Red Bull and McLaren have called a ceasefire after weeks of tension over one of Formula 1’s most high-profile staff moves — the impending departure of Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase to the papaya team.
The announcement that Lambiase will join McLaren no later than 2028 has become the latest flashpoint in an ongoing talent drain from Milton Keynes. Once the powerhouse behind Verstappen’s four consecutive drivers’ championships and back-to-back constructors’ titles in 2022 and 2023, Red Bull has watched its championship-winning core dismantle piece by piece.
Adrian Newey is now running Aston Martin as managing technical partner and team principal. Helmut Marko has “retired” from the F1 paddock. Christian Horner was sacked last summer and is now pushing for a comeback. On the technical side, McLaren has steadily poached key Red Bull personnel, including former chief aerodynamicist Rob Marshall and ex-sporting director Will Courtenay.
Lambiase’s move is the biggest blow yet. Known as Verstappen’s trusted voice on the pit wall, GP has been a constant presence through Red Bull’s dominant era. McLaren confirmed in April that he will report to Andrea Stella as chief racing officer, but the long notice period — more than two years — leaves room for an earlier switch if both teams can agree terms.
The announcement didn’t come quietly. McLaren’s statement took a thinly veiled swipe at Red Bull, praising its own ability to “attract and secure top talent” like Lambiase, Marshall, and Courtenay, while highlighting the stability of its leadership under Zak Brown and Stella. It was a clear statement of intent — and a subtle jab at Red Bull’s recent instability.
That raised the risk of a public back-and-forth between the two rival teams. But Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says cooler heads have prevailed. Speaking after the Miami GP, he confirmed he’s been in regular contact with Brown and that both sides agreed not to escalate things.
“I talk very often with Zak and with my other colleagues,” Mekies said. “But certainly, none of us wanted to go into a ping pong about it, and we had a good chat about it, like we always do, and we moved on.”
For now, Lambiase remains at Red Bull, and Mekies insists there’s no panic over replacing him. “In terms of replacing GP, we have a couple of years to think about it,” he said. “But jokes aside… we don’t want to be defensive about the fact that we lost some talent; it’s a fact, and it’s been there for three or four years.”
Instead, Mekies is focusing on rebuilding confidence within the team. He stressed that retaining and developing talent is now Red Bull’s top priority. “We feel we have the best talent already, department for department,” he added, pointing to Ben Hodgkinson leading the power unit division and Pierre Waché overseeing chassis development.
The staff exodus reflects a broader shift in F1’s competitive landscape. McLaren’s resurgence under Brown and Stella has made it an attractive destination for engineers and strategists, while Red Bull faces the challenge of maintaining its culture after losing so many senior figures.
Mekies is determined to turn that narrative around. He believes the foundation is still strong and that Red Bull can attract new talent by creating the right environment, rather than just relying on past success.
The Lambiase situation won’t be resolved overnight, and there’s still a chance McLaren could negotiate an early release. But for now, both teams have agreed to keep discussions private rather than play them out in the media.
As F1 heads into the European leg of the 2026 season, Red Bull’s focus will be on proving that its engineering depth runs deeper than a few star names. The talent war isn’t over — but at least the public sparring has stopped.
