Former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya examines the current situation at Red Bull. The Colombian is concerned about the exodus at the team, especially because there is a ‘strong rumor,’ in Montoya’s words, going around that the last key figure has not yet left. ‘There is a strong rumor that Hannah Schmitz, Red Bull’s strategy engineer, is also leaving,’ said the current analyst.
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Red Bull has faced a significant exodus in recent years. Key figures such as Rob Marshall, Will Courtenay, Jonathan Wheatley, and Adrian Newey have already left the Austrian racing team. Former team principal Christian Horner was dismissed, while Helmut Marko hung up his advisor hat at the end of 2025. Gianpiero Lambiase – Max Verstappen’s regular race engineer – will leave for McLaren after 2027.
Montoya is concerned
The current situation at Red Bull worries former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya. “If you ask Red Bull, they will say everything is fine, that they really have good people moving up and that they are covered,” the current analyst told a betting platform. “That may be true, but every time someone leaves, that is a void that needs to be filled. And the problem is that you cannot fill the void with the same, because the next person is different. That is the hardest part.”
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Hannah Schmitz
Furthermore, the exodus at Red Bull is reportedly not over yet. “There is a strong rumor that Hannah Schmitz, Red Bull’s strategy engineer, is also leaving,” said Montoya. The Colombian is not the first to come forward with this rumor. Former Red Bull mechanic Kenny Handkammer previously claimed the same. “It seems that Hannah Schmitz is also leaving,” he said on the The Two Mechanics podcast. Schmitz started as a strategy engineer at the Austrian racing team in 2009 and has since become a mainstay at the pit wall for Red Bull. Her strategies have already delivered multiple wins for Max Verstappen.
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