Max Verstappen will hear a different voice in his ears for three of the final six grands prix of the F1 season, with Tom Hart deputising for Gianpiero Lambiase in Austin, São Paulo and Las Vegas.
McLaren-bound Lambiase will remain in his usual post for the rounds in Mexico City, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, gradually scaling back his pit wall duties as he prepares to join the papaya squad as chief racing officer.
Hart is far from a new face inside Verstappen's garage. The Briton has worked as a performance engineer within the four-time F1 drivers' champion's side of the garage since the start of 2020, meaning he has spent years working shoulder to shoulder with Lambiase on set-up and car data.
During his stints in temporary charge, Lambiase will still be present with the team, albeit in his broader role as head of racing.
Hart has spent his entire career at the Milton Keynes-based squad. He joined as an intern in the race engineering department in July 2012, and worked as a simulator performance engineer at the factory from late 2014 until the end of 2019.
It was only in January 2020 that he made the move to the track, where he has worked alongside Verstappen ever since.
This season, Red Bull expanded his role to senior performance engineer across both cars, and he has already gained race engineering experience during test sessions and filming days. Hart has also taken charge of free practice sessions in that capacity.
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Close call with Williams
Notably, Hart could easily have ended up elsewhere altogether.
Earlier in 2026, he came close to a move to Williams, where he would have become Alex Albon's race engineer.
That promotion ultimately fell through, which in hindsight proved a stroke of luck for Red Bull, as the team already had a succession plan in place for Lambiase, one that Hart fitted perfectly.
It has not yet been officially confirmed whether Hart will take over as Verstappen's full-time race engineer from the start of the 2027 season.
That is understood to depend partly on the exact start date of Lambiase's contract at McLaren, with negotiations reportedly still ongoing.
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