From F1 to football: former Hamilton's engineer embarks on a massive career switch

07:31, 13 Aug

Updated: 07:53, 13 Aug

byTobia Elia

Michael Sansoni, who served as Senior Performance Engineer during Lewis Hamilton’s time at Mercedes, will take on the role of Director of Data for the English football club Manchester United.

Michael Sansoni, who served as Senior Performance Engineer during Lewis Hamilton’s time at Mercedes, will take on the role of Director of Data for the English football club Manchester United.

Joining Mercedes in 2014 — the first year of the Silver Arrows’ dominance in the hybrid era — Sansoni initially worked in an industrial placement within the race engineering department, before being promoted to Performance Simulation Engineer in August 2015.

In 2016, he held the same role trackside, later stepping up to Senior Performance Engineer from 2018 to 2022.

From 2023 until April 2025, he worked as Performance Engineer for Lewis Hamilton, prior to Hamilton’s move to Ferrari earlier this year.

Sansoni is now set for a new challenge: applying his expertise to the world of football. The Briton will serve as Director of Data for Manchester United, one of the most famous football clubs in the world and partly owned by the Ineos Group, headed by Sir Jim Ratcliffe which in turn owns one-third of Mercedes’ shares.

Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Belgium

Past and present of Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli

Manchester United welcomes Sansoni

“Mike Sansoni has joined as director of data, following 11 years with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, where he was most recently senior performance engineer and contributed to eight world championship-winning seasons,'' the club confirmed in an official statement.

“Reporting to Omar Berrada, chief executive, Sansoni will be responsible for transforming the club’s capabilities in data and artificial intelligence, drawing on his experience in machine learning and advanced modelling in Formula 1.''

Sansoni excited for his new challenge

Sansoni expressed his excitement for this new chapter: “I’m incredibly proud to have joined Manchester United as Director of Data, reporting into our CEO Omar Berrada.''

“I’m very lucky to have had not just one, but two dream jobs. After a phenomenal time in Formula 1, it’s a privilege to now be part of the biggest club in world football. Over the past few months, we’ve already made meaningful progress.''

“With new methodologies starting to take shape and two fantastic signings, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, already reflecting some of that early work.''

“I’ve inherited a brilliant team: smart, committed, and hungry to make a difference and together we’re building a world-class data and AI function to power decision-making across football and the wider club.''

“The challenge is great, but so is the opportunity. Thanks to everyone at United who’s made me feel so welcome. It’s an honour to be here. He has been tasked with establishing Manchester United as a data-led organisation, embedding predictive and AI-driven decision-making across football and the wider club.''

“To support these objectives, further recruitment is planned into a number of data, software and platform engineering roles in the coming months, as Sansoni builds out his team.”