Stevenson leaves Verstappen and Red Bull Racing behind for this team

Lee Stevenson is leaving Red Bull Racing. Max Verstappen's chief mechanic announced his departure via Instagram. GPblog can report his new employer will be Stake F1.

On Friday morning, it was announced that Lee Stevenson has closed the door behind him at Red Bull Racing. Verstappen's chief mechanic, who worked for Red Bull Racing for 18 years, revealed in a video on Instagram that he is moving to a team on the other side of the paddock. Stevenson did not lie; the Briton is making the switch to Sauber.

Where will Verstappen's chief mechanic go?

GPblog has learned that Stevenson will start work at Sauber's team on Monday. The team, which currently operates in the sport under the name Stake F1 Team, will be fully taken over by Audi in 2026. Stevenson already signed the deal with Sauber in 2023, so he has not been working for Red Bull Racing for some time due to gardening leave. Sauber did not want to respond to GPblog's query.

Thus, Stevenson has been absent from Red Bull Racing's team for some time. Chris Gent performed his role as chief mechanic this season. Gent already replaced Stevenson as the first mechanic of Verstappen's car in 2020 when Stevenson wanted to spend more time with his family. Gent also took over Stevenson's duties as chief mechanic in 2024.

Stevenson started at Red Bull Racing in 2006 as a fourth mechanic and worked his way up to first mechanic on Daniil Kvyat's car. Max Verstappen took over that seat in 2016, which is how the two met. In 2020, Stevenson was promoted to Support Team Chief Mechanic, a position below Chief Mechanic. In 2023, Red Bull still rewarded Stevenson for his good work with a promotion.

Stevenson already called his new job a huge challenge and a move to Sauber proves him right. The team finished ninth among constructors in 2023 and has not started 2024 well either. The team of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou has yet to score a single point, mainly because of the Swiss team's poor pit stops.