Max Verstappen’s F1 race engineer and head of race engineering at the Red Bull Racing squad, Gianpiero Lambiase or ‘GP’, is in active talks with the Aston Martin F1 Team to join forces in a near future, according to the The Race.
The report comes just weeks after what proved to be an emotional end of the season for the highly-regarded Italian engineer, commonly referred to as ‘GP’. Lambiase was set to miss the Qatar GP for personal reasons, but given Verstappen’s increasing title chances at that stage following a double DSQ for McLaren at Las Vegas, ‘GP’ decided to be present at such a crucial stage of the championship.
Senior role at Aston Martin on the table for ‘GP’
Although his efforts weren’t quite enough to secure Verstappen a fifth straight title, the unusually emotional reaction Lambiase had to the final race in Abu Dhabi sparked speculation that he may be looking elsewhere for 2026.
Initially, this was believed to be just a reshuffling within Red Bull, which would move him to a more senior role in the Red Bull F1 squad.
However, The Race’s sources now indicate that he is in talks to join Aston Martin instead. The team just recently announced the shock move of putting legendary designer Adrian Newey as the team principal heading into 2026. Some believe it might be just a stop-gap, before someone really suited to the job can come in.
With Lambiase’s plethora of experience in F1, working with very best in the business, it’s only natural that a position as team principal or even CEO is now on the cards for him at the Silverstone squad.
It would mean a reunion with Newey, as the pair worked together to great effect for so many years at Red Bull, boosting Verstappen to three world titles and many race victories along the way.
Verstappen hails “passionate” nature of Lambiase
After just falling short of the world championship by two points in the Abu Dhabi season finale, Verstappen reflected on what was a “tough year” personally for his engineer, and praised the “passionate” nature of the Italian engineer:
“It’s been an emotional year. Forget about the results this year.
“I also don’t want to go too much into detail, but it’s been tough. But I’m very happy to be able to work with someone that passionate.”
Were ‘GP’ to indeed leave Red Bull for Aston Martin F1, he would be the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the Milton Keynes squad in the last 18 months or so. Jonathan Wheatley, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, Helmut Marko and Will Courtenay all moved on recently.
More specifically in Verstappen’s side of the garage, heading into 2026, he’ll be losing performance engineer Tom Hart, rumoured to be on his way to Williams, control engineer Michael Manning and engine engineer David Mart.
It marks a seismic shift in the team’s management and trackside structure, and it remains to be seem whether the Red Bull Powertrains and Ford collaboration will yield a competitive engine for F1’s new era next year.
