Former Red Bull mechanic says Hannah Schmitz could be next to leave after Gianpiero Lambiase

Red Bull’s leadership drain shows no sign of slowing

Former Red Bull mechanic Kenny Handkammer has suggested that Hannah Schmitz could be the next senior figure to leave the team, adding fresh fuel to the sense that the Milton Keynes-based outfit is losing too many of its key people.

Lambiase is due to take up the role of Chief Racing Officer at McLaren, where he will report to team principal Andrea Stella. Less than a week after that move was confirmed, Handkammer claimed there could yet be another senior departure to follow.

Handkammer points to Schmitz as the next possible exit

Speaking on the Two Mechanics podcast, Handkammer said the continued loss of senior figures was a serious issue for Red Bull and suggested Schmitz could be the next name on the list.

“The decline of Red Bull is quite sad. If I were the CEO of Red Bull global, I’d be thinking. Look who he has lost, Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Gianpiero Lambiase and Will Courtenay,“ Handkammer said.

“It looks like Hannah Schmitz, Head of Strategy, is rumoured to go too, all these massive key people and talks are there’s going to be more. That’s a real head scratcher. How do you reconfigure the team?”

For Red Bull, the concern is not simply the scale of the turnover, but the concentration of departures in the team’s most influential technical and strategic roles. Handkammer’s comments reflect a growing sense that the squad is being asked to absorb repeated change at the top.

Who is Hannah Schmitz?

Schmitz, 40, is widely regarded as one of the most talented figures in the Formula 1 paddock. She joined Red Bull in 2009 as a Modelling and Strategy Engineer and has risen steadily through the organisation.

In 2011, she became Senior Strategy Engineer, before being promoted to Principal Strategy Engineer in 2021. In 2026, she became Red Bull’s Head of Race Strategy following Courtenay’s move to McLaren.

Her reputation was further underlined after the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, when Max Verstappen praised her contribution to one of Red Bull’s victories. After winning from P10, Verstappen described Schmitz as “insanely calm” and added:

“You can’t afford many mistakes. It’s of course very hard to always be on the good side, let’s say it like that. But I think we have a lot of good guys and girls in the team.

“Today, I think Hannah, our strategist, was insanely calm. Yeah, she’s very good.”

Why Red Bull cannot afford more losses

With several major figures already gone, Red Bull faces a clear challenge: retaining the people who remain central to its competitive structure. If Schmitz were to leave as well, it would only deepen the sense of upheaval around a team that has already seen significant turnover.

For a squad looking to stay at the sharp end, keeping figures like Schmitz in place may be crucial if it wants to avoid even more disruption in the years ahead.