What's behind McLaren's brazen public meeting with Lambiase
McLaren is accelerating efforts to get hold of Red Bull’s engineer Gianpiero Lambiase early – with a deliberately brazen paddock meeting helping draw attention to the matter.
Lambiase, who is Red Bull’s head of racing and has long been Max Verstappen’s race engineer, has agreed to join McLaren as its chief racing officer.
However, with his current contract with Red Bull running until the end of next year, unless an early exit is agreed then McLaren will have to wait until the start of 2028 to get hold of him.
McLaren is eager not to delay Lambiase’s integration so long, and has held a series of discussions over recent months with Red Bull about whether there are grounds to reach a compromise deal.
However, nothing has been arranged so far – but it now appears to be ramping up efforts for some movement.
Intriguingly, Lambiase and McLaren CEO Zak Brown chose a very conspicuous spot in the Madring paddock on Saturday morning – at a café table right by the main thoroughfare - for a chat.
The choice of location, one easily captured by photographers and camera crews, was interesting because the pair could easily have met in a quieter spot in the huge pit and paddock complex at the Spanish Grand Prix venue.
Instead, by choosing the café, the aim was almost certainly to send a message that the pair are openly talking.
This could influence Red Bull to think there is little to gain by delaying Lambiase's release.
Handover debate
McLaren's hopes of securing a deal appeared to have increased recently with Red Bull having settled on its replacement plans for Lambiase.
The squad has signed Aston Martin’s Tom McCullough as its new head of racing from next year, while Tom Hart is to take over as Verstappen’s race engineer.
With those appointments in place, McLaren senses an opportunity to not have to wait until 2028, so it has started pushing again to see if there are grounds for Red Bull to let Lambiase go early.
However, Red Bull appears to be in no rush to fast track a release – as it is still weighing up what to do.
The Race understands that one of Red Bull’s big considerations is how best it wants to handle the transition to the new arrivals.
A priority is a good enough handover so both McCullough and Hart do not face a cold start in their new roles.
Red Bull has already begun preparations for Hart’s closer integration with Verstappen.
He has begun acting as Verstappen’s engineer in some practice sessions – which will continue in Baku – and is set to take over for full race-weekends towards the end of the season. This may start from the United States Grand Prix.
A handover to McCullough, who does not join until the start of 2027, would have to wait until the start of next year though – which would mean Lambiase not being in place at McLaren for the start of the season.
