Max Verstappen's incoming race engineer Tom Hart is to take over duties from Gianpiero Lambiase at three of the remaining races in the 2026 F1 season, RacingNews365 understands.
Lambiase, who has engineered Verstappen to all 73 of his grand prix wins and four world titles, is leaving Red Bull, having accepted a senior position at McLaren, and is expected to potentially join the Woking squad in mid-2027, or, by the latest, at the start of 2028.
His replacement as Verstappen's engineer will be Hart, a senior member of Verstappen's engineering team, who extracted himself from a planned move to Williams once it was announced in April that Lambiase would be leaving.
As well as race engineer to Verstappen, Lambiase is also head of race engineering at Red Bull, but as his departure looms, the Briton will slowly be eased out of crucial engineering meetings to ensure he cannot take vital Red Bull information with him to McLaren.
As part of the transition from Lambiase to Hart, RacingNews365 understands that Hart will now assume responsibilities as Verstappen's race engineer in three of the remaining six grands prix in 2026.
These will be the United States, Brazilian, and Las Vegas Grands Prix, meaning Lambiase will continue in Mexico City, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
Verstappen-Lambiase is the second most successful driver-engineer pairing in F1 history, only behind Lewis Hamilton-Peter Bonnington, who achieved 83 wins and six drivers' titles together at Mercedes between 2013 and 2024.
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