Max Verstappen engineer makes Red Bull exit decision | F1 | Sport

The long-serving race engineer to four-time world champion Max Verstappen has made a decisions about his immediate future. Gianpiero Lambiase has worked with Verstappen ever since he was promoted to the main Red Bull team but, after the conclusion of the 2025 season, it was widely reported that he could be set for a fresh start elsewhere.

At least two different teams were understood to have shown interest in acquiring the well-respected engineer’s services. Aston Martin were said to be keen on bringing him in, with a view to potentially using him to help lure Verstappen away from Red Bull later this year too, while Williams have also been credited with interest in hiring Lambiase.

Lambiase missed two races last season for personal reasons, replaced at the Austrian and Belgian Grands Prix by Simon Rennie. For those same reasons, it is believed that Lambiase, known in the paddock as ‘GP’, has asked Red Bull about reducing his travel commitments going forward, which also led to him considering other options away from the team.

However, despite holding talks with at least one of the other teams interested in his services, it has now been emerged that Lambiase has chosen to stay put. Dutch outlet De Telegraaf reports that Verstappen will not need a new race engineer for 2026 with his current long-term ally said to have “no plans to leave any time soon”.

Lambiase is said to have a contract until the end of 2027, which would potentially have complicated any planned exit had he struck a deal with one of the other teams he was talking to. As such, he will remain as head of racing at Red Bull while also continuing to serve as Verstappen’s personal race engineer.

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The news will come as a relief to Verstappen who has already lost a couple of his closest allies in the garage in recent weeks. It was confirmed after the end of last season that Helmut Marko, who had served as an adviser to the project for 20 years and who acted as a second father figure to Verstappen, would not continue and departed when his contract expired at the end of December.

And another, less reported move was also completed in the latter stages of the 2025 season which saw Verstappen’s performance engineer, Tom Hart, agree to join Williams. That move has not yet been confirmed by either team, though it is understood that Hart will continue to work with Verstappen in the 2026 season at the end of which he will be free to make the move to his new employer.

Red Bull’s former strategy chief Will Courtenay last week began work with rivals McLaren, completing a move that was originally agreed in September 2024. He had initially been forced to see out his contract which ran until mid-2026, but negotiations reopened after Christian Horner was replaced by new boss Laurent Mekies and a deal was reached which saw him released early. Hannah Schmitz is expected to become Red Bull’s new head of strategy.