Red Bull brain drain not “normal” amid “nobody will be left” warning

Guenther Steiner has warned that Red Bull’s strategy team will take a major hit when Will Courtenay leaves.

Red Bull's head of race strategy will join McLaren as their sporting director, reportedly from mid-2026.

Steiner insists it is a further blow to Red Bull but they have the power to recover.

“Sooner or later, nobody will be left at Red Bull! There will be no office space,” Steiner, an ex-Red Bull employee, told the Red Flags podcast.

“I know Will, he was there a long time. I think I employed him in the beginning.

“It’s one of those things. He didn’t see progression within Red Bull, and got an offer from McLaren to be sporting director.

“They don’t have one, and Andrea Stella doesn’t want to do it all himself.

“Will is a good hire for them. He knows his way around, he knows strategy, he knows sporting rules.

“Red Bull is restructuring anyway, and maybe he wasn’t part of their plans.

“These things happen in F1. But, for sure, it does not make Red Bull stronger with people like Will leaving.”

'McLaren not the strongest with strategy'

Courtenay’s role with race strategy has been key to Red Bull’s dominance, leading to Max Verstappen’s three consecutive F1 championships, Steiner insists.

Red Bull make the least mistakes,” the former Haas team boss said.

“The strategy, you don’t hear if it goes right. You only hear if it goes wrong.

“You rarely hear it go wrong at Red Bull, and Will is a part of it. He’s the head of it.

“As a sporting director, I don’t know if strategy will work for Will at McLaren.

“But he knows how to do it, and what is needed. It will help them.

“McLaren is not the strongest with strategy.”

'Long list of people leaving'

Steiner expressed his concern for the quantity of departures from Red Bull.

Courtney follows Adrian Newey (who will join Aston Martin) and Jonathan Wheatley (who will go to Audi) as high-profile members of staff through the exit door.

“It’s a little bit more than normal,” Steiner said about the brain drain.

“Go back to last year. How many people left? Nobody.

“This year they are leaving left, right, and centre. There is a long list of people leaving.

“But it’s also [psychological] - people have been there a long time. “Someone leaves and they say ‘that will be a good move for me, as well, let’s get out while I’m still worth a lot of money because I was in the best team of the past five years’.

“You have a value. If you wait too long and the team isn’t strong, your value goes down.”

Team principal Christian Horner remains at the helm after a difficult year when he went through an investigation into his behaviour, and has had to cope with Red Bull’s on-track decline.

“The captain is still there, Christian. The engineers are still there,” Steiner said.

“Pierre Wache is still there, he’s very good.

“They will build up again with younger talent.

“It gives opportunity to people who otherwise would go. With people on top leaving, there are the next people coming in.

“They could be as good as the people leaving, or better. You just don’t know, you need to find out.

“They can fill a lot of the jobs from within.”