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McLaren signs Red Bull’s Courtenay as sporting director
Another senior figure has opted to leave Red Bull, with Will Courtenay moving to McLaren to become its future sporting director.
Courtenay has been at Red Bull for 20 years – having previously been part of the Jaguar team before the change of ownership – and is currently the team’s head of race strategy. He will join McLaren at a date still to be confirmed as his current contract with Red Bull runs until mid-2026, and when he does so the new sporting director will report into racing director Randeep Singh.
“We are delighted to welcome Will to McLaren,” team principal Andrea Stella said. “His experience, professionalism and passion for motorsport make him the ideal candidate to lead our F1 sporting function.
“We are now entering a key phase in our journey as a team, and we are confident that he will be a great addition to our strong leadership team as we strive to continue challenging for wins and championships.”
McLaren already leads the constructors’ championship by 41 points from Red Bull, while Lando Norris has closed the gap to Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship to 52 points, having been 78 adrift after the summer break.
The news that Courtenay will move to McLaren marks the third senior team member to announce their departure from Red Bull this year, following chief technical officer Adrian Newey’s move to Aston Martin and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley’s switch to become the team principal of the future Audi F1 team.
Both Newey and Wheatley will start work with their new teams in 2025, while Courtenay’s arrival at McLaren is currently set to be a year later unless an agreement for an early release is reached with Red Bull.
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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