Red Bull Racing confirm departure of chief designer Craig Skinner

Red Bull Racing issued a statement saying: "After 20 years with the team, Craig Skinner, our Chief Designer, will be leaving the Red Bull Technology team."

The reason behind Skinner's exit is not clear, but several reports claimed it was nothing like the wave of senior staff departures the team suffered from recently when the likes of Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley jumped ship to Aston Martin and Audi, respectively, amid internal turmoil triggered by the sexting scandal of former team boss Christian Horner.

The situation with the team has stabilized following the firing of Horner after the 2025 British Grand Prix weekend and Laurent Mekies taking over, with the team enjoying a resurgence that allowed Max Verstappen to fight for the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship up until the final race in Abu Dhabi, an effort which was eventually unsuccessful.

Skinner started his career in F1 with Jordan and Williams and then joined Red Bull Racing in 2006 as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) engineer and then became a group leader.

He was then promoted to the role of deputy head of aerodynamics and became the head of that department in 2018.

Skinner became chief designer in 2022 and played a key role in the development of the team's 2023 F1 challenger, the RB22, which Verstappen piloted to a dominant title-winning campaign with 19 grand prix victories.

Sergio Perez, then the Dutchman's teammate, added two more victories to the team's tally, making it 21 and hence the RB22 became the most successful car in the history of the sport.

Skinner's departure comes at a pivotal moment for Red Bull Racing, who are gearing up for the 2026 F1 season with their RB22 powered for the first time by an in-house power unit developed in collaboration with Ford.