Max Verstappen will have a different voice in his ear during the Austrian Grand Prix, as his longtime race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is set to miss the event due to personal reasons.
Lambiase has been by Verstappen’s side since the Dutchman’s stunning debut win for Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, overseeing 196 race weekends together. In his absence at Spielberg, Red Bull has turned to a familiar face: Simon Rennie.
Rennie brings a wealth of experience, having started his Formula 1 career with Renault in 2004. He worked with notable names such as Fernando Alonso, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, and Kimi Raikkonen during his time at the Enstone-based team. In 2013, he moved to Red Bull to engineer Mark Webber’s final season before partnering with Daniel Ricciardo, achieving multiple wins together.
Following Ricciardo’s departure at the end of 2018, Rennie transitioned to a factory role and later returned trackside in 2020 as Alex Albon’s race engineer during the pandemic-affected season. Since then, he’s held a key position in Red Bull’s simulation engineering department.
Now, Rennie steps back into the race engineer role to support Verstappen in his pursuit of a record-breaking fifth victory at the Austrian Grand Prix.
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