Red Bull sees Wheatley leave: why Lambiase is a possible successor

Wheatley has been with Red Bull since 2006 and had quite a package of responsibilities. So whoever will follow in his footsteps must have the necessary capabilities. In the press release in which the Austrian F1 team announced Wheatley's departure, team boss Christian Horner already hinted that this move would allow 'other team members to move up the ranks'. A 'new team structure' will also be announced soon.

Lambiase to replace Wheatley?

Looking at current members of the team who could possibly be considered as candidates, several names emerge. Gianpiero Lambiase is one of them. Max Verstappen's current race engineer - who has held this role at Red Bull since 2015, then for Daniil Kvyat - was promoted to Head of Race Engineering back in 2022, taking over from Guillaume Rocquelin.

Lambiase began his career in Formula 1 in 2005 with the Jordan team, where he remained employed after the many identity changes the team went through. So he worked for Midland, Spyker and eventually Force India, where he became Giancarlo Fisichella's performance engineer. In 2010, Lambiase became the race engineer for Vitantonio Liuzzi and later for Paul di Resta. In 2015, he left for Red Bull, where he became the race engineer for Kvyat. When Helmut Marko decided to replace the Russian with Verstappen, Lambiase was linked to the Dutchman.

Given his vast experience on the pit wall at the team, Lambiase would be anything but an odd choice. However, that choice is not so easy to make: as Verstappen's race engineer, the 43-year-old Briton has built up a close relationship of trust with the Dutchman. If he wants to fully take over Wheatley's role, Verstappen might have to say goodbye to the trusted 'GP'. Verstappen has made it clear in the past that he would have great difficulty with any departure of his race engineer.

How Lambiase could be promoted AND remain linked to Verstappen

Another possibility - in which Verstappen and Lambiase could remain linked to each other - is that Wheatley's duties could be split up. This would allow Lambiase to be given even more responsibilities within the team while continuing to work as Verstappen's race engineer. In that case, another member of the team will also take over some of Wheatley's duties.

What Red Bull's new team structure will look like and how the Austrian formation will replace Wheatley will become clear in the coming weeks.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy