The long-serving race engineer to four-time world champion Max Verstappen has made a decisions about his immediate future. Gianpiero Lambiase has worked with Verstappen ever since he was promoted to the main Red Bull team but, after the conclusion of the 2025 season, it was widely reported that he could be set for a fresh start elsewhere.
At least two different teams were understood to have shown interest in acquiring the well-respected engineer’s services. Aston Martin were said to be keen on bringing him in, with a view to potentially using him to help lure Verstappen away from Red Bull later this year too, while Williams have also been credited with interest in hiring Lambiase.
Lambiase missed two races last season for personal reasons, replaced at the Austrian and Belgian Grands Prix by Simon Rennie. For those same reasons, it is believed that Lambiase, known in the paddock as ‘GP’, has asked Red Bull about reducing his travel commitments going forward, which also led to him considering other options away from the team.
However, despite holding talks with at least one of the other teams interested in his services, it has now been emerged that Lambiase has chosen to stay put. Dutch outlet De Telegraaf reports that Verstappen will not need a new race engineer for 2026 with his current long-term ally said to have “no plans to leave any time soon”.
Lambiase is said to have a contract until the end of 2027, which would potentially have complicated any planned exit had he struck a deal with one of the other teams he was talking to. As such, he will remain as head of racing at Red Bull while also continuing to serve as Verstappen’s personal race engineer.
For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.
The news will come as a relief to Verstappen who has already lost one of his closest allies in the garage in recent weeks. It was confirmed after the end of last season that Helmut Marko, who had served as an adviser to the project for 20 years and who acted as a second father figure to Verstappen, would not continue and departed when his contract expired at the end of December.