Max Verstappen’s F1 race engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, to join McLaren

Liambiase will leave Red Bull after more than a decade Peter Fox/Getty Images Share full articleMax Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer, GianPiero Lambiase, will leave Red Bull to join McLaren. Lambiase, 45, has been a core figure throughout Verstappen’s F1 career, working as his race engineer since his debut for Red Bull back in 2016 and through his streak of winning four straight F1 world championships between 2021 and 2024. But Lambiase will now leave Red Bull in order to take up a senior role at McLaren in the next couple of years, sources speaking on condition of anonymity to protect relationships have confirmed to The Athletic. The exact date of his arrival still to be defined as he remains under contract at Red Bull, with discussions set to take place, but Lambiase will link up with McLaren in 2028 at the latest. McLaren declined to comment. Red Bull has not yet responded to a request for comment. Lambiase will take up a senior role at McLaren that would bolster the reigning constructors’ champion’s leadership, which also includes former Red Bull figures Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay as chief designer and sporting director. Lambiase has balanced his race engineer duties for Verstappen with the position of head of racing at Red Bull since the start of 2025. He is set to be the latest high-profile exit from Red Bull in recent years. In 2025, team principal Christian Horner was sacked midway through the season, while Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, also departed his role at the end of last year. In 2024, Marshall joined McLaren after 17 years at Red Bull, before Courtenay ended a 20-year stint with the Milton Keynes-based team to become McLaren’s sporting director from the start of 2026 after the two teams struck an agreement over his remaining gardening leave. Jonathan Wheatley, Red Bull’s sporting director, also departed the team at the end of 2024 in order to become Audi’s new F1 team principal, a position he recently left. Reports first emerged over the winter linking Lambiase with a potential move away from Red Bull, with Aston Martin being tipped as a potential landing spot for the engineer, only for him to continue as Verstappen’s engineer and as Red Bull’s head to racing at the start of the 2026 season. Lambiase has always been one of the three key pillars within Verstappen’s inner circle, along with his father, Jos Verstappen, and Marko, who helped oversee Verstappen’s rise to F1 as a 17-year-old back in 2015. Lambiase first joined Red Bull in the same year, initially as Daniil Kvyat’s race engineer before Verstappen was promoted to the team from the following year’s Spanish Grand Prix. After last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Verstappen missed out on the F1 world title by just two points, he shared an emotional exchange with Lambiase on the radio. Lambiase told Verstappen, who won the race and came close to overturning a 104-point deficit with 10 races remaining, they had “showed them one final time who’s boss.” Verstappen said in the post-race press conference it had been an “emotional year” and paid tribute to Lambiase, saying he was “very happy to be able to work with someone that passionate,” calling him “a proper example of someone that never gave up this season, even through the difficult times.” Verstappen added: “Of course, he is my race engineer, but I see him as my friend. We have lived through so many emotional things together and fantastic achievements.” Lambiase’s future move to McLaren comes at a time when Verstappen is also giving thought to his F1 future given his frustrations with the new generation of cars for 2026, which he has called “anti-racing” and “not a lot of fun.” Verstappen has endured a difficult start to the season, not finishing a race any higher than sixth in the opening three rounds, and admitted after the Japanese Grand Prix that he is giving thought to his future in the sport. “I keep telling myself every day to try and enjoy it,” Verstappen told BBC Sport after the race in Japan. “It’s just very hard.” Red Bull currently sits sixth in the championship with 16 points, already 119 points off Mercedes at the top of the standings. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Luke Smith is a Senior Writer covering Formula 1 for The Athletic. Luke has spent 10 years reporting on Formula 1 for outlets including Autosport, The New York Times and NBC Sports, and is also a published author. He is a graduate of University College London. Follow Luke on Twitter @LukeSmithF1