Ted Kravitz says Red Bull should sign former Charles Leclerc ally to replace Gianpiero Lambiase

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Max Verstappen has highlighted how he will now need to find a new race engineer in light of Gianpiero Lambiase’s move to McLaren for the 2028 F1 season, and Ted Kravitz has named a former Charles Leclerc engineer as the ideal replacement.

Having worked with Verstappen for the entirety of the four-time world champion’s tenure at Red Bull, confirmation of Lambiase’s switch to McLaren stunned the F1 paddock when it was announced in April.

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It further fuelled the rumours of an early exit from the sport for Verstappen and raised even more questions over the Austrian constructor’s future competitiveness in the sport, given the mass exodus that Red Bull have experienced in recent years.

Now that the initial shock of the move has died down, attention has shifted towards who Red Bull will choose to fill Lambiase’s void upon his official exit, which is expected to be ahead of the 2028 F1 season.

• READ MORE: Guenther Steiner says Gianpiero Lambiase had to leave Red Bull while his ‘value’ was still high

Ted Kravitz says Red Bull should replace Gianpiero Lambiase with former Ferrari engineer Jock Clear

During his media duties at the Miami International Autodrome on Thursday afternoon, Verstappen was asked for his thoughts on the recent news of Lambiase’s future exit.

Interestingly, the four-time world champion dropped a hint about his future as he stated that he will need to try and find a like-minded engineer to replace the departing Briton.

“It’s just the general understanding that we have with each other and the chemistry works really well,” Verstappen started. “And that’s very rare, I think, in racing.

“You don’t see it that often, that a driver and engineer gel that well together. That’s, of course, something that I will have to try and find again. It’s not that easy, but yeah, sometimes that happens.”

Ted Kravitz saw this as a clear indication of Verstappen’s future plans, telling Karun Chandhok and Rachel Brooks on Sky Sports F1’s Paddock Uncut, “Clearly, the question of does this make it more likely that Max will leave Red Bull is no.

“If Max is talking about I’m looking for another engineer, and at least I’ve got him for the next year or two, then that means that he’s staying.”

The pit lane reporter then offered his opinion on who Red Bull should look to when deciding on a replacement for Lambiase, suggesting Charles Leclerc’s former performance engineer at Ferrari, Jock Clear.

• READ MORE: Charles Leclerc’s former driver coach says he can challenge Max Verstappen ‘in an inferior car’

Who is Jock Clear, Charles Leclerc’s former performance coach at Ferrari?

Clear is a British performance engineer with over 30 years of experience in F1, and he’s renowned for his work with some of the sport’s biggest legends. His most recent role as Leclerc’s driver coach came to an end upon the conclusion of the 2025 campaign.

His career in motorsport began in the 1980s, but he didn’t taste true success until the latter years of the 1990s, when he served as the race engineer to Jacques Villeneuve during the Canadian’s title-winning 1997 season.

The Briton then moved to the Brackley-based F1 outfit now known as Mercedes in 2003, where he supported the likes of Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello at BAR, Honda and Brawn.

Remaining with the team into the Mercedes era, Clear was an integral member of the outfit’s success. He served as Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton’s performance engineer, following a brief stint as the right-hand man to Nico Rosberg.

His move to Maranello was confirmed ahead of the 2015 season, where he held a similar role for Sebastian Vettel and later, Leclerc, until his exit at the end of 2025.