Last Updated on January 5 2026, 9:07 pm

McLaren’s silent power play as Red Bull’s long-standing core continues to erode – While the biggest headlines in Formula 1 are usually reserved for drivers and team principals, some of the most consequential moves happen quietly in the background. While Courtenay’s long-confirmed arrival at McLaren may not have been met with much fanfare, it represents one of the most strategically significant appointments of the current season, and another subtle signal that Red Bull’s once-untouchable inner circle is no longer intact.

Courtenay’s move from Red Bull Racing to McLaren was agreed as early as September 2023. However, it was only confirmed this weekend that the Briton had finally taken up his new role in Woking, following a 15-month delay imposed by his former team. During that time, Red Bull refused to release one of its most influential long-term figures early, effectively keeping him on gardening leave while the competitive landscape continued to shift around them.

 

 

A Hire That Signals Intent, Not Headlines

At McLaren, Courtenay does not arrive as a race-by-race strategist, but as Sporting Director, a role that speaks to long-term structure rather than immediate lap-time gains.

It is a notable choice. McLaren could have pursued high-profile technical figures or sought out driver drama. Instead, they waited patiently to secure someone with two decades of institutional knowledge from their main rival.

That patience now looks deliberate. McLaren’s recent resurgence has been built less on disruptive signings and more on refining its internal processes. Courtenay’s appointment fits neatly into this philosophy, strengthening operational decision-making and aligning race strategy with team-wide execution to reinforce the systems that turn performance into points.

This is not a move designed to grab attention. It is designed to endure.

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Red Bull’s Reluctance, and What It Reveals

Red Bull’s refusal to grant Courtenay an early release highlights just how valuable his expertise was considered to be within the team. After 22 years with the team, including the last 15 as Head of Race Strategy, he had become deeply embedded in the processes that underpinned Red Bull’s championship dominance.

However, the extended delay also highlights a growing tension within modern Formula 1: teams are increasingly locking down senior personnel, not to deploy them, but to prevent rivals from benefiting from their expertise. While this practice is legal and increasingly common, it raises questions about whether such defensive measures ultimately protect competitive advantage or simply delay the inevitable.

By the time Courtenay arrives in Woking, Red Bull has already begun to evolve without him.

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Another Crack in a Once-Stable Core

Courtenay’s departure is not an isolated case. Over the past two seasons, Red Bull has seen a series of long-serving senior figures leave, signalling a gradual erosion of a leadership group that once appeared immovable.

Red Bull’s exceptionality was not just down to speed, but also to continuity: the same people refining the same systems over many years. However, big names such as Adrian Newey, Rob Marshall, Christian Horner, Jonathan Wheatley, Helmut Marko, and now Courtenay are gone.

 

This continuity is now thinning futher

There is ongoing speculation about further potential exits, including that of Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase AKA ‘GP’, who has been linked with moves elsewhere in the paddock. Whether or not these rumours come to fruition, the pattern is increasingly difficult to ignore.

Red Bull remains a formidable force, for now, but the era of absolute stability behind the scenes is clearly coming to an end.

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Two narratives, one moment

For Courtenay himself, the long-awaited move was handled with his usual professionalism. In his announcement, he described his time at Red Bull as ‘two incredible decades’, thanking his colleagues and acknowledging their shared success. However, his focus is now firmly on the future, as he commits to helping McLaren “continue its recent successes in the coming years”.

This neatly encapsulates the broader picture.

For McLaren, this is a calculated power play, clearly an investment in leadership that denies another major Formula 1 player a valued senior figure. For Red Bull, it is evident that even the strongest dynasties eventually begin to crumble.

The effects may not be immediate. But structural changes in Formula 1 rarely announce themselves loudly. They simply start to become apparent on race days.

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NEXT ARTICLE – Ferrari’s 2 cars designed for 2026. More Maranello madness?

The six race run in which concluded the 2024 Formula One season did not quite have the excitement of 2025 where the drivers’ championship was decided at the final chequered flag of the season. Max Verstappen in fact claimed the 2024 title in Las Vegas with two race weekends remaining.

However in terms of the constructors’ championship, the 2024 run in was nail biting for McLaren who once held a 74 point lead over Ferrari as the sport embarked on its final two triple header six races.

Two wins together with six podiums from Austin to Abu Dhabi saw the Scuderia come within just 14 points of their first championship since 2008. Yet at the annual Ferrari festive bash, Fred Vasseur announced that their 2025 F1 challenger would be an entirely new car.

 

Ferrari strange decision in 2024

This was confusing for a number of reasons. Firstly the SF-24 finished the year the strongest, but the Scuderia designed a car for 2025 that was “99% new components.” The team switched their tried and tested front suspension from its push rod configuration to a pull rod design.

But this was the final year of a set of car design technical regulations and the remainder of the field were refining their 2024 challenger. The result? The decision was proven to be a huge mistake, as the Scuderia failed to win a single Grand Prix and claimed just seven podiums all thanks to Charles Leclerc.

Now La Gazzetta in Italy is reporting Ferrari have design two cars for 2026, one for early testing and the other for the opening round of the season in Australia. Of course teams historically have launched a car for testing and then refined it significantly before it first races in anger, but two cars to start the year?

Yet building two different cars before the tyre turns in anger seems a strange approach, yet the madness of Maranello means nothing can be ruled out from the mercurial F1 racers. “Fred Vasseur’s team will present itself to the pre-seasonal tests with different versions of the same car, to best test solutions and set-ups,” reports La Gazetta…READ MORE ON THIS STORY