Red Bull’s rebuild is picking up speed with new hires to replace Gianpiero Lambiase and Helmut Marko.
Red Bull is already moving fast to get ready for the 2027 season, and they’ve found someone to take over for Gianpiero Lambiase. Back in April, it was announced that Lambiase would be joining McLaren by 2028 at the latest since his contract with Red Bull ends in 2027.
Lambiase is Red Bull’s current race engineer and has been with the team since 2015. He started working with Daniil Kvyat, then became Max Verstappen’s race engineer when Max joined in 2016. Many see him as one of the top engineers in F1, helping Max and Red Bull win four straight Drivers’ Championships from 2021 to 2024.
McLaren already said Lambiase will be their new Chief Racing Officer in the next two years, and Red Bull has picked his replacement. Tom Hart is ready to step in as race engineer. He had planned to move to Williams but decided to stay and work with Verstappen instead. Hart has some experience from testing with reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda, and he might even fill in for Lambiase in a few races to help with a smooth handover.
This change for Hart is just the start of Red Bull’s rebuild. They’ve also brought in Mercedes’ talent scout Gwen Lagrue to lead their driver development program. She replaces Helmut Marko, who retired as Red Bull’s motorsport advisor at the end of last year.
Lagrue, who is 50, is a big catch for Red Bull, especially after losing key staff like technical director Adrian Newey to Aston Martin and head of strategy Will Courtenay to McLaren. Lambiase is also set to join McLaren with Courtenay.
According to BBC Sport, Red Bull sees Lagrue as key to making their young driver program the best out there again, after she spent a decade at Mercedes. Red Bull’s team principal, Laurent Mekies, didn’t comment on Lagrue’s future, but she’s definitely a smart hire.
At Mercedes, Lagrue helped bring in George Russell, who became one of the top drivers on the grid. Even more impressively, she played a role in Kimi Antonelli joining Mercedes when he was just 11 and racing go-karts. Antonelli went through a fast-tracked program and replaced Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025 — a move that has really paid off.
Antonelli has been amazing in 2026, winning his sixth race at the Belgian Grand Prix and pulling 45 points ahead in the Drivers’ Championship.