Max Verstappen’s engineer Giampiero Lambiase is set to join McLaren from 2028 in a shock move, Sky Sports News understands.
Verstappen has previously said he would quit F1 if Lambiase was not his race engineer, and this change could be crucial to the four-time world champion’s own future.
Lambiase, who will remain at Red Bull until he is cleared to join McLaren, is the only person to have served as race engineer since Verstappen joined Red Bull in 2016.
Sky Sports News understands Lambius will become McLaren’s head of race engineering, with executives saying current team principal Andrea Stella’s position will not be affected.
Stella joined McLaren from Ferrari in 2015, became team principal in 2023, and led the team to back-to-back constructors’ championship titles in the past two seasons.
Llambias recently turned down an offer from Aston Martin to become team principal, but an offer from McLaren is more appealing to the 45-year-old.
Red Bull and McLaren declined to comment.
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The move will only put a question mark over Verstappen’s future in the sport following his criticism of F1’s 2026 regulations.
Despite having a contract with Red Bull until 2028, Verstappen said at his final F1 race in Japan that he was considering quitting the sport at the end of this season.
Llambias is the latest Red Bull key figure to join McLaren after Rob Marshall joined the Woking-based team as technical director in 2024 and Will Courtenay joined as sporting director this year.
Legendary designer Adrian Newey left Red Bull last year to join Aston Martin, while long-time team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko also left.
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What has Verstappen said about Lambiase in the past?
Many have described the relationship between Verstappen and Lambiase as a marriage that the pair openly discussed on the radio, and some have questioned the dynamic.
However, Verstappen has consistently praised the relationship for its candor and clear communication between the two.
After winning his first F1 drivers’ title in 2021, Verstappen revealed that he would not drive in F1 anymore unless Lambiase was his engineer.
The two had great success with Red Bull.
“I told him that I only work with him. As soon as he quits, I will quit too,” he told Ziggo Sport.
“Obviously we can be pretty harsh on each other sometimes, but I want to be that way too. He has to tell me when I’m doing something he doesn’t like, and I have to tell him. I always told him that.”
Verstappen’s radio calls could sometimes be seen as confrontational, especially if he was dissatisfied with a car or team decision, but Verstappen insisted words matter and defended his approach.
“That’s how we do it,” he told Sky Sports F1 after a seemingly heated radio exchange with Lambiase at the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.
“I think we know each other pretty well because we’ve been working together for so many years.”
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