Red Bull has reportedly selected Tom Hart to become Max Verstappen’s next race engineer, with the British engineer lined up to succeed Gianpiero Lambiase when the long-serving “GP” eventually leaves the team. Hart is already Max Verstappen’s performance engineer and has worked closely with the four-time Formula 1 world champion since 2020.
The decision would provide Max Verstappen with valuable technical continuity as Red Bull prepares for a major change within the small group of engineers operating around its lead car. Tom Hart had reportedly already agreed to join Williams, but that move is now expected to be cancelled so that he can remain at Milton Keynes and step into a more senior role.
Red Bull reportedly chooses Tom Hart to replace Gianpiero Lambiase
Red Bull has identified the man it wants to replace Gianpiero Lambiase as race engineer on the car driven by Max Verstappen. According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the team’s preferred choice is Tom Hart, who currently works as Max Verstappen’s performance engineer and has been one of the most important members of the driver’s close technical group for several years.
The report claims that Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has reached an agreement with Williams team principal James Vowles to release Tom Hart from the contract he had already signed with the Grove-based team.
Tom Hart had been expected to leave Red Bull at the end of the 2026 season before moving to Williams in 2027. However, that planned departure is now reportedly set to be abandoned, allowing the British engineer to remain with Red Bull and prepare for his promotion.
The reported decision comes during a period of important technical and organisational change at Red Bull, with the team continuing to evaluate both its personnel structure and the development direction of its car. The team has also been assessing whether to move away from its recent Macarena rear-wing concept following reliability concerns, underlining the scale of the work taking place inside Milton Keynes.
When will Gianpiero Lambiase leave Red Bull?
Tom Hart is expected to remain at Red Bull and eventually be promoted into Gianpiero Lambiase’s position. The report states that Gianpiero Lambiase will leave the team when his contract expires at the end of 2027 before joining McLaren in a management role.
It is not yet clear precisely when the handover between Gianpiero Lambiase and Tom Hart would take place. Until his departure, “GP” is expected to continue formally serving both as Max Verstappen’s race engineer and as Red Bull’s Head of Racing.
That dual responsibility makes the timing of the transition particularly important. Gianpiero Lambiase is not only the main voice communicating with Max Verstappen during sessions and races, but also holds a wider leadership position within Red Bull’s trackside operation.
Red Bull must therefore manage the succession carefully, ensuring that Tom Hart is fully prepared to assume the radio, strategy and operational responsibilities associated with the race engineer position while the team also plans for Gianpiero Lambiase’s broader management duties to be reassigned.
Who is Tom Hart?
Tom Hart is not a new figure within Max Verstappen’s engineering group. He has worked as the Dutch driver’s performance engineer since January 2020 and has been part of the technical team that studies data, telemetry, setup choices and car behaviour throughout Formula 1 race weekends.
As a result, Tom Hart accompanied Max Verstappen throughout the entire period in which the Red Bull driver secured four consecutive world championships. That experience means he already understands Max Verstappen’s technical vocabulary, driving preferences and working methods.
A performance engineer’s role is to transform the driver’s comments and the data collected from the car into useful guidance for setup adjustments and the search for additional lap time. The position requires close cooperation with the race engineer, aerodynamicists, vehicle-performance specialists and the engineers responsible for tyres, suspension and the power unit.
Gianpiero Lambiase remains the principal voice heard on the radio and decides which information should be communicated directly to Max Verstappen. Tom Hart works behind him within the engineering structure, analysing the details that help Red Bull understand how the car is behaving and what changes may be required.
It is a working arrangement in which, as Tom Hart has explained in the past, there is no space for internal politics or misunderstandings. The effectiveness of the group depends on clear communication and complete trust between the driver, race engineer and supporting technical staff.
Tom Hart has already replaced Gianpiero Lambiase on the radio
Red Bull had already begun preparing Tom Hart for the possibility of taking on greater responsibility. During second practice at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and first practice at the 2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, Tom Hart replaced Gianpiero Lambiase on the radio.
Those opportunities were designed to give Tom Hart direct experience as a race engineer and help him understand the responsibilities normally handled by his colleague. Communicating with a driver while the car is on track requires much more than simply relaying lap times or setup instructions.
The race engineer must monitor the car’s condition, interpret information from several technical departments, manage traffic and run plans, communicate strategic priorities and decide how much information the driver needs at each moment.
The practice outings therefore allowed Tom Hart to become familiar with the rhythm and pressure of direct radio communication without immediately placing him in charge during a competitive qualifying session or race.
Why Tom Hart offers Max Verstappen continuity
Promoting Tom Hart would guarantee continuity for Max Verstappen. Gianpiero Lambiase and the Dutch driver have formed one of the most successful driver-engineer partnerships in Formula 1 history, and replacing such an influential figure with an outsider would carry obvious risks.
Tom Hart, by contrast, already knows Max Verstappen’s language, demands and preferred working method. He has been present throughout the driver’s championship-winning period and understands how information is processed within the existing engineering group.
That familiarity should reduce the disruption created by Gianpiero Lambiase’s eventual departure. While the relationship between a driver and race engineer naturally evolves over time, Tom Hart would begin the role with a detailed understanding of both Max Verstappen and the Red Bull technical operation.
The reported promotion is not believed to depend exclusively on Max Verstappen remaining with Red Bull. According to the rumours, Tom Hart would still become race engineer on Red Bull’s lead car even if the four-time world champion decided to leave the team.
That detail suggests Red Bull views Tom Hart as an important long-term figure rather than simply the most convenient replacement for Gianpiero Lambiase. His planned move to Williams shows that his experience had already attracted interest elsewhere, while Red Bull’s reported intervention indicates how highly the team values him.
Red Bull moves to protect a key engineering figure
By preventing Tom Hart’s reported transfer to Williams, Red Bull would retain an engineer with detailed knowledge of its car, internal systems and lead driver. It would also avoid the risk of losing that expertise to a direct competitor just as Gianpiero Lambiase prepares to leave.
For Max Verstappen, the succession plan would preserve a familiar presence within the garage. For Red Bull, it would secure a trained internal replacement who has already demonstrated that he can step into the radio role when required.
The exact timetable remains uncertain and the arrangement has not been formally confirmed in the information supplied. However, the reported choice of Tom Hart would represent a logical attempt to maintain stability around Red Bull’s lead car while preparing for the end of one of Formula 1’s most recognisable driver-engineer partnerships.
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