Where is Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase at F1 Belgian GP?

Max Verstappen will work with a different race engineer for this weekend’s Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, with long-time Red Bull employee Simon Rennie stepping in for Gianpiero Lambiase.

Lambiase, better known in the paddock as ‘GP’, has been an instrumental figure in Verstappen’s success, helping the Dutchman win four world championships and 65 grand prix wins with Red Bull.

But Lambiase will miss the Spa race due to personal circumstances. He also missed the F1 Austrian Grand Prix for personal reasons.

Austria was the first time the Italian-British engineer had been absent from an F1 race since becoming Verstappen’s engineer following the latter’s mid-season promotion from Toro Rosso in 2016.

It is unconfirmed if Lambiase will return next week for the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Who is Simon Rennie?

For the Belgian round, Lambiase’s place on the pit wall will be occupied by long-time Red Bull employee Rennie, who also deputised in Austria.

The 45-year-old has worked with several leading names in F1 during the last two decades, although he has spent the last few seasons away from the limelight in a different role at Milton Keynes.

Rennie started his F1 career at Renault in 2004 and helped Fernando Alonso win back-to-back titles as his data engineer.

He remained at the Enstone squad through its turbulent years in 2008-09, rising through the ranks to become Alonso’s race engineer.

After the Spaniard left for Ferrari in 2010, Rennie worked with the likes of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, while also spending a year with Kimi Raikkonen in 2012 after Renault was taken over by Lotus.

He joined Red Bull in 2013, initially engineering Mark Webber, before forming a strong partnership with Daniel Ricciardo during the Australian’s most successful spell in F1.

In 2019, Rennie stepped away from the pit wall to take a behind-the-scenes role at Milton Keynes, citing the need to cut back on travel. Ricciardo later pointed to his departure as race engineer as one of the factors behind his decision to leave the team.

Since 2019, Rennie has largely been based at Milton Keynes as the head of Red Bull’s simulator programme, although he did briefly return trackside in 2020 to help Alex Albon in his graduation to the senior team.

More recently, he helped Ricciardo rediscover his form at AlphaTauri when the Australian returned to the Red Bull family after two less-than-successful stints at Renault and McLaren.