Overview
- Tom Hart will take Verstappen’s race‑engineer duties at the United States, Brazilian and Las Vegas Grands Prix, sources reported on Monday.
- Gianpiero Lambiase will remain in the pit chair for the Mexico City, Qatar and Abu Dhabi races as Red Bull stages a phased handover.
- Red Bull has recruited Tom McCullough to take senior racing management duties and plans to split Lambiase’s dual roles between McCullough and Hart.
- The teams are negotiating gardening‑leave and an earlier release so Lambiase could join McLaren in 2027, but Red Bull has no formal obligation to release him before his contract ends.
- Lambiase has engineered Verstappen to 73 wins and four titles, so the change could affect driver‑engineer rapport and is being managed to limit transfer of sensitive technical knowledge.