Red Bull line-up takes shape as Helmut Marko names next in line for promotion

Hannah Schmitz is expected to replace Will Courtenay as Red Bull’s head of race strategy

Helmut Marko has revealed Red Bull already have Will Courtenay’s successor lined up, “and that is Hannah Schmitz”.

McLaren announced last week they’d lured Courtenay away from his role as Red Bull’s head of race strategy, signing him their new sporting director. Red Bull, though, won’t have to look far for his replacement.

Red Bull have ‘someone with us’ who can replace Will Courtenay

Red Bull’s strategy hierarchy comprises head of race strategy Courtenay, senior strategy engineer Stephen Knowles, and Schmitz as the principal strategy engineer.

Taking up that role in 2021, Schmitz has played a huge part from the pit wall in many of Red Bull’s inspired strategies but was put firmly in the spotlight at the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.

That Sunday she made the late call to change Max Verstappen’s start tyre, allowing him to undercut his rivals to race from 10th on the grid to victory.

Afterward, Verstappen praised Schmitz for being “insanely calm” and “very good”.

There was heady praise for the Red Bull strategy team, including Schmitz, a year later when former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya declared: “Red Bull is so good strategically that compared to them everyone else looks stupid.”

However, Schmitz’s days of alternating time on the pit wall with Courtenay are coming to an end after McLaren announced they’d sign him as their new Sporting Director.

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He, however, won’t join until 2026 with Red Bull saying he “continues to be part of their team seeing out his contract until mid-2026.

“Will has been offered the position of Sporting Director. After a long and successful service, being with the team since the Jaguar days, we are sad to see him go but wish him all the best in this step up.”

Red Bull already have his replacement lined up.

“It’s a natural development, when you’re successful, that people are poached,” Marko told Motorsport-Total.

“There is someone with us who can take over this position, and that is Hannah Schmitz.

“What we offered Will Courtenay did not interest him. And he had an offer for this position, something that is also more financially attractive.”

News of Courtenay’s move to McLaren follows Red Bull’s restructuring of their team management, with Verstappen’s race engineer GianPiero Lambiase moving up to the role of head of racing from next year.

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