Max Verstappen will not have to adjust to an entirely new voice in his ear just yet. Red Bull has identified Tom Hart, a British performance engineer already embedded within the team, as the man who will take over race engineer duties from Gianpiero Lambiase, the trusted figure who has guided the four-time world champion through the most dominant stretch of his career.
Hart had reportedly agreed to join Williams as race engineer for Alex Albon before reversing that decision to remain at Red Bull and step into the most high-profile engineering seat in Formula 1. His willingness to walk away from a confirmed role elsewhere to stay alongside Verstappen speaks to both the appeal of the opportunity and the significance of keeping continuity within one of the sport’s most celebrated driver-engineer partnerships.
Lambiase, widely recognized by fans from the voice on the other end of Verstappen’s radio communications, is departing Red Bull to take on a senior leadership role at McLaren in 2028. The exact timing of his exit from the team has not been publicly confirmed, but Hart is expected to formally assume the race engineer position at the start of the 2027 season. There is also a possibility that he takes over for individual race weekends before the year is out, giving him time to ease into the role before carrying it full-time.
Hart builds toward a defining role
Hart is a known and respected figure within Verstappen’s side of the garage, which matters enormously in a dynamic where trust between driver and engineer is built over years of shared experience. He has been operating as a performance engineer at Red Bull and recently gained race engineer experience during a filming day at Silverstone, working alongside young driver Isack Hadjar.
The role he is inheriting is not a simple one. Lambiase spent years developing a working relationship with Verstappen that produced four consecutive world championships and became one of the defining partnerships in the sport’s modern era. The Red Bull boss acknowledged the pressure of those expectations but expressed confidence that the team has retained the right people to move forward.
After the Belgian Grand Prix, team principal Laurent Mekies offered remarks that appeared to signal Hart’s change of plan before it was officially confirmed. He noted that many of the names that had been circulating in reports about staff departures remained in the garage, with some having reconsidered decisions they had initially made.
A team navigating significant change
Red Bull has been managing a notable period of staff transition. Several prominent figures have departed in recent years for roles at rival organizations, including designers and engineers who were central to the team’s competitive success. Hart had been viewed as another potential departure, and his apparent agreement to join Williams had added to concerns about the team’s ability to hold together the group surrounding Verstappen.
His decision to stay is a meaningful piece of good news for a team that has been working to reassure its star driver that the infrastructure around him remains strong. Verstappen’s long-term future at the team has been a recurring topic given the changes, and keeping Hart in the garage addresses at least one piece of that conversation.
Lambiase’s dual role as race engineer and head of racing, a title he received in 2024, has yet to be fully resolved. Red Bull has not confirmed how the head of racing position will be handled following his departure, leaving one notable question still open even as the engineering handover takes shape.
Chief engineer Paul Monaghan, meanwhile, has agreed to move to Cadillac and was absent from the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, representing another departure the organization must manage alongside the transition in the race engineer seat.
For Verstappen, the news brings a degree of stability. The engineer who will call the shots from the pit wall during his races has been chosen, and he is someone who already knows the garage from the inside.
