HANNAH SCHMITZ TO BECOME RED BULL’S HEAD OF STRATEGY
Helmut Marko announced that Red Bull has chosen Hannah Schmitz as the successor to Will Courtenay, who has signed with McLaren.
Last week, McLaren revealed that they had appointed Red Bull’s head of strategy, Courtenay, as their new sporting director. Red Bull’s strategy hierarchy currently consists of Courtenay as head of race strategy, senior strategy engineer Stephen Knowles, and Schmitz as chief strategy engineer.
Although Courtenay will join McLaren in 2026, Red Bull stated that he will remain part of the team until mid-2026 to fulfill his contract. Red Bull confirmed that Courtenay had been offered the sporting director role at McLaren.
“After a long and successful tenure, we are sad to see him go, but we wish him all the best in this next step of his career,” Red Bull stated. The team has already selected his replacement.
Marko commented, “It’s natural for people to get offers when you’re successful.”
“We have someone within our ranks ready to take over, and that person is Hannah Schmitz.”
“Will Courtenay wasn’t interested in what we offered. He received a more financially attractive offer for this position,” he added.
