McLaren has poached Max Verstappen’s race engineer to safeguard against championship-winning team principal Andrea Stella leaving for Ferrari, according to reports.
Dutch newspapers De Limburger and subsequently De Telegraaf have reported McLaren has been successful in a big-bucks play for Gianpiero Lambiase, who has engineered Verstappen since his 2016 arrival at Red Bull Racing.
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Lambiase is under contract until the end of 2027 and is expected to continue with the team until at least the end of this season. He has been with the team since 2015 and will likely be required to serve a significant amount of gardening leave — a non-compete period for high-profile personnel — before changing constructors.
The Dutch publications, both of which are well connected with the Verstappen family, further report that McLaren wants Lambiase to start work by 2028, by which point current team principal Andrea Stella will be out of contract.
Stella signed a “multi-year” contract with McLaren in 2024 that will reportedly keep him at Woking until the end of 2027.
McLaren is not dissatisfied with his performance, with Stella having led the team to back-to-back constructors championships in 2024–25 and its first drivers title since 2008 last year.
However, the Italian engineer is rumoured to have been contacted by Ferrari about a possible move back to Maranello should Frédéric Vasseur’s team principalship fail to deliver wins and titles. Stella was performance engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen in their title-winning campaigns for the Scuderia.
De Limburger has reported Stella has already signed a precontract with Ferrari — though such precursor deals tend to be statements of intent rather than binding deals.
However, The Race has since reported that McLaren intends for Lambiase to support Stella as team principal as the role expands beyond the effective capacity of a single person.
McLaren already operates with a dual-leadership model, with Stella in control of racing operations as team principal and CEO Zak Brown running the McLaren Racing business, which includes the company’s IndyCar and pending World Endurance Championship programs.
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Stella’s departure would represent a significant shake-up for McLaren, whose rise from the doldrums to the front of the field has been largely credited to his restructuring of the team after ascending to the team principal role in 2023.
He has also had a significant cultural influence on the team, which in the previous decade appeared locked in a downwards spiral of the sort that has condemned the likes of Williams, formerly an F1 grandee, to decades at the back of the pack.
His reign as team boss has further seen Lando Norris fulfil his potential with his first world title as well as Oscar Piastri make his first steps in Formula 1.
Stella has been a big backer of Piastri’s career, likening him to Schumacher, Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso — all of whom he worked with at Ferrari — as early as the Australian’s first campaign with McLaren.
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Lambiase’s decision to leave Red Bull Racing makes him the latest in a growing line of brain-draining departures from the six-time constructors championship-winning team.
The highest profile loss was of Christian Horner, who was dismissed from his role in the middle of last year. He was followed out the door by Helmut Marko at the end of the season.
On their watch the team had also lost chief technical officer Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, chief designer Rob Marshall and head of race strategy Will Courtenay, the latter two to McLaren.
With so many of the team’s foundational members having departed or being poised to do so, with Red Bull Racing embarking on its first year as an engine manufacturer and with the team having slipped down into the midfield, it will be difficult for it to combat the perception that it’s championship window has closed and that it’s now in a rebuilding phase ahead of the next rules cycle set to start in 2031.
More immediately, Lambiase’s decision could influence Verstappen’s thinking on whether to quit Formula 1 at the end of the season.
Lambiase has been a key ally of the four-time champion since he joined Red Bull Racing as an 18-year-old in 2016, and the two share a close bond.
“Of course he is my race engineer, but I see him as my friend,” Verstappen said at the end of last season. “We have lived through so many emotional things together and fantastic achievements.
“I’m just very proud to be able to work with someone that good. A proper example of someone that never gave up this season, even through the difficult times.”
With Verstappen already deeply dissatisfied with the state of Formula 1 and naturally displeased about his car’s lack of competitiveness, the loss of a critical member of his inner circle — having already lost important political backer Helmut Marko last year — could be enough to push him out the door.
Lambiase, who is also head of racing at Milton Keynes — a role that absorbed some of Wheatley’s sporting director responsibilities following his departure that effectively makes him second in line to team principal Laurent Mekies — will reportedly be in line for a significant pay increase at McLaren.
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