Red Bull's Strategic Shuffle: Promoting Talent Amid Key Departures

Red Bull is set to promote Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to head of racing. This shift follows Jonathan Wheatley's departure to become Sauber principal. Wheatley's duties will be split among Steve Knowles and Richard Wolverson. Red Bull faces significant challenges with key staff departures and trails McLaren in constructor points.

In a strategic move, Formula One champions Red Bull will elevate Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, to a new head of racing role after sporting director Jonathan Wheatley departs to take up the Sauber principal position next year.

Team principal Christian Horner announced that Lambiase, who reports to technical director Pierre Wache, will continue his role with the triple world champion Verstappen for the upcoming season. Wheatley's responsibilities will be distributed across the team, with Steve Knowles handling the sporting regulations and Richard Wolverson overseeing race team operations.

This structural reshuffle comes as Red Bull faces the challenge of losing several senior staff members, including top designer Adrian Newey, who is set to join Aston Martin in March. With these changes, Red Bull trails McLaren by 20 points in the constructors' standings with seven rounds remaining, starting with this weekend's race in Singapore.

(With inputs from agencies.)