Max Verstappen ‘s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will step up into a more senior role at Red Bull as part of a restructure to replace outgoing sporting director Jonathan Wheatley.
Wheatley will join Sauber as team principal in early 2025, a year before it becomes Audi.
Red Bull has decided not to fill his old role like for like, instead promoting a number of figures from within the race team which has won three straight drivers’ and two straight constructors’ championships.
Lambiase, known to F1 fans as “GP” from his long association with Verstappen and his back and forths with the Dutchman over the radio during races, will move from head of race engineering into the newly created head of racing.
Lambiase will continue his duties with Verstappen from the pit-wall but also take responsibility for the race, heritage and car-build teams, while also overseeing all things relating to the strategy group and the sporting regulations.
He will report into technical director Pierre Wache.
One of Wheatley’s key roles was as Red Bull’s representative in matters with the governing FIA — most notably, when either of the drivers are summoned to the stewards during a race weekend or when the team lodges an appeal or protest against a rival team.
That responsibility will now go to Steve Knowles who is stepping up from senior strategy engineer to acting head of sporting matters, and will report directly to Lambiase.
Red Bull has always been keen to stress the strength in depth of its race operation and the elevation of existing team members to replace the long-serving Wheatley is testimony to that belief.
Wheatley’s departure coincides with Adrian Newey’s, with the design legend set to start work for Aston Martin on the eve of the 2025 season.
As part of the reshuffle, Rich Wolverson has moved up to head of race team operations, managing the day-to-day operations of the race team.
Gerrard O’Reilly has been promoted to head of race team support and logistics while chief mechanic Phil Turner will become race team factory operations manager.