GianPiero Lambiase Red Bull exit confirmed with McLaren move to end Verstappen partnership

GianPiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer, is to leave Red Bull to take up a new post with McLaren.

Verstappen’s race engineer has been in partnership with the four-time F1 World Champion ever since his promotion to the Red Bull team just over a decade ago.

Gianpiero Lambiase Red Bull exit and McLaren switch timeline

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On Thursday morning, reliable Dutch media reports, led by De Telegraaf’s Erik Van Haren and De Limburger’s Jacky Martens, claimed Lambiase will depart Red Bull in order to join McLaren.

PlanetF1.com has verified those reports with top-level sources and can confirm that Red Bull’s head of racing and long-standing race engineer to Max Verstappen will leave in order to join the Woking-based squad on a lucrative new contract.

It’s understood that this move will not take place immediately or in the short-term, with sources suggesting that it could be 2028 before Lambiase’s Red Bull contract ends and permits the switch.

On Thursday afternoon, Red Bull issued a statement to confirm Lambiase’s departure, clarifying that it will indeed be 2028 before he leaves.

“Oracle Red Bull Racing confirms that GianPiero Lambiase will leave the team in 2028, when his current contract expires”, a spokesperson said.

““GP” is a valued member of the Team, which he joined in 2015.

“Until his planned departure, “GP” continues in his roles as Head of Racing and as Race Engineer to Max Verstappen.

“The Team and he are fully committed to adding more success to our strong track record together.”

The statement notably did not pay tribute to him, nor thank him, for the multiple title successes he has contributed to with his driver.

McLaren has also since confirmed Lambiase’s new role, following the initial Dutch reports claiming that he could be taking over from Andrea Stella as the team principal.

As revealed by PlanetF1.com recently, Lambiase is known to have been eyed up as a potential target for the Aston Martin team boss leadership role by the incumbent Adrian Newey.

Sources with knowledge of the situation indicated that Lambiase is set for a sideways move, perhaps taking up a senior race engineering-type or deputy role with the Woking-based squad, and McLaren has now confirmed that Lambiase will become the team’s chief racing officer, reporting to Stella.

It’s understood that Stella’s role as team principal remains unchanged, and the Italian team leader is not set for a surprise move to Ferrari, as had been claimed in the initial reports.

Lambiase’s supporting role to Stella thus is of a similar dynamic to Aston Martin’s Mike Krack supporting Adrian Newey, Jerome D’Ambrosio supporting Fred Vasseur at Ferrari, and Bradley Lord supporting Toto Wolff at Mercedes, and opens the door to a potential upward move in the future if Stella does depart for pastures new.

Lambiase’s departure is not the first high-profile exit from Red Bull, following news earlier this week that the Dutch driver’s long-time front-end mechanic, Ole Schack, has given notice to leave the squad after over two decades. The Dane is said to have cited a change in team atmosphere as being behind his decision to leave, following the firing of former team boss Christian Horner last summer.

With Red Bull’s Austrian shareholders taking over control of the Milton Keynes-based squad, it has led to Red Bull corporate projects CEO Oliver Mintzlaff appointing Laurent Mekies as team boss.

Lambiase is set to reunite with fellow Red Bull departees Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay, both of whom have moved to McLaren. Courtenay began work with McLaren in January 2026 as sporting director, working closely alongside racing director Randy Singh.

It is likely that Lambiase will fit into the structure alongside this duo, easing the workload on Stella in the team’s operational structure.

Having served as Max Verstappen’s race engineer since the Dutchman’s arrival at Red Bull Racing in 2016, Lambiase was promoted to become the team’s head of racing in late 2024 but remained overseeing Verstappen’s on-track exploits. He had been previously promoted to head of race engineering in 2022, succeeding Guillaume Rocquelin.

Lambiase has been in Formula 1 since 2005, starting off with Jordan and remaining with the Silverstone-based squad for 11 years through guises as Midland F1, Spyker, and Force India.

He has been a performance and race engineer for the likes of Giancarlo Fisichella, Paul di Resta, Vitantonio Liuzzi, and Sergio Perez, and linked up with Daniil Kvyat in 2015 upon Lambiase’s joining Red Bull that year.

He was first paired with Verstappen when the Dutch driver replaced Kvyat in the seat, with the duo quickly forming a brotherly bond that has seen the Dutch driver even declare that his remaining in F1 was dependent on Lambiase’s involvement.

However, it’s not thought that Lambiase’s pending departure will influence Verstappen’s decision-making regarding his future.

Separately, other recent departures from Red Bull include long-time team advisor and Red Bull Racing director Helmut Marko, one of the last senior ties to the Dietrich Mateschitz-led era that ended with the co-founder’s death in 2022, with the 82-year-old understood to have resigned before being pushed from the organisation.

The Austrian’s exit came just under six months on from Horner’s firing, which also saw former group director of communications and social Paul Smith and former group chief marketing and commercial officer Oliver Hughes released at the same time.

The team’s title sponsor, Oracle, recently extended its agreement with Red Bull on a multi-year renewal, with Hughes having played a key role in establishing the partnership in 2022; a deal that remains the most lucrative in F1 history as it was valued at $500 million over five years. While renewal figures are unconfirmed, it’s understood this valuation has increased by several percent for the new cycle.

Since then, several senior administrative staff members also departed the team in January, with marketing, communications, and human resources seeing changes ahead of the F1 2026 season.

Joanna Fleet, Human Resources director for Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology, had been with the squad since 2013, while Julia George was the director of partnerships for the company since 2022.

Simon Smith-Wright had been group marketing director since December 2024, while Alice Hedworth served as senior communications manager, having joined in mid-2021.

The team’s chief designer, Craig Skinner, who worked closely alongside Pierre Waché on the RB22 as well as all of the team’s recent title-winning machines alongside the French designer and former chief technical officer Adrian Newey, also recently departed after two decades working at Red Bull.

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