Gianpiero Lambiase the latest to showcase Red Bull loyalty as Ferrari and McLaren bids resisted

Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase in the Red Bull garage

Gianpiero Lambiase recently re-committed his future to Red Bull, with Max Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer the latest to showcase his loyalty to the team.

Lambiase has worked directly with Verstappen for the entirety of the Dutchman’s tenure at Red Bull, having joined the Milton Keynes-based squad in 2015 after a decade with Jordan/Midland/Force India.

Gianpiero Lambiase resists other team offers to stick with Red Bull

It’s been a year of revitalisation and renewal at Red Bull over the past 12 months, with senior figures such as Rob Marshall and Adrian Newey leaving – Marshall took on a technical director role with McLaren in 2024 while Newey is serving a period of soft gardening leave from the F1 team before setting off for pastures new by the middle of F1 2025.

More recently, Red Bull also confirmed the departure of long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley as he takes on a new career challenge by taking on the role of team boss at the burgeoning Audi F1 project – Wheatley will see out the F1 2024 season with Red Bull before taking a few months out on gardening leave.

But aside from these departures, Red Bull has secured its future with most of its long-term engineering staff re-signing for the squad for the foreseeable.

More on Red Bull and Christian Horner

Inside Red Bull: Christian Horner and the other major players in Red Bull’s hierarchy

Pierre Waché exclusive: Red Bull life after Adrian Newey and his disinterest in personal glory

These include chief engineers Paul Monaghan and Ben Waterhouse, as well as the leading architects behind the dominant RB18 and RB19 machines Enrico Balbo (head of aerodynamics) and Pierre Waché (technical director).

The latest figure to re-commit their future to Red Bull is Gianpiero Lambiase as PlanetF1.com understands Verstappen’s race engineer, who also serves as the team’s head of race engineering, put pen to paper on a new deal prior to the summer break.

Lambiase was wooed by offers from other teams, including recent attempts from Ferrari and McLaren to secure his services.

But Lambiase’s skills are understood to be of utmost importance to Red Bull, while the British-Italian engineer’s loyalty to Red Bull and team boss Christian Horner played a key role in his re-signing.

With Wheatley departing the team after F1 2024, the renewal of Lambiase’s contract also opens the door for a possible promotion as Red Bull eyes up a new team structure which is yet to be confirmed – Helmut Marko recently revealed Wheatley’s role is likely to be split among multiple people.

Lambiase turning away from the temptation of moving to either Ferrari or McLaren comes shortly after Balbo and Waché did likewise with Aston Martin – team owner Lawrence Stroll is understood to have been personally involved in attempting to woo the Red Bull kingpins by way of the offer of shares in the team, while Tom Hart, Verstappen’s performance engineer, resisted an offer to join Mercedes.

Horner has previously spoken about the strength and depth within Red Bull’s technical ranks, with a succession plan for life after Newey having been worked on in recent years, while the team boss more recently joked about Wheatley’s salary allowing him to snaffle up some external hires.

Waché, who assumes the responsibilities for leading Red Bull’s technical department as Newey steps down as chief technical officer, recently spoke to PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview to explain how Red Bull has been prepared for some personnel turnover for some time.

“As an engineering team, what you see from outside is one aspect but, on our side, we already know [when] people leave the team, we have already organised ourselves with our team,” Waché said.

“We would prefer him with us, but that is not how it is. We don’t think in this way, we try to see what you can do for yourself and how you can improve.

“If we see some weaknesses, we try to improve and this is how we work – we concentrate on what we can do better.”

Asked if a new chapter is starting at Red Bull, Waché added: “For sure, but it’s not [new].

“Before, we had Peter Prodromou, who left after 2014. Mark Ellis [left after 2013].

“It’s the nature of the team, and the leaders who left – they were a leader in their area. But it’s a natural aspect of each organisation.

“For sure, [Adrian] was a big figure of the system. But at one point, we give a chance to the younger, bright people to embrace this challenge, like I have now.

“Some people like Enrico [Balbo, head of aero], Ben Waterhouse [head of performance engineering], Craig [Skinner, chief designer], Paul [Monaghan, chief engineer], it is good for the people and for the team.”

Read next: Lewis Hamilton opposes Max Verstappen in ‘really boring’ F1 victory admission