HANNAH SCHMITZ at centre of Red Bull’s US GP strategy review

October 29, 2026

• HANNAH SCHMITZ became Red Bull’s sole head of race strategy in 2026, replacing Will Courtenay who departed for McLaren — a reshaped department now under the microscope.
• SCHMITZ joined Red Bull in 2009 and rose to Principal Strategy Engineer in 2021, previously sharing trackside and remote duties with Courtenay on an alternating basis.
• The review centres on why Verstappen’s soft-soft-medium tyre plan at Austin produced higher-than-expected degradation — team principal Mekies admitted softs for stint two were “certainly not the baseline option.”
• A podcast claim from April suggested SCHMITZ could be next to exit Red Bull; the team has not confirmed this, and she remains in charge as the squad heads to Mexico City.

formula 1, mexico city grand prix, oracle red bull racing, united states grand prix