Will Courtenay
McLaren Salary
Sporting Director
Will Courtenay's Salary as McLaren Sporting Director
Will Courtenay’s first McLaren season comes with a base of £200k-450k ($265k-596k), which is F1 Salaries’ own band for a sporting director. Neither team put a figure on the move when it was announced in September 2024.
A bonus of £20k-135k ($27k-179k) would lift that to £220k-585k ($292k-775k). His Red Bull contract had been expected to keep him there until mid-2026, but an early release had him at McLaren by January 5, 2026. No pay details came with the earlier start.
Anonymous motorsport pay survey used for the sporting director band and 10% to 30% bonus range given to Courtenay.
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Insider · Issue 23
01 · The Last Race
Singapore by Salary
Pos
Driver
Pts
Salary
1
Max Verstappen
Red Bull
25
$70m
2
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari
18
$34m
3
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
15
$3.4m
4
Lando Norris
McLaren
12
$30m
5
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
10
$13m
6
Insider+
7
Insider+
Our Take · Insider+
What Each Point Now Costs Red Bull
Courtenay's Sporting Brief at McLaren
Courtenay leads sporting execution at McLaren and coordinates that work across the racing organization. In F1 that usually means the team’s handling of the sporting regulations and its dealings with race control over a weekend. He reports to racing director Randeep Singh.
It isn’t a strategy job, even though strategy is what he did for most of his career. He ran Red Bull’s race strategy from 2010 until he left, and Hannah Schmitz took over that department in 2026. McLaren now has someone who spent years watching a rival title team make its race calls from the inside.
Confirms Courtenay began as McLaren sporting director in January 2026 after Red Bull agreed an early release.
Speaker profile outlining his Cambridge engineering degree, software work and long strategy career at Red Bull.
How Courtenay's Band Lines Up Across the Grid
Aston Martin’s Andy Stevenson and Williams’ Sven Smeets share Courtenay’s £200k-450k ($265k-596k) band. For Courtenay, 2026 is a first season in the job after two decades working in race strategy. The F1 sporting directors page covers every team.
Will Courtenay's Career at Jaguar and Red Bull
Courtenay spent about two decades with the Milton Keynes team, joining in its Jaguar days and leaving as Red Bull’s head of race strategy.
Courtenay Next to His New McLaren Colleagues
Courtenay’s boss at McLaren, Randeep Singh, is on the same band as him, and both sit far below Andrea Stella. One face was familiar when he arrived. Rob Marshall had been at Red Bull with him for 18 seasons before moving to Woking in 2024.
Questions About Will Courtenay's Move to McLaren
Yes, Will Courtenay started at McLaren about six months early. When his signing was announced in September 2024, his Red Bull contract was expected to keep him there until mid-2026. Red Bull agreed an early release instead, and he was in place as sporting director by January 5, 2026.
McLaren’s sporting director, Will Courtenay, oversees how the team executes on the sporting side and coordinates that work within its racing organization. He reports to racing director Randeep Singh. It’s a different job from head of race strategy, the role he held at Red Bull for more than a decade.
In F1 Salaries’ band for a sporting director, Will Courtenay’s McLaren base is £200k-450k ($265k-596k). A bonus of £20k-135k ($27k-179k) would bring his year to £220k-585k ($292k-775k). Neither McLaren nor Red Bull has said what the move was worth.
Will Courtenay spent most of his Red Bull career in race strategy and was head of race strategy from 2010. He’d joined as a systems engineer when the team was still Jaguar and moved into strategy after Red Bull took over for 2005. All eight of Red Bull’s drivers’ titles came while he ran its strategy.
Hannah Schmitz replaced Will Courtenay as Red Bull’s head of race strategy in 2026. She joined the team in 2009 and had been its principal strategy engineer since 2021, so the job went to someone who’d worked in his department for years.