How Verstappen's approach changed in Austria with new race engineer Simon Rennie

Although the reasons are still unclear, Red Bull announced this morning that Gianpiero Lambiase will not be present on the pit wall for the Austrian GP due to personal reasons. Taking his place is a familiar face for the Milton Keynes team: Simon Rennie, a race engineer with extensive experience in Formula 1.

The Brit has worked with several champions in the past — most notably Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen — as well as other big names like Robert Kubica and Daniel Ricciardo.

Rennie then partnered with Alexander Albon at Red Bull in 2020, before stepping aside for the Perez-Bird duo in 2021 and taking on a factory-based role within the team.

Speaking to the media, including GP Blog, about the new and unexpected pairing for this weekend, Helmut Marko commented: ''I mean, when was he, he was engineering the last time? Álbon, if I remember correctly''.

Speaking about the relationship between the two, the Austrian finally added: ''It's a very direct relationship and it's working very well so far''.

Verstappen finished FP2 in third place behind the two McLarens, also becoming the unwitting protagonist of a brief on-track moment with Lando Norris.