Max Verstappen gets a new man in his ear: Tom Hart instead of Gianpiero Lambiase

Max Verstappen was clearly delighted: following his first Grand Prix victory at the Singapore night race, his long-standing race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase stood beside him. The 29-year-old Dutchman and the 45-year-old Londoner share a very close bond.

When Lambiase received an offer from McLaren for a different role (as Chief Racing Officer, a new position reporting directly to Team Principal Andrea Stella), Verstappen encouraged him to accept it. Although McLaren has not confirmed it, it is rumoured that Lambiase will become Team Principal at McLaren in the medium term. Either way, Max said: “That’s a great opportunity, you should definitely go for it.”

Lambiase’s successor as race engineer will be Tom Hart, who has been part of Max’s engineering team for years (as a so-called Performance Engineer, responsible for optimising the race car’s performance) and who occasionally stepped in when Lambiase was unable to work (he had to miss a few races for personal reasons).

Lambiase is also currently the lead race engineer at RBR; Tom McCullough will take over this role in 2027.

It has now been confirmed how Lambiase and Hart will take turns working alongside Verstappen in the final part of the season: Tom will work with the four-time world champion in Texas, Brazil and Las Vegas, whilst Lambiase will do so in Mexico, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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It is still unclear when Lambiase will take up his post at McLaren.

Tom Hart joined Red Bull Racing in 2012 after graduating from university and worked his way up from a role in the simulation department to become a race engineer.