Red Bull chief designer Craig Skinner leaves F1 team

Red Bull veteran Formula 1 chief designer Craig Skinner has left the Milton Keynes team, Motorsport.com can confirm.

Skinner was an integral part of its success in recent seasons, as it established a second era of dominance powering Max Verstappen to four, consecutive titles from 2021 to 2024. However, following rumours of his departure, Red Bull confirmed to Motorsport.com that Skinner has moved on from the role. His exit is not thought to be connected to previous high-profile departures at the team in recent years.

An engineering graduate from the University of Glasgow, Skinner went on to join Red Bull at the start of the 2006 season, around the same time as design legend Adrian Newey, as a CFD engineer before graduating to senior roles within the aerodynamics department. Following a four-year stint as chief of aerodynamics, Skinner became the chief designer in 2022, working closely with Newey and technical director Pierre Wache.

Newey has since left for Aston Martin, and following the exit of former team boss Christian Horner last July, Skinner is the latest senior technical member to leave, with sporting director Jonathan Wheatley now heading up Audi's F1 team and chief strategist Will Courtenay moving to McLaren.

But under team principal Laurent Mekies, the new-look Red Bull enjoyed a resurgence over the latter half of 2025, and it also made a promising start to the 2026 pre-season. With assistance from Ford, Red Bull's RB22 features the squad's first-ever in-house power unit, which has defied expectations thus far – drawing praise for its efficient electric energy deployment.

But while praising the effort the team at the Milton Keynes campus had made, four-time world champion Verstappen hasn't been a big fan of the incoming regulations yet, calling the new cars "anti-racing" and "not fun" to drive given the lengths drivers have to go to in order to harvest electric energy.