coincided with the departure of Lewis Hamilton, who started driving for Scuderia Ferrari at the start of this year’s F1 season, in March.
It is unclear what Sansoni’s exact job role is at Manchester United, but the appointment is likely related to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s demand for further data analysis at the club.
Speaking to The Times in March, Ratcliffe claimed: “United completely missed the data revolution, which Brighton and Brentford didn’t, which Liverpool didn’t either. Liverpool had Ian Graham analysing data between 2012 and 2023.
“They brought in Jürgen Klopp and they had Michael Edwards as sporting director and Graham, who is the genius in football on data analytics.”
“We’re still missing out,” he continued, “because we still don’t have data analysis at United.”
The introduction of a data scientist with extensive experience in data analysis from a different sport may seem unorthodox, but the benefits both on the pitch, and off it, may yet to be apparent.
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Source: Centred Devils
