Red Bull and McLaren’s F1 Miami GP meeting about Gianpiero Lambiase explained

Formula 1 rivals Red Bull and McLaren held clear-the-air talks at the Miami Grand Prix following claims made about Gianpiero Lambiase’s impending switch. 

Red Bull generated headlines on Friday in Miami when team boss Laurent Mekies suggested Max Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer Lambiase is joining McLaren to become its team principal.

Since Lambiase’s shock switch to McLaren in 2028 was confirmed during the enforced April break, the Woking squad has always maintained he will take up the position of chief racing officer and report to current team principal Andrea Stella.

McLaren dismissed reports suggesting Lambiase would be taking over from Stella at the time of the announcement, explaining that he would be supporting the Italian by taking on some of his tasks so that he can be free to focus on wider leadership aspects. 

Mekies’ fresh comments in Miami caused a stir, with McLaren CEO Zak Brown insisting his counterpart “knows something I don’t” when the Red Bull chief’s claims were put to him later on Friday.

Brown was seen heading into Red Bull’s hospitality in the Miami paddock - which is housed within the Hard Rock Stadium - later in the weekend for a meeting with Mekies and Red Bull boss Oliver Mintzlaff.

Red Bull and McLaren were both keen to put the matter behind them.

“Certainly none of us wanted to go into a ping pong about it, and we had a good chat about it, like we always do, and we move on,” Mekies told media including Crash.net when asked about the meeting following Sunday’s race.

How will Red Bull replace GP? 

There have been suggestions that Lambiase could join McLaren earlier than planned, but Red Bull continues to stress he will see out the remainder of his contract, which runs until the end of 2027.

Red Bull has continually batted away the notion that the team is suffering a 'brain drain’ after several key personnel have departed.

Lambiase is the third senior Red Bull figure to join McLaren, following Rob Marshall and former head of race strategy Will Courtenay.

Red Bull has also lost legendary designer Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, while Christian Horner was fired last July.

“In terms of replacing GP, we have a couple of years to think about it. But joking aside, we are quite proud,” Mekies said.

“We don't want to be defensive about the fact that we lost some talents. It's a fact and it's been there for three or four years and as a result of that.

“It’s the highest priority in the team to make sure that we create the environment in order to retain, develop and attract the best talent in the pit lane.

“We feel we have the best talent already, departments by departments and that starts with Ben [Hodgkinson] on the power unit side for his team and with Pierre [Wache] on the chassis side and his team.

“When we can, we will always try to see how we can promote internally. We have created a number of talents over the last few years and we are proud of that. We want to continue.

“If and when we need to go and get a specific set of skills, or experience from some of our dear competitors around the pit lane, we will do it. As we have done,[referring to the recent recruitment of Racing Bulls’ deputy technical director Andrea Landi and promotion of long-time head of performance Ben Waterhouse].

“We go and give the best chance to our talents and if we need to go elsewhere to inject, we will do it happily.”