Verstappen cements McLaren link; two major Red Bull signings after defection backflip — F1 Pit Talk

Red Bull Racing has found Max Verstappen’s next race engineer after long-serving incumbent Gianpiero Lambiase announced his decision to join McLaren by 2028.

Tom Hart, who has served as Verstappen’s race engineer since 2020 and has been with Red Bull Racing since 2012, will step into the role from 2027.

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Hart had reportedly accepted an offer from Williams to become Alex Albon’s race engineer from 2027, but ESPN has reported the offer of an enhanced position at Red Bull Racing has convinced the Briton to reverse course and stick with Milton Keynes for the foreseeable future.

Hart will become Verstappen’s race engineer if the Dutchman also remains with the team beyond the end of the season. He will become the engineer for Verstappen’s successor should the four-time champion quit the team.

The move stems a growing brain drain from Milton Keynes in recent years, with Lambiase among the highest profile departures from Red Bull Racing as the team declines from its latest championship-winning era.

McLaren announced in April that it had poached Lambiase from Red Bull Racing, where he’s been Verstappen’s race engineer since the Dutchman joined the team in 2016.

Lambiase has also been the team’s head of racing since 2025 in an extraordinary dual occupation arranged mostly to keep him partnered with Verstappen.

The head of racing position has yet to be filled.

Hart is well liked on Verstappen’s side of the garage, and what had been though to be his impending departure had been considered a potential factor in the decision-making over the Dutchman’s future, particularly in parallel with Lambiase’s confirmed defection.

That the Briton has changed his mind could decrease the chance of Verstappen triggering the escape clause in his contract, which will become available to him after this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

It’s also a win for Red Bull Racing, which has struggled to retain some of its highest profile staff.

Just last month the team lost chief engineer Paul Monaghan, who is reportedly now on gardening leave ahead of a move to Cadillac in a higher role.

Reports of Monaghan’s move followed news of the pending departure of Lambiase (McLaren) and the exits of chief designers Rob Marshall (McLaren) and Craig Skinner (resigned), chief mechanic Lee Stevenson (Audi), Verstappen front-end mechanic Ole Schack (resigned) chief technical officer Adrian Newey (Aston Martin), sporting director Jonathan Wheatley (Audi, since resigned), head of strategy Will Courtenay (McLaren), team principal Christian Horner (dismissed), motorsport adviser Helmut Marko (retired).

At the time Monaghan’s move was reported, Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies denied his team was struggling to retain staff.

“There are a lot of rumours about the team and the team personnel,” he said. “I don’t think it will be right for me to comment on every single rumour that comes out.

“If I look at the names that have been circulating in the last few months, most of them are still in the garage. Some had never wanted to leave. Some have changed their mind and are staying with us.

“There is nothing more important to us than making sure we are in a position to keep our talents and to attract the ones we need, and that remains the highest priority.”

RED BULL RACING NABS MERCEDES DRIVER SCOUT

Red Bull Racing has poached Mercedes driver scout Gwen Lagrue to replace former motorsport adviser Helmut Marko as the head of its driver development program.

According to the BBC, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes are locked in negotiations over when Lagrue will be able to switch teams.

Frenchman Lagrue, 50 years old, heads the Mercedes scouting team that unearthed title leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli when the young gun was still racing karts at 11 years old. The Italian was subsequently inducted into the Mercedes driver program and backed during his junior career until he made his Formula 1 debut as an 18-year-old last season.

His first signing was George Russell following the Briton’s well-recounted personal approach to team boss Toto Wolff with a PowerPoint presentation outlining why he should be signed by the German auto giant.

Haas driver Esteban Ocon is also a former Mercedes development driver, as is former Manor and Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein, the 2023–24 Formula E champion and 2015 DTM title-winner.

Australian karter James Anagnostiadis joined the Mercedes program in 2024 on Lagrue’s watch.

Lagrue’s pending Red Bull Racing switch will fill a hole left behind by Marko’s departure at the end of last season. Marko had been a fixture of the Red Bull Formula 1 program from its inception as a key confidant of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz.

Marko, a two-time Le Mans winner, filled the positions of chief scout and head of development for decades, with his successes including both Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen. Eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo also arrived in Formula 1 after Red Bull backed his junior career.

The Austrian powerbroker’s departure is part of a wider shift in power inside the Red Bull program, with authority moving back to the energy drinks company’s headquarters and out of the hands of senior team members. That power shift was also largely responsible for Horner’s sacking in the middle of last season.

VERSTAPPEN SIGNS McLAREN JUNIOR DRIVER

Max Verstappen has linked himself to McLaren by signing one of the team’s junior drivers to his personal management company.

Dries van Langendonck, 15 years old from Belgium, was signed up to McLaren’s development program in 2024 after winning the 2023 world junior karting title.

He was shifted from karts to British Formula 4 partway through last year and claimed his first victory in just his third start.

He’s comfortably leading the British F4 championship this year at the season’s halfway mark, having dominated the F4-level Formula Winter Series earlier this year for his first championship in car racing.

Van Langendonck will remain in the McLaren development program while also receiving “support and guidance” from Verstappen, including via the Dutchman’s racing simulator business.

“He has been a big talent for a long time already in go-karting, and I think you can spot quite quickly when someone is a little bit more special than someone else,” Verstappen said.

“I think that has carried on with what he’s doing right now in Formula 4, and that’s why I think it’s just very exciting to try and help him and guide him, hand-in-hand with McLaren’s side as well, to make the right decisions for his future.

“He wants to get to Formula 1, and I’m just trying to make sure that will happen in the future.

“We’re just going to try and help him achieve that by making, hopefully, the right calls and decisions in terms of where he has to race, what he has to do, help him on the simulator side as well, and just try to give him more and more experience.

“He’s only 15, so there’s still a lot to learn, naturally, but luckily, I think, in terms of raw speed, that’s there.

“He’s very good for a 15-year-old. Compared to myself when I was 15, he’s very, very good at the same age.

“It’s honestly a very exciting project to be part of.”