Aston Martin eye shock move for Verstappen’s right-hand man Gianpiero Lambiase
If you watched the cool-down at Yas Marina, you saw it: Gianpiero Lambiase, usually granite on the Red Bull pit wall, visibly moved as Max Verstappen missed the 2025 world title by two points to Lando Norris. At the time, you could chalk it up to a long, bruising season. In hindsight, it may have been something else.
The Race reports that Lambiase — Verstappen’s race engineer since 2016 and arguably the most important voice in his ear — has held talks with Aston Martin about a senior position for 2026. We’re not talking a headset swap. The role being discussed is said to be at team principal or even CEO level. No deal yet, but the conversations are real.
It would be quite the homecoming. Lambiase cut his teeth at Silverstone in 2005 when the team was still Jordan, later steering the likes of Vitantonio Liuzzi, Paul di Resta and Sergio Perez through the Force India years. He moved to Red Bull in 2015, first with Daniil Kvyat, then with a freshly promoted Verstappen in 2016. From that point, “GP” and Max became inseparable on the radio and unstoppable on Sundays: a debut win in Spain, then four consecutive titles between 2021 and 2024, and the near-miss this year.
Aston Martin’s interest is not happening in a vacuum. The team is resetting ahead of the new power unit era with Honda from 2026. Adrian Newey, who left Red Bull in 2024 after shaping Verstappen’s championship machinery, is set to become Aston Martin team principal next season amid a wider reshuffle that places former Mercedes HPP boss Andy Cowell as chief strategy officer from 2026, overseeing the Aston-Honda-Aramco axis.
Newey has been clear that car development remains his obsession — he told Sky F1 he’s “determined not to dilute that” — which naturally raises the question of who does the heavy lifting on the team principal side when the season starts. Bringing in Lambiase would give Aston Martin a leader steeped in trackside operations and driver management, and, crucially, someone Newey knows and trusts. It also fits Aston’s recent pattern of recruiting familiar Red Bull faces in key technical and strategy roles.
For Red Bull and Verstappen, the potential loss is obvious. Lambiase isn’t just the calm voice over the radio; he’s embedded in Verstappen’s way of working, from tyre offsets to how to attack an out-lap. Verstappen called him “my friend” in Abu Dhabi and praised a season of sheer persistence: “A proper example of someone that never gave up this season, even through the difficult times.”
The Dutchman’s inner circle has already thinned. Helmut Marko will leave his advisor role at the end of 2025, and Verstappen’s long-time number-one mechanic, Matt Caller, is Audi-bound for 2026. If Lambiase steps away, Red Bull does have an obvious plug-in: Simon Rennie. Daniel Ricciardo’s former race engineer has been on factory duty in recent years and deputised on the pit wall this season in Austria and Belgium. He knows the rhythms, and he knows Max. But plug-in isn’t the same as plug-and-play when you’re talking about the most finely tuned driver-engineer pairing of the era.
Aston Martin, for their part, are adamant that their driver plans are set. Back in April, they quickly rubbished chatter linking Verstappen to a mega-money move, reiterating their commitment to Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll for 2026 and beyond. Red Bull’s hierarchy has also been bullish, with Oliver Mintzlaff expressing confidence Verstappen will end his career in Milton Keynes. So this isn’t about luring Max; it’s about building the leadership spine for a works team aiming to land heavy punches in the next rule cycle.
There’s also a cultural point here. Lambiase is an engineer first, a people manager by osmosis, and a competitor to the core. If Newey’s priority is leaving fingerprints on the car rather than on HR memos, surrounding him with experienced race-ops leaders makes sense. And few have more high-wire experience than the man who has talked Verstappen through every weather pattern, safety car shuffle and qualifying knife-edge since the teenager days.
Red Bull, remember, has been here before on the talent front — and survived it. But the 2026 reset looms large. If Aston Martin lands Lambiase to pair with Newey, Honda and a stacked technical department, it accelerates their bid to move from occasional podiums to the sharp end on merit, every week.
For now, it’s talks, not signatures. But you don’t whisper about roles “at team principal or CEO level” unless the intent is serious. If this one lands, it won’t just change the sound in Verstappen’s ear. It could reshape the competitive map heading into F1’s next era.
