There is speculation that Max Verstappen's long-time engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase could be moving to Aston Martin.

The London-born Italian joined Red Bull in 2015 having begun his career in F1 with Jordan in 2005 and remained with the Silverstone-based outfit during its various incarnations.

Initially race engineer to Daniil Kvyat, when the Russian was replaced by Max Verstappen in 2016, Lambiase continued with the Dutch youngster and has remained with him ever since, overseeing his four championship wins.

He remained Verstappen's engineer despite his promotion within the team, and numerous tetchy radio exchanges, taking over as Head of Race Engineering from Guillaume Rocquelin in 2022, then Head of Racing form the start of 2025 following Jonathan Wheatley's departure to Sauber.

In the aftermath of Christian Horner's sacking, Lambiase effectively became the third most senior member of the team, reporting only to (Technical Director) Pierre Wache and Laurent Mekies.

In the moments following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Verstappen narrowly missed out on a fifth successive title, Lambiase told the Dutchman: "You can be proud of that mate, hold your head up high."

In a cryptic response, Verstappen said: "We showed them one final time who's boss."

The comment, coupled with Lambiase's visible emotion post-race, led to speculation that he would no longer continue to work with the Dutchman.

Adding to the speculation was the fact that, due to personal reasons, Lambiase had missed both the Austrian and Belgian races, having been replaced by Simon Rennie at both events.

While it is unclear precisely what Lambiase's role will be, the waters somewhat muddied by that Abu Dhabi exchange with Verstappen, The Race claims that the London-born Italian has held talks with Aston Martin regarding a senior role which would effectively take him back to where his F1 journey began.

While it is suggested that the role could be that of CEO, there is also talk of Lambiase being given the job of Team Principal, even though it was only last month that Adrian Newey was given the role while Andy Cowell was appointed Chief Strategy Officer.

What with his mission being to design a championship winning car, Newey's additional role as team principal has led to much confusion as to how exactly the design guru might manage to juggle such vital and different roles effectively.

Speaking to Sky in Abu Dhabi, Newey emphasised that his main responsibility to the team was designing a winning car.

"That's really what I want to do and need to do," he said. "That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. So, I'm determined not to dilute that."

A move back to Silverstone would see Lambiase reunited with Newey and would obviously increase speculation that Verstappen is also considering a move.

While aware of the fact that Aston Martin can already offer Newey as a carrot, Verstappen will be all too aware of the fact that the team with which he achieved his titles is not the same.

Other than Horner, Hellmut Marko has now gone, as has chief mechanic Matt Caller, performance engineer Tom Hart, control engineer Michael Manning and engine engineer David Mart.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by trackrecords, 10 hours ago

"Without Marko, who's going to be the drink manufacturer's 'enforcer', upholding the high standards? Previously, Marko was beyond criticism by being a Le Mans-winning driver, so they need another ruthless (grumpy?) individual to take over. Therefore, that rules out 3 past drivers Vettel, Coulthard and DanRic...
"

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2. Posted by KKK, 11 hours ago

"Mintzlaff will be all on his own now. Let's see how badly they do next year!"

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Lambiase to Aston Martin?

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