'Red Bull has found Lambiase’s successor, a new race engineer for Verstappen'

Until this season, Hart was Verstappen’s performance engineer and now works on both the Dutchman’s car and Isack Hadjar’s. Although he was due to leave for Williams next year to become Alex Albon’s race engineer, he will remain at Red Bull, according to De Telegraaf. The expectation is that Hart will take over Lambiase’s role next season and will step in several times this year to ensure a smooth transition.

This is not the first time Hart has served as a race engineer, incidentally. During a practice session at Imola a few years ago, he temporarily filled in for Lambiase. He has also gained additional experience recently during tests with reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda. Last year, Lambiase was also absent a few times due to personal circumstances, when Simon Rennie replaced him.

During the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen already indicated that they had an internal idea of who would follow in Lambiase’s footsteps: "It will go step by step," he told Viaplay. "I do have ideas about who I want, of course. He’s already within the team. It will just be gradual, I think. At the moment it’s not happening yet, anyway," the four-time world champion continued. "I think it’s still a bit too early for that."

Verstappen himself wasn’t occupied with it at the time, since he will continue working with Lambiase for at least another year and a half. He won’t move to McLaren until 2028: "It makes sense that at some point, somewhere toward the end of the year, gradual changes will come. At a certain point less information will also be shared. He (Lambiase, ed.) understands that himself."

Because it’s common in Formula 1 for key personnel to be placed on so-called gardening leave for a period after signing with a rival, there’s a chance Lambiase could step back from his day-to-day duties at Red Bull before 2028. That’s precisely why the team appears to be carefully preparing his succession now. The choice of Hart is also interesting with an eye on Verstappen’s future.

The Dutchman has long been linked with a possible move to another team, even though he remains under contract with Red Bull for several more years. Should Verstappen ultimately decide to leave, Hart would still remain a key figure within the organization. In that scenario, he would also serve as a race engineer, but as the right-hand man to the driver who replaces Verstappen, writes De Telegraaf.