Race Against Dementia has announced the extension of its partnership with Hintsa Performance – the coaching group behind 19 Formula 1 World Championships – to help researchers find treatments and cures for dementia, faster.
The partnership brings elite sport science into the lab, training researchers to manage energy, focus and recovery with the same precision as world-class drivers and teams.
Dementia steals time from millions of families every day. Race Against Dementia, founded by Sir Jackie Stewart, exists to win that time back: funding and mentoring brilliant early-career scientists worldwide and uniting the brightest minds from science, engineering and motorsport to rethink how research is done and accelerate progress.
Building on the success of previous cohorts, new Race Against Dementia Fellows will now take part in Hintsa’s elite coaching programme – following in the footsteps of F1 World Champions – to help accelerate breakthroughs and reduce the suffering caused by dementia.
Over the next eight months, Fellows will be guided through the same strategies and tools used by the world’s top performers – from Formula 1 drivers and Olympians to global CEOs and creative leaders – and apply them to life as researchers.
Each programme is individually tailored, offering guidance on sleep, nutrition, movement, focus and recovery, alongside the habits that protect long-term energy, clarity and health. This means Fellows can adopt small, sustainable changes that strengthen their performance both in life and in the lab.
” It reinforces the Formula 1 mindset and brings a performance-driven outlook”
“Our partnership with Hintsa helps our dementia researchers stay healthy, focused and performing at their best – so they can make progress faster. It reinforces the Formula 1 mindset and brings a performance-driven outlook right into the lab” said Mark Stewart, Chair of Trustees, at Race Against Dementia.
During a typical Hintsa session, Fellows analyse their week like an F1 driver reviews a lap – identifying what slowed them down, what improved performance, and how to maintain focus through pressure.
The impact is already being felt. Early results from previous cohorts show that Fellows report measurable improvements in focus, resilience, efficiencies and research productivity, allowing them to publish faster and collaborate more effectively.
“I found it valuable to learn strategies for maintaining focus”
Race Against Dementia Fellow Dr Maura Malpetti, who took part in the inaugural programme, said:
“The Hintsa programme helped me realise how much small routine changes can improve our performance as scientists. I found it valuable to learn strategies for maintaining focus, managing mental energy, and preparing for busy periods and deadlines. I really appreciated the personalised approach – working with my coach on what I wanted to improve and how to achieve it, because these things are different for everyone.
The programme also encouraged us to reflect on habits we have without realising, which can strongly affect long-term motivation. Having that insight is incredibly useful to stay focused and achieve long-term goals.”
Dan Sims, Hintsa’s Senior Performance Coach with 15+ years of experience in elite sport and business, added:
“In Formula 1, a lap time is the outcome of thousands of human choices – about sleep, fuel, preparation, recovery, and wellbeing. The same whole-person approach gives researchers the clarity and stamina to accelerate their discoveries.”
Hintsa-supported drivers have won 19 Formula 1 World Championships. Over the past twelve seasons, 92% of all F1 races have been won by a Hintsa-affiliated driver. Now, through this partnership, those same performance principles are being applied to accelerate progress in dementia research.
The successes from Race Against Dementia’s collaboration with Hintsa – the first time Formula 1 performance coaching has been formally applied to dementia research – shows how others research areas and programmes could benefit from following their lead, fast tracking discovery of cures and treatments for a wide-array of diseases.
In Formula 1, performance gains are measured in fractions of a second; in dementia research, they could mean years of life regained.
