Red Bull loses key engineers as Verstappen trails Antonelli in championship
Red Bull Racing faces a critical technical crisis as Max Verstappen trails Kimi Antonelli by 111 points. The team has lost chief designers and engineers to rivals, leaving a hollowed-out staff to manage the car while leadership changes disrupt long-term development plans.
Max Verstappen sits second in the drivers’ championship with 279 points, trailing Kimi Antonelli’s 390. The Dutchman has won four consecutive titles, yet the engineering backbone that built those cars is now gone. I see a team stripped of its core identity while it tries to chase a driver who remains on the grid. The exodus began in May 2023 when chief engineering officer Rob Marshall left for McLaren after 17 years. Adrian Newey announced his departure in 2024 and joined Aston Martin in 2025. Jonathan Wheatley exited in 2024 to lead Sauber’s switch to Audi, though he left Audi just two rounds into the 2026 season. Will Courtenay followed Marshall to McLaren as sporting director at the end of 2025, and Helmut Marko departed around the same time. This hollowing out leaves the current technical staff managing a car that no longer reflects the original design philosophy.
The latest exits and remaining leadership
Chief designer Craig Skinner’s departure was announced in February, just before the season began. He starts at Cadillac as Chief Development Engineer on 18 November. Red Bull called his exit a resignation, but De Telegraaf journalist Erik Van Haren later claimed he had been dismissed. Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen’s race engineer since 2016, is joining McLaren as chief racing officer "no later" than 2028. Zak Brown has hinted the move could happen as early as 2027. Tom Hart engineered Verstappen in Austin and Brazil and is due to do so again in Las Vegas before he takes over full time. Former Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough arrives as Red Bull’s head of racing in 2027. High-profile garage mechanic Calum Nicholas also left his role for an in-house position away from the race team.
Pierre Wache, who joined in 2013 and led the technical team since 2018, remains in charge. Hannah Schmitz was promoted to head of strategy for 2026 after Courtenay left. Kenny Handkammer claimed she could be next to go in April, but no move has been announced. Paul Monaghan, at Red Bull since the end of 2005, was linked with a move to Cadillac, but the team confirmed he remains. Christian Horner was replaced by Laurent Mekies after being told it was "more Christian Horner Racing than Red Bull Racing". The abruptness of that decision set the tone for the rest of the departures. I view this as a clear failure of retention strategy; losing three consecutive chief designers within three years undermines any long-term development plan. The remaining crew must stabilize the car before the next season, or Verstappen’s title defense will crumble under the weight of institutional amnesia.
