Hannah Schmitz to lead Red Bull strategies after Will Courtenay’s departure. Hannah Schmitz to lead Red Bull strategies after Will Courtenay exit.

Many departures from Red Bull F1
The prophecy expressed a few months ago by Jos Verstappen seems to be coming true. The departures of some key figures in Red Bull’s technical department, including Rob Marshall, who went to strengthen McLaren’s ranks, were not isolated. In fact, internal disputes within the team to assume power after Dietrich Mateschitz’s passing – culminating in the controversy between the Austrian faction and the Anglo-Thai group led by Christian Horner – have led to more important departures during 2024.

Not only record-breaking engineer Adrian Newey, of course, but also long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, who will become team principal of Audi-Sauber, and now the head of strategy Will Courtenay, who has also left for Woking. According to Helmut Marko, however, the departure of the head of on-track tactics, who will become McLaren’s new sporting director, is not truly concerning since there are already replacements ready for promotion.

Promotion for Hannah Schmitz?
Replacements that, in fact, are far from being hasty substitutions. In addition to the technical reorganization at Red Bull announced in recent days, it is likely that Hannah Schmitz, the English engineer widely regarded as the mastermind behind some of the team’s most important recent victories (most notably, the strategic masterpiece at the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix), will be promoted. “The departures? It’s a physiological evolution,” Marko said in a long interview with Motorsport-Total, “because when you’re so successful, people leave. But there is already someone with us who can take that role, and that person is Hannah Schmitz.”

Only Max Verstappen is indispensable
Despite the departures, according to Helmut Marko, there is only one person absolutely essential for future success: Max Verstappen. “What we offered Will Courtenay didn’t interest him, and then he received an offer for the role of sporting director, which was more attractive to him, even financially. But it’s clear that we now have to ensure we can win the world championship this year and build a fast car for the next. But the most important thing of all is that we can keep Max Verstappen with us.” – the Red Bull boss concluded.