McLaren announce signing of Will Courtenay from Red Bull as new Sporting Director

McLaren have announced the signing of Red Bull’s Head of Strategy Will Courtenay as their new Sporting Director.

Courtenay will leave Red Bull after two decades with the team, having joined them when they raced as Jaguar before the operation was bought by the energy drinks firm.

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His signing is part of McLaren’s strengthening of their senior leadership team, with Courtenay set to report into Racing Director Randeep Singh.

“We are delighted to welcome Will to McLaren,” said Team Principal Andrea Stella. “His experience, professionalism and passion for motorsport make him the ideal candidate to lead our F1 sporting function.

“We are now entering a key phase in our journey as a team, and we are confident that he will be a great addition to our strong leadership team as we strive to continue challenging for wins and championships.”

McLaren will have to wait a little under two years for Courtenay to join, though, with Red Bull saying he “continues to be part of their team seeing out his contract until mid-2026”.

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They added in a statement to F1.com: “Will has been offered the position of Sporting Director. After a long and successful service, being with the team since the Jaguar days, we are sad to see him go but wish him all the best in this step up.”

Courtenay is the third senior member of staff to choose to leave Red Bull in the last six months.

Design guru Adrian Newey is set to leave to become Managing Technical Partner at Aston Martin while Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley is to become Team Principal at Audi next season.

Red Bull have since restructured the team following Wheatley’s departure, with a series of changes headlined by Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase becoming Head of Racing.

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Courtenay will team up with former Red Bull colleague Rob Marshall at McLaren. Marshall joined the British team as chief designer at the start of this year.