Gianpiero Lambiase bombshell exit continues worrying Red Bull trend

Red Bull has been hit with another bombshell departure after reports emerged of Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, signing a deal with McLaren. 

Verstappen's race engineer since his Red Bull debut in 2016, Lambiase is understood by RacingNews365's sources to have agreed to sign for McLaren from the 2028 season. 

It is understood that Lambiase's move to Woking could be linked to a possible return to Ferrari for McLaren's Andrea Stella. 

Lambiase's exit is just latest high-profile departure from Red Bull in less than two years as the race engineer is the latest Milton Keynes domino to fall. 

Below, RacingNews365 takes a look at the previous bombshell departures.

Christian Horner

After the all-conquering 2023 season in which he was the master of all he surveyed, Christian Horner's strength at Red Bull rapidly diminished.

The allegations around his personal conduct, which he has always strongly denied, came at the same time as a bitter power struggle with the Austrian side of Red Bull, headed up by Helmut Marko and Oliver Mintzlaff, supported by Jos Verstappen. 

The fact that Max Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races that season papered over the cracks as he ultimately delivered a fourth straight world title, but by mid-2025, Horner was gone.

Sacked by Red Bull three days after the 2025 British GP, Horner ultimately paid the price for poor performance on-track, being replaced by Laurent Mekies.

Adrian Newey

Perhaps the biggest blow to Red Bull in the post-Dietrich Mateschitz world, losing Adrian Newey in early 2024, took away the one area papering over the cracks at Red Bull: performance.

Although the RB20 claimed those seven wins in the first 10 races, Newey announced his exit in May 2024, with performance diving off a cliff afterwards as Red Bull scratched their heads about what had gone wrong. 

New technical lead Pierre Waché was unable to return the car to the dominant machine it was at the start of 2024, although Verstappen still got the championship over the line. 

Helmut Marko

Verstappen's most trusted lieutenant at Red Bull, Marko, decided to step down from his role as Red Bull GmbH motorsport advisor after the 2025 season. 

Verstappen had always said that his own future was linked to that of Marko, and if the veteran Austrian was removed before he decided to go, then Verstappen would have to consider his own future.

Never short of an opinion or two, Marko was often at loggerheads with Horner, over whom the then-team principal had no authority, as Marko was employed by Red Bull GmbH, the parent company, and not Red Bull Racing, run by Horner.

Speaking in the latest season of Netflix's Drive to Survive , following his sacking, Horner insinuated that it was Marko and Mintzlaff behind his departure, and not the Verstappen camp.

Jonathan Wheatley

Jonathan Wheatley was Red Bull's rules man and fixer. The sporting director of the team it was his job to run the pit-crew, make calls over controversial incidents and liaise with the FIA. 

On two occasions in 2025, evidence of the Wheatley-less Red Bull was witnessed in Saudi Arabia and Spain. In Jeddah, the new Stake team principal indicated he would have told Max Verstappen to immediately give the lead up to Oscar Piastri, given their Turn 1 coming together. 

Red Bull did not, and the Dutchman was handed a race-costing five-second time penalty. In Spain, Red Bull wrongly told Verstappen to cede position to George Russell, leading to the Turn 5 collision. 

Wheatley was as important to the sporting side of Red Bull as Newey was to the technical team. A wily, battle-hardened racer who knew his rulebook better than the FIA. Not having that voice on the pit wall is going to blunt your attack. 

Will Courtenay

Will Courtenay is still employed by Red Bull and is being made to work out his contract after agreeing to join McLaren as sporting director in September 2024.

Will Courtenay was head of strategy for Red Bull, but it was announced in September 2024 that he had been poached by McLaren to become its sporting director.

Red Bull made Courtenay see out most of his contract before allowing him to leave, starting at McLaren earlier this year.

Rob Marshall

Another Newey lieutenant, Rob Marshall's departure in summer 2023, was the first domino to fall. 

The Red Bull veteran had been with the team for 17 years, but was enticed by a huge offer from McLaren to become engineering and design technical director, a chance to step up given that chief technical officer Newey was, at the time, going nowhere.

Marshall oversaw Red Bull's growth in the Sebastian Vettel era, then its demise in the turbo-hybrids before rising again to conquer Mercedes in 2021 and demolishing the field in the ground-effect era.

The Red Bull brain-drain started with Marshall.

Lee Stevenson

Lee Stevenson might not be a household name, but he played an integral role on Verstappen's car, as the chief mechanic. 

Prior to his departure in March 2024, Stevenson had been at Verstappen's side for all 56 of his grand prix wins and three titles to that point. 

A chief mechanic is basically the link between the engineering team and the mechanics, meaning a key cog in the Verstappen chain was broken with his departure to Stake, which is now Audi. 

Craig Skinner

On the eve of the new season, and during the busy pre-season testing period, it was announced that chief designer Craig Skinner would also be departing.

He joined in 2006 and rose to the position of chief designer, but stepped down of his own volition just before the new season. 

Matt Caller and Ole Schack

Verstappen has also lost his chief mechanic, Matt Caller, and long-term front-end mechanic Ole Schack in recent weeks.