Mekies doubles down: 'Lambiase will become McLaren's team principal'

Mekies and Stella were once again asked about 'GP' Lambiase's future, with the Briton set to join McLaren no later than 2028 as the team’s Chief Racing Officer. The Red Bull Racing team principal explained that, as far as he understands, Lambiase would eventually take on the same role the Frenchman currently holds in Milton Keynes.

The Red Bull CEO and team principal said: "Look, it's certainly my understanding that GP is going to McLaren to become a team principal. That's what I told you at the time. Obviously, we had a number of conversations before he was going to make the decisions. Now, don't ask me if it's going to happen. The timing of it is none of my business. I can just tell you the content of our conversations."

In attendance at the press conference was Stella as well. The Italian added: "What I said before is that McLaren, for us, is important to employ the best talents in Formula 1, because Zak [Brown] and I want to build the strongest team, not only in the present. We have some good references as to strong teams in the past, I've been part of the Ferrari team in the early 2000s, and I know what level of seniority, expertise, leadership you need to be successful in the present and in the future.

"Employing GP is part of this vision, which is a vision of creating additive leadership that can integrate with the present leadership and create a stronger and stronger team at McLaren. So, I very strongly wanted GP to join McLaren. I am personally very stretched in my role as team principal and I need a strong group of people working with me so I think the plan is very clear, any other speculation leads us back to the silly season," the Italian concluded in Montreal.