Max Verstappen to lose key ally? Ted Kravitz teases new role for Gianpiero Lambiase

Following the announcement that Jonathan Wheatley would leave Red Bull, Ted Kravitz has revealed there’s speculation Max Verstappen’s long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase could replace him as the team’s sporting director.

Red Bull announced last month that long-time sporting director Wheatley would leave his position at the end of this season to become Audi’s team principal in a dual management partnership with former Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.

Ted Kravitz: Lambiase might go into Red Bull sporting director role

Announcing his departure after 18 years with the team, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealed he would promote from within the Red Bull ranks as they sought a replacement for the long-serving sporting director.

“Red Bull Racing has tremendous strength and depth and this provides an opportunity to elevate others within the team,” said the Briton. “We will announce a new team structure in the coming weeks.”

Almost immediately it was suggested Verstappen’s long-time race engineer Lambiase was leading the queue.

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Lambiase has been with Verstappen ever since he joined Red Bull, the “old married couple” forging a formidable partnership that has yielded 61 Grand Prix victories and three World titles.

But it is now being suggested the duo could split up at the end of this season with Lambiase instead taking up the running of the Red Bull race team, half of Wheatley’s role with another named as the FIA rules guru.

“Who are they going to get to replace him is the question,” Kravitz told the latest Sky F1 podcast. “Because being such a valuable guy in terms of the rules and keeping a razor-sharp race team, how are they going to divide up?

“I can think of quite a few guys within Red Bull who were mechanics and have risen through to be that sort of senior level mechanic role, which Wheatley, of course, used to be a chief mechanic at Benetton and Renault, that’s how he got into his position.

“I can imagine those guys moving up, and they know the rules as well.

“Some people have speculated that Gianpiero Lambiase might go into that sporting director role. I don’t think he wants to leave the cut and thrust and the fun of race engineering…”

Podcast host Matt Baker chipped in, “Being shouted out by Max Verstappen every week.”

“That is quite fun, I mean until it’s not,” Kravitz replied. “But it’s fun winning races and winning championships. So I’m not sure whether GP would want to leave that.

“Red Bull are going to promote from within, and there’s probably going to be this thing where they actually get two people.

“They’ll probably be one of the chief mechanics, who will run the race team, pit stops and all of that. And they’ll find somebody who knows the rules very well, who they’ll put into the sporting manager or sporting director role.”

Lambiase’s potential promotion comes at a time when Verstappen is said to be deciding his Formula 1 future with Mercedes and Aston Martin keen to sign him for the F1 2026 championship.

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