Max Verstappen’s race engineer replaced for the Austrian GP
In the absence of "GP", a well-known figure will return to the Red Bull pit wall as Max Verstappen's race engineer.
Max Verstappen will work with a different race engineer this weekend for the Austrian Formula 1 Grand Prix. Indeed, Simon Rennie, a veteran of the Red Bull team, will replace Gianpiero Lambiase.
A new engineer for Max Verstappen in Austria
Gianpiero Lambiase, nicknamed « GP » in the paddock, is a key figure in Max Verstappen’s success. Together, they have won four world championship titles and 65 Grand Prix victories.
However, just before the start of free practice in Spielberg, Red Bull confirmed that Gianpiero Lambiase would miss this race for personal reasons.
This is the first time that the Italo-British engineer has been absent from a Grand Prix since he became Max Verstappen’s engineer, following Verstappen’s promotion from Toro Rosso in 2016.
Gianpiero Lambiase will resume his usual duties starting from the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend.
Read also: Max Verstappen not very talkative during the press conference in Austria
Who is Simon Rennie?
Simon Rennie, 45, will take over on the pit wall for this Austrian round. Long-time member of Red Bull, he has worked with several big names in Formula 1 over the past two decades, although he was more recently in a technical role based in Milton Keynes.
Simon Rennie began his F1 career at Renault in 2004, where he played an essential role as a data engineer during Fernando Alonso’s consecutive titles. He remained with the team (which became Lotus), progressing to become the race engineer for Fernando Alonso, and later for drivers like Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, and Kimi Räikkönen, in 2012.
He joined Red Bull in 2013, where he first worked with Mark Webber, before forming a strong duo with Daniel Ricciardo during the Australian’s best years in F1.
In 2019, Simon Rennie stepped down from the pit wall to take a more discreet role in order to reduce his travel. Daniel Ricciardo mentioned his departure as one of the reasons that prompted him to leave Red Bull.
Since, he has been leading Red Bull’s simulator program, while making occasional comebacks, notably in 2020 to support Alex Albon.
More recently, he helped get Daniel Ricciardo back on track at AlphaTauri after his difficult stints at Renault and McLaren.
