McLaren have confirmed Gianpiero Lambiase as their new Chief Racing Officer. The move ends ten years alongside Max Verstappen. Red Bull lose their last familiar face from the championship era. Lambiase has been Verstappen’s race engineer since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, the voice in his ear for every championship. Verstappen once said he would stop racing if Lambiase left. His father says that has changed. The timing still lands hard.
Red Bull have now lost Newey to Aston Martin, Wheatley to Audi, Horner through dismissal, and Marko through retirement. The Lambiase McLaren announcement is the last piece of that. The departures match what is happening on track. Red Bull sit sixth in the constructors standings. Verstappen is ninth on just 12 points after three races.
The Chief Racing Officer role is a senior position McLaren created for Lambiase specifically. He will oversee race operations and strategy, reporting to team principal Andrea Stella. That puts him near the top of McLaren’s decision-making as they go after Mercedes. McLaren sit third in the constructors standings, 89 points behind Mercedes but 30 clear of Red Bull.
Lambiase and Verstappen had something that takes years to build. The radio exchanges became well known across the paddock. There were calm calls under real pressure and Verstappen’s “GP my hero” message after winning in Abu Dhabi 2021. Nobody replaces ten years of that overnight. Red Bull still carries a broken RB22, battery failures at every race start, and tyre problems with no fix in sight.
Verstappen’s contract has an exit clause. It lets him leave if he is outside the top two at the summer break. He is ninth right now, 60 points behind Kimi Antonelli. The Lambiase McLaren move does not help that. Red Bull spent the five-week gap between Japan and Miami on chassis work. Upgrades take time to show up in results. The exit window opens in under four months.
A race engineer is not just a voice on the radio. They manage strategy, work the pit wall, and read the data live. They also keep a driver steady when everything is going wrong. Verstappen has lost that in a car he called undriveable, inside a team he barely recognises. A faster car would help. But that is not the whole problem.
