As the 2024 F1 season has progressed, Red Bull Racing has faced challenges not only in maintaining its on-track dominance but also in retaining key personnel. After Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley’s departures, reports suggest that the Austrian team is looking to promote Hannah Schmitz to cover for yet another major departure.
As reported on Instagram by @f1gossipofficial, Schmitz found herself in the spotlight this week after Chief Advisor Helmut Marko labeled her as a potential candidate for promotion to Red Bull’s Strategy Director—a position previously held by Will Courtenay. Just a week ago, McLaren announced that Courtenay would be joining them as their new Sporting Director.
During one of his interviews this week, Marko spoke about Courtenay’s departure from the team and how they are planning to handle the situation. He seemed to be confident that Schmitz was the right person to replace him. And it is for a good reason too.
Schmitz, who currently holds the position of Principal Strategy Engineer at the Austrian squad, has often led the team to victory through her strategy calls. She has also been regarded as one of the most successful women in F1.
“When you are successful, it is normal to attract people and among us,” said Marko. “There is someone who can take on this role, and that is Hannah Schmitz..”
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This opportunity for Schmitz has come mere days after Red Bull promoted another one of its top employees.
Red Bull recently promoted Max Verstappen’s race engineer
Wheatley was one of the recent departures from the Austrian team, as he is set to join Sauber/Audi as their new Team Principal in 2025, leaving the role of Sporting Director vacant at Red Bull.
Wheatley’s role was so vital to the team that Red Bull decided they needed several people to fill the gap, one of whom is Max Verstappen’s current race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.
Known in the F1 community as ‘GP,’ the Italian-British engineer was recently promoted to Head of Racing at Red Bull. However, it won’t impact his already existing role of serving as Verstappen’s race engineer.
“He already did more than just being my race engineer anyway” ️
Max Verstappen has brushed off any concerns about the promotion of his long-term race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase #F1https://t.co/b2EYqULHrM
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 1, 2024
When asked about the added responsibility on his race engineer, Verstappen was rather calm about it and hinted that the decision was well thought out by the team. “I mean, he already did more than just being my race engineer anyway. So I think it’s well-thought-out and basically spreading a bit of the workload. So for me, that’s fine,” said the 27-year-old.
