New Red Bull drama: Max Verstappen’s friend reportedly being left out
One of Max Verstappen’s close teammates at Red Bull is said to be left out when it comes to getting some important team information.
Verstappen was heading for his third straight podium finish at the 2026 British Grand Prix on Sunday, but he spun out with just five laps to go. Earlier, he had talked a lot about problems with his car’s power unit during qualifying and the sprint race. He even said he’d rather “change everything” and start from the pit lane than keep the same car for the race.
Starting from seventh on the grid, Verstappen quickly moved up towards a podium spot, helped by some troubles for the Mercedes drivers. Kimi Antonelli had a steering problem and was pitted twice before fixing it. George Russell got a slow puncture while fighting with Verstappen and had to pit on lap 37, which dropped him back.
Unfortunately, Verstappen then lost control of his Red Bull on lap 47 at Stowe. Although he caught the first slide, he couldn’t stop his car from sliding into the gravel trap. This was Verstappen’s third retirement of the season, leaving him seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. His other two retirements, in China and Monaco, were because of mechanical issues.
There’s still a lot of talk about Verstappen possibly moving to McLaren, making his future at Red Bull uncertain. Lando Norris from McLaren even said it’s “a good thing” that Verstappen might be interested in joining them. At the same time, Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, is leaving Red Bull to become McLaren’s head of engineering. He’ll leave once his contract with Red Bull ends, but the exact time isn’t clear yet—it’s expected to happen by 2028 at the latest.
Erik van Haren, a reporter who knows Red Bull well, said that Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Wache, isn’t sharing all the info with Lambiase anymore because he’s leaving soon. This means Lambiase might not be getting all the details about both Red Bull cars, even though he’s both Verstappen’s race engineer and Head of Racing.
This kind of situation isn’t surprising. Back in April, former Red Bull driver David Coulthard said it’s normal that Lambiase would be gradually phased out before joining McLaren. Coulthard explained that while Lambiase can’t take data from Red Bull when he leaves, he still takes his know-how with him. He shared his own experience from 1995 when he signed with McLaren but was kept away from some areas at his old team.
What McLaren likely hopes for is that Red Bull lets Lambiase leave early, so they don’t have to keep paying his salary and he can start working with them sooner.