Max Verstappen’s time with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will end at the conclusion of the 2027 season, when the British-Italian joins McLaren.
Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner emphasized that “nothing is forever” regarding Gianpiero Lambiase’s upcoming departure from Red Bull. Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s longtime race engineer, will be leaving the team to join McLaren as its chief racing officer at the end of next season. Their partnership dates back to Verstappen’s debut grand prix victory in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. Lambiase’s move marks one of the longest driver-race engineer partnerships in the sport. Steiner sees Red Bull’s recent key departures, including Jonathan Wheatley and Adrian Newey, as part of a natural cycle in Formula 1, with the team transitioning to new phases as a power unit supplier. He believes that in F1, everything is cyclical, with teams experiencing peaks and downturns, and people moving on as values shift with success. He views Red Bull as currently the fourth-strongest team, still competitive but no longer dominating, and anticipates more changes as the team adjusts to its evolving performance level.
