The Formula One race weekend in Saudi Arabia may be the turning point in Red Bull’s lack lustre season so far. The team has been accused of ‘losing the plot’ with the departure of key individuals such as Adrian Dewey and Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley who have left for pastures new.
Under the radar an maybe as influential a figure as Newey, was Rob Marshall who joined McLaren in 2024 with a promotion to Technical Director in Woking following a seventeen year tenure with the Red bull racing team.
Team boss Christian Horner is repeatedly asked about the team’s recent personnel departures and his repeated conclusion is that this is just all part of the ‘ebb and flow’ of people coming and going from any kind of company.
Red Bull accused of “spite”
When asked at the start of this year, whether a rebuild was going on with the departures of Newey and Wheatley, Horner was candid, stating “I would say rebuild goes way too far for two people that have left. It’s evolution.”
Whilst the reasons for the departure of Newey and Wheatley are patently obvious, one being promoted to team boss at Audi with there being no chance of such a role within Red Bull Racing. Newey has always wanted equity in a Formula One team, something Lawrence Stroll offered him at Aston Martin with shares in Red Bull never on offer for either him or team boss Horner.
The next in line to leave Red Bull will be the team’s chief strategist, Will Courtney, who has a deal with McLaren starting in 2026. Yet much is being made of the fact that Horner et. al are refusing to release the head of strategy early, instead retaining his services on the pit wall to the day his contract wit Red Bull expires.
Thee BBC’s chief F1 correspondent now writes: “Will Courtenay, their head of strategy, he’s already signed to join McLaren in 2026 and Red Bull almost like a sort of act of spite or peak, if you like, because of the relationship between Christian Horner and Zak Brown, McLaren’s chief executive officer, they’re not letting him go yet. Even though he’s basically already sort of half in his mind in McLaren.”
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Treason within Red Bull suspected
The implications of Benson’s suggestions, are that Red Bull are unwise to retain the high profile services of Courtney to the very end given his input could be crucial as to whether McLaren or Red Bull are lifting titles come Abu Dhabi later this year. A deeper dive into the thinking from Benson would reveal there is the suggestion that Courtney could in fact nobble Red Bull this year in favour of his new employer to be.
Yet of there were any potential for this kind of skulduggery in the collective minds of the Red Bull management, they could of course still “spite” McLaren from benefitting from his services quickly, by putting him on garden leave and promoting early his successor.
Yet the head of Aston Martin strategy until recently, Bernie Collins, was stunned by the brilliance Courtney displayed during qualifying in Saudi Arabia and claims Verstappen’s magical pole position in the dying seconds of the session were more than in part to Red Bull’s quick thinking strategist.
With the final session red flagged with 8 mins and 32 seconds remaining, following Lando Norris crashing heavily into the barriers, only Oscar Piastri had set a time for his first of two runs planned for Q3.
The genius call from Re Bull strategist
The McLaren’s, George Russell and Max Verstappen had each two newsiest of the soft tyre available going into the final part of qualifying and Russell and Norris were winding up for their first pus run. Whilst Mercedes strategists napped as they did in Abu Dhabi 2021, Will Courtney at Red Bull quickly decided there was enough time for Verstappen to complete his planed to runs on the tyres available.
This required the RB21 to be fuelled for five laps and not the regular three, as Red Bull planned to make a lightning stop for the second set of new tyres after Verstappen’s first run. With more fuel than Piastri and tyres not as perfect as were the Australian’s when he claimed the first pole time of the session, Verstappen man handled his RB21 to just 3 thousands of a second better than the time set by McLaren driver – with a heavier car and more fuel.
With no Norris to fall back on, Piastri was then under pressure to deliver an even faster lap and he did so. But as the chequered flag fell, it was Max who blasted across the line to claim pole with a time just 3/100ths ahead of Piastri.
Mercedes had a similar opportunity had they realised, to give George Russell two runs as Courtney did for Verstappen. The cost of not doing so was high when the Mercedes driver having just one shot at the pole position, claimed he overheated his tyres deliberately for the opening corners, to ensure he wasn’t missing vital grip. Yet Russell admitted he had to pay that advantage back in sector three as his tyres were past their prime.
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Russell bemoans just one final run
Max’s advantage over the Mercedes driver was obvious from comments Russell made following the session. While Max was getting his eye in on run one, Russell was sitting in the garage. Having got his banker lap in, Max could then do everything necessary to ensure his final lap was at the absolute limit.
“Usually on your last lap in Q3 you are fully, fully sending it,” Russell mused in the press conference. “I thought ‘I need to go hotter with my tyres to ensure there are no mistakes at Turn 1’. It cost me in the last sector. I lost a tenth-and-a-half.”
Bernie Collins of Sky and ex-chief strategist for Aston Martin, marvelled at Courtney’s quick thinking and the “phenomenal” Red Bull strategy team. “We know Max is a phenomenal driver, we’ve seen that year in, year out. We’ve seen him put laps together when we didn’t think it was possible, Japan’s a good example this year.
“I was frantically in the comms box trying to work out from a timing point of view what was possible, they’ve got much better clues on the pit wall, but to have that discussion early, to go through it, they’ve got a phenomenal strategy team there. Will Courtenay is on the pit wall this weekend, they have decided quite early that two runs was possible, can we make that happen, fantastic result for them.”
Its as though Red Bull thumbed their noses up at Benson’s earlier suggestions and whilst Courtney had no control over Norris causing the Red Flag, his was the quickest thinking mind in the paddock. The information given to Max was that he would have just 20 seconds of spare time available to ensure he made the all important second run before the clock wound down.
Whilst Max delivered an incredible lap which looked to have more time in hand if needed, Russell bemoaning his single run for pole position proves all is well with the Red Bull strategy team. This is now the second time in five Grand Prix this year, Red Bull have in qualifying out thought and out delivered over their competition. Courtney will be missed when he leaves, but his replacement Hannah Schmitz is a capable engineer and her involvement in the qualifying masterplan hatched in seconds by the Red Bull strategy team, will stand her in good stead when she takes the lead of the strategy team next season.
To question Courtney’s loyalty to his Red Bull team has been proven farcical, as has the Red Bull decision to refuse him early leave to go to McLaren which has been justified on track in Jeddah.
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Hamilton’s Ferrari journey takes a turn for the worst, as history begins to repeat itself with the Italian media.
Whilst the headlines from the 2024 Formula One season, were that McLaren broke a 26 year wait for the constructors’ trophy and Verstappen became just one of four drivers in F1 history to claim four consecutive drivers’ titles, the long divorce between Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton was never far from the surface.
Hamilton arrived in Maranello to a fanfare laid on by Ferrari and local police in the town declared a ‘state of emergency’ calling in officers from other regions to police the expected mass crowds arriving to see Ferrari’s latest world champion driver.
Known for his love of whacky fashion, Lewis was impeccably dressed sporting a striped navy three-piece suit designed by iconic fashion brand Ferragamo. Toto Wolff later joked that Hamilton had been with Mercedes for twelve years and repeatedly refused to wear a suit, but for Ferrari he scrubbed up on day one…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
