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Alex Brundle believes Red Bull could make a decision to move Gianpiero Lambiase away from Max Verstappen ahead of his move to McLaren.
Lambiase is set to join McLaren in 2028, becoming the latest member of the core Red Bull team to leave after their championship success.
Lambiase joins Christian Horner, Jonathan Wheatley, Adrian Newey, and Helmut Marko in leaving Red Bull as their decline begins to take shape.
Are Red Bull’s days as a top F1 team coming to an end?
Verstappen is incredibly loyal to Lambiase, considering him instrumental to his championship success over the last few years.
But Laurent Mekies might have no choice but to replace Gianpiero Lambiase as Max Verstappen’s race engineer ahead of his move to McLaren.
READ MORE: Jolyon Palmer explains why Liam Lawson isn’t the right driver to replace Max Verstappen at Red Bull
Alex Brundle explains why Red Bull will replace Gianpiero Lambiase as Max Verstappen’s race engineer
Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, F1 commentator Alex Brundle spoke about the current situation at Red Bull in the aftermath of Gianpiero Lambiase’s departure.
He noted that Red Bull could decide to plan for the future, while also wanting to keep their plans from reaching McLaren, and replace Gianpiero Lambiase as Max Verstappen’s race engineer in 2027.
“Your inner racer says, come the end of this season, Laurent might say we’re going to find, as much for continuity with Max, a new engineer.
“I’m not sure having an engineer that everyone in the team knows is leaving, even if GP is leaving, even if GP is absolutely upstanding as these guys so often are, with the information that he is controlling from Red Bull that is not supposed to go across to McLaren.
“The team need to be able to operate totally freely with him throughout the 2027 season. So I wonder if, at the end of this year, they will then say to him, ‘Hey, we need to start building someone new with Max.’”
READ MORE: Max Verstappen has already explained why losing Gianpiero Lambiase would hurt him so much
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Red Bull could decide against replacing Gianpiero Lambiase if gap between McLaren increases
However, Brundle did also acknowledge that Red Bull could decide against replacing Lambiase if they feel that the gap between them and McLaren is too much, and them gaining information about their car won’t further the gap.
“It’s fascinating. And it’s going to depend on the internal relationship and the performance of the two cars as well.
“Red Bull could easily think, ‘Well, if McLaren is up the road, then we’ve not got a huge amount to lose by them knowing much information about our car.’”
Red Bull have to strike a delicate balance, as replacing Lambiase will help them plan for the future. However, it could risk upsetting Max Verstappen further, who is already contemplating his future.
If Verstappen leaves, Red Bull have very few prospects in the near future, and it could push the team down among other midfield teams.
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