Jos Verstappen has suggested Max Verstappen is unlikely to walk away from Formula 1 purely because Gianpiero Lambiase is leaving Red Bull — even with the pair’s relationship long framed as non-negotiable.
Lambiase’s move to McLaren was confirmed this week, ending months of background noise about where Red Bull’s long-time race engineer-turned-senior figure would land. McLaren has signed the 45-year-old as its new Chief Racing Officer, with his switch slated for “no later” than 2028 when his current Red Bull deal expires. PlanetF1.com understands Aston Martin also made an approach before Lambiase opted for Woking.
The headline, though, isn’t simply that McLaren has pinched a key operator from a rival. It’s what the departure inevitably stirs around Verstappen, given the decade-long partnership that has underpinned his entire Red Bull era — and the fact Verstappen once said, bluntly, that if Lambiase stopped, he’d stop too.
That line came after Verstappen’s first title-winning season, when he told Dutch media: “I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too.” It was a comment that landed with extra weight because, unlike many driver-engineer pairings, Verstappen and Lambiase’s dynamic has never looked like a simple working relationship. Their radio exchanges have been fiery, funny, and occasionally fraught, but always honest — and often revealing in a way modern F1 communications rarely allow.
Yet Jos Verstappen now insists the situation has moved on, both in terms of timing and in where Max is in his career.
“We’ve known about it for a while and we also knew when it was going to happen,” Verstappen Sr told RaceXpress. “We’ve got another year and a half or two years to work with him. It’s a huge opportunity for him and we understand that. We’ve also told him: you have to go for it and grab it with both hands.
“It’s up to Red Bull to find his replacement. We’ll see.”
The intriguing part is how casually Jos frames it. There’s no sense of betrayal, no dramatic rupture. If anything, it reads like an acceptance that modern F1 teams — especially at the front — are built on constant churn at senior level, and that careers now move in arcs that don’t necessarily align with a driver’s preferences.
Asked about Max’s previous warning that a split with Lambiase would be the end, Jos added: “I think things have changed. Especially after four championships, you’ve achieved a lot together. The final decision is up to Max, but I think he’ll just carry on.”
That “final decision” line is the one that matters. Verstappen has already been openly kicking the tyres on life beyond F1, and not in the performative way drivers sometimes do during contract cycles. At the recent Japanese Grand Prix he admitted his dissatisfaction with the 2026 regulations could push him away from the sport. With a new ruleset and a full reset of competitive order approaching, the context around every big career call in the paddock has shifted — including who chooses to be where, and when.
For Red Bull, Lambiase’s exit is awkward on two levels. First, because replacing the person who has been the voice in Verstappen’s ear through his entire rise — from that immediate statement win in Spain in 2016 to four straight world titles between 2021 and 2024 — isn’t like swapping out a performance engineer and updating the org chart. Second, because any change around Verstappen is now interpreted through the lens of his broader uncertainty about the sport’s direction.
McLaren, meanwhile, has been careful to frame the appointment as a reinforcement rather than a restructure. Zak Brown confirmed Lambiase will report into Team Principal Andrea Stella, and McLaren insists Stella’s position is unchanged despite speculation elsewhere that Lambiase might be part of a succession plan.
Brown wrote: “Happy to share that GianPiero Lambiase will join the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team as Chief Racing Officer, reporting into Team Principal Andrea Stella, when his contract ends no later than 2028. He joins an incredible team under Andrea’s leadership and I’m excited about what we can achieve together.”
That reporting line matters. It tells you McLaren sees Lambiase as an operational heavyweight — someone to sharpen race execution, process and decision-making — rather than an incoming team boss-in-waiting.
As for Verstappen, Jos’s comments read like an attempt to lower the temperature. There’s still plenty that could sway Max one way or the other: the competitive outlook for Red Bull under 2026’s framework, his appetite for sticking around in a sport he’s already conquered, and, yes, the comfort of having his trusted ally on the pit wall. But the idea that Lambiase’s move automatically triggers a Verstappen exit now sounds, at least from the family’s side, like a quote from a different moment — from a younger driver before four championships hardened into lived reality.
Red Bull will have time to manage the handover. The bigger question is whether the team can make the change feel seamless to the one driver it can’t afford to unsettle — especially as the sport itself tilts into its next era.
