GianPiero Lambiase McLaren move raises fresh questions over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull future

A surprise piece of news emerged on Thursday, as PlanetF1.com confirmed initial reports that Red Bull’s head of racing, GianPiero Lambiase, is set for a move to McLaren.

Lambiase is not just a senior member of Red Bull’s staff, but has also served as Max Verstappen’s race engineer since his promotion to the team in 2016, making theirs one of the longest-standing and most successful in Formula 1 history. Our team reacts to the news.

GianPiero Lambiase to leave Red Bull: PlanetF1.com’s reaction

Is GianPiero Lambiase’s sideways move a signal of Max Verstappen’s future?

By Thomas Maher

“The day Max and I stop working together in this set-up will be the day I’m keen to take on a new challenge,” GianPiero Lambiase has said in the past.

My immediate reaction to the news that Lambiase is, indeed, taking on a new challenge is that it must be his laying down the groundwork for a post-Max Verstappen career… has the four-time F1 World Champion given his close friend and colleague a tip-off that he needs to look out for number one?

As it stands, Lambiase doesn’t look like he’ll be joining McLaren until 2028 at the earliest, and that’s a decent safety net to have as Verstappen weighs up his career.

Could it be that Max departs F1 at the conclusion of this year, two years ahead of his Red Bull contract expiring, and Lambiase gets to tend to his garden in 2027 ahead of joining McLaren?

Of course, it’s not a given that Lambiase’s departure is a signal of anything, but it’s yet another step towards solidifying the idea that Max’s time in the sport is closer at hand than we all might think. Does he really want to have to start all over again with a new race engineer at a time when Red Bull is facing a rebuild of its own?

Lambiase’s departure also suggests that Red Bull’s Austrian parents may have underestimated just how much loyalty there was towards Christian Horner, or at least just how much the former team boss bound the organisation, as it was, together.

After all, Lambiase isn’t even the first high-profile departure revealed this week. It’s only been a few days since it emerged that Ole Schack, a front-end mechanic on Verstappen’s car, has given notice to leave, citing a change in atmosphere in the team, while PlanetF1.com understands that another senior mechanic, Jon Caller, has also opted to leave and follow his twin brother, Matt, out the door at Milton Keynes.

Indeed, sources close to the situation have suggested that there may yet be more departures and, while no names have been volunteered, there have been whispers that Pierre Waché is a potential target for Ferrari; a potential safety net for the French engineer if he is made a scapegoat for the current performance difficulties.

It’s a transformative time for Red Bull, with top-level personnel bleeding out alongside the performance slump. With a leadership unproven at the sharp end of Formula 1, the muscle memory of being a top team is fading, and the loss of a talismanic figure such as Lambiase – if it has nothing to do with Verstappen’s plans – is alarming, particularly given that it’s understood he is merely taking on a similar-level role at McLaren. Financial considerations aside, why leave for a sideways move?

Here’s a thought (and this is just spitballing on my part). While Jonathan Wheatley is very likely off to Aston Martin to work alongside Adrian Newey, what if there’s a sting in the tail? Wheatley only missed out on a very likely team principal role at Red Bull by around six months, after two decades of loyal service.

Now that he’s free from Audi, could it be that it’s Red Bull, not Aston Martin, that Wheatley has lined up? He is in a prime position to bring knowledge and experience from the team’s winning eras, a familiar face for any employees who may be questioning their future at Red Bull, and could be used as a ‘clean slate’ beginning after the turmoil of the last six months.

Of course, this would mean repositioning Laurent Mekies within the organisation once again but, given the enormity of the decision taken to fire Horner, would moving Mekies aside for Wheatley really be unimaginable?

As for Lambiase, the fact that it’s, at the moment, a sideways move, suggests that he’s been given assurances of more career upward mobility in the coming years. While Andrea Stella isn’t going anywhere any time soon, has Lambiase been identified as the person to learn the intricacies of team principalship from Stella, with an eye to succession for when Stella leaves or retires?

First GP, then Max?

By Michelle Foster

Max Verstappen’s ride-or-die in Formula 1 since he joined Red Bull Racing and won on his debut at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, GianPiero Lambiase’s pending departure from the team – said to be at the end of 2027 – says more about Verstappen’s F1 future than it does about GP’s.

And it’s not great reading for Red Bull.

Although Verstappen has a contract that runs through to the end of the F1 2028 season, the four-time world champion has hinted more and more that his days in Formula 1 are numbered.

He’s not here for the grand prix victories, the world titles or the records. He’s here to have fun. And right now, in today’s new technical era, he’s not.

So, while Max’s future was already up for debate, GP’s departure adds weight to that.

After all, “For me, I cannot see myself, let’s say, without GP on my side as an engineer.”

F1’s old married couple, the war-of-words, the love, the respect, and more importantly, the trust, GP has been by Max’s side for every win and every world title.

His departure at the end of 2027, as is speculated, hints that Verstappen will give the new regulations – and Red Bull – one more season after this year, but if he’s still not enjoying it or fighting at the front, he’s done.

How long before cries of ‘MaxLaren’ begin?

By Henry Valantine

It’s a great shame we wrote about our biggest surprises of the 2026 season one day before this happened, as I’d imagine most of us would have put a different answer now!

Only a few months after links with Aston Martin emerged, I have to give a nod to McLaren, which has once again shown itself as something of a quiet swooper in the paddock when it comes to big-name signings behind the scenes.

First it was managing to sign Oscar Piastri from underneath Alpine’s nose, then came big signatures of two multiple title winners from Red Bull in Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay, now they’ve plucked another of Red Bull’s big names for the seasons ahead.

With Max Verstappen having been so fawning about his and Lambiase’s relationship in the past, even suggesting to Channel 4 in 2022 that he “cannot see myself without GP on my side as an engineer”, their partnership will inevitably be brought up in conversations about the future.

Both Piastri and Lando Norris are under long-term contracts with McLaren so do not mistake that for me predicting any kind of move for Verstappen at this stage – besides, with the reigning champion partnered with one of the highest-rated drivers on the grid, such a change feels unnecessary – though in this sport, nothing can ever be completely ruled out. I quite often paraphrase Murray Walker in saying that, years down the line: “Anything can happen in Grand Prix racing, and it usually does.”

As for Red Bull, Christian Horner and Laurent Mekies have both spoken in the past about having a deep bench within the organisation when it comes to being able to promote from within, but with the recent departures Thomas alluded to, to use a football analogy, that squad depth is starting to get tested.

Another blow for OG Red Bull

By Jamie Woodhouse

Lambiase’s Red Bull exit will be a bitter pill for Verstappen to swallow.

Thinking more widely, it is a further hit for Red Bull as a team.

Rob Marshall, Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner, Helmut Marko, Will Courtenay, Craig Skinner, Ole Schack, now Lambiase. The foundations that were Red Bull Racing have been torn apart.

Red Bull Racing has been like a metaphorical Jenga block, with team principal Laurent Mekies having the high-pressure job of stopping the tower from falling.

So far, he is managing to do that, even if results have not been up to Red Bull’s usual standards in F1 2026.

Lambiase leaving is a big one, though. With Marko already gone, Verstappen now loses his other key ally within the team.

As my esteemed colleagues have already discussed, Verstappen could become the next key pillar at risk of falling for Red Bull.

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