McLaren plays down Red Bull claims Gianpiero Lambiase will replace Andrea Stella

McLaren has dismissed a claim from Formula 1 rival Red Bull that Gianpiero Lambiase will eventually take over as its team principal.

Max Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will leave Red Bull to become McLaren’s chief racing officer no later than 2028 - a move that was confirmed last month during F1’s enforced five-week break.

The switch initially prompted speculation that Lambiase was being lined up to replace current team principal Andrea Stella, but such reports were quickly dismissed by McLaren, who explained that Lambiase will report to Stella and help ease the Italian’s work load.

After opening practice at the Miami Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies caused a stir by claiming that Lambiase would eventually become team principal at McLaren.

"'GP' had an extraordinary opportunity. He's going to be a team principal there. [I can't] do anything else [other] than wishing him well,” Mekies told Sky Sports F1.

Speaking later to Sky Sports F1, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, who previously rubbished the rumours, responded: “He [Mekies] knows something I don’t, apparently!” Brown told Sky Sports F1.

“I’ve got a great one, I’ve got the best one in pit lane, Andrea Stella, so I couldn’t be happier with Andrea.”

Brown continued: “My job as CEO is to get the best talent, to think long-term, to have the most strength on pit wall and at the factory. So Andrea has done a fantastic job, and our technical team.

“GP is a huge talent and so when the opportunity presented itself to strengthen our racing team, that’s exactly what we’re going to do, whether that’s an engineer, a driver or a strategist, whatever the case may be.

“So we’re very happy he’s going to be joining us.”

Addressing the original speculation surrounding Lambiase’s role at McLaren, Brown explained to media including Crash.net: “On the racing operations side, Andrea, in reality, kind of has three jobs.

“I think we sometimes talk about he has two. He actually has three. He’s the team principal, he runs the racing team, and he also plays a big role in kind of a technical director capacity.

“Andrea is kind of the glue that brings that together. Now you’re seeing most teams with the CEO and team principal, now you’re seeing the team principal role evolve.

"And these teams are so big that if you’re going to be great in all those roles – I think Andrea is very capable of doing two jobs – but asking them to do three jobs is a tall order.

“So I think GP will come in and play a great role there, and then my job is always to be looking down the road, as to who can play and grow within the sport. And so certainly, given GP’s experience and his age, is someone I think that can be here for a long time at McLaren and grow.”