Overview
- Lambiase’s switch drew fresh attention after former team boss Guenther Steiner said he expects Red Bull to release him early and suggested McLaren could start him before the current plan.
- McLaren has confirmed Lambiase will become Chief Racing Officer no later than 2028 and said it will try to negotiate an earlier move while honoring his Red Bull contract.
- Zak Brown dismissed talk that team principal Andrea Stella could leave for Ferrari and said Stella was the one who chose to hire Lambiase for the new role.
- Brown explained that Lambiase will take over race-team operations to ease Stella’s workload, which now spans team leadership, track operations, and coordination of McLaren’s three technical directors.
- Lambiase is best known as Max Verstappen’s long-time race engineer at Red Bull, and his signing follows McLaren’s recent recruitment of ex-Red Bull figures such as Rob Marshall and Will Courtenay.