Overview
- Red Bull has confirmed Tom Hart will act as Max Verstappen’s race engineer for the United States, Brazilian and Las Vegas Grands Prix as a staged trial ahead of a planned full handover in 2027.
- Gianpiero Lambiase will remain on-site in a broader head-of-race-engineering role and is expected to return to lead engineering for Verstappen at the Mexico, Qatar and Abu Dhabi rounds while negotiations continue over his McLaren start date.
- Hart is a senior internal performance engineer who had been close to joining Williams but stayed after Verstappen identified him as his preferred successor.
- The team is gradually removing Lambiase from key technical meetings and has tightened controls on radio and data access after recent faulty team radio communications highlighted the sensitivity of in-race channels.
- The trial will reveal how quickly Hart can build the real‑time rapport with Verstappen that affects strategy and performance, and it takes place as Red Bull reportedly prepares other senior hires for 2027.