Background – Dad Jos admits: Verstappen pushed Lambiase to accept the McLaren offer

Lambiase and Verstappen separate The move of Gianpiero Lambiase from Red Bull to McLaren leads, in fact, to the official separation of the historic engineer-driver duo with Max Verstappen. The general impression, however, is that, rather than the four-time world champion, the real loser from the surprise announcement is the Milton Keynes team, which thus loses yet another piece from that puzzle with perfect and unrepeatable fits that had led the team to become the protagonist of one of the least contested periods of domination in the history of racing. For his part, however, Verstappen seems to have received Lambiase’s farewell with sportsmanship – who in any case will continue to whisper to him on the radio from the wall at least until the entire 2027 season, assuming that the Dutchman remains in the team also in the next championship – and indeed to have directly endorsed the exit of his engineer friend, without particular opposition. And to say that until recently it was Max himself who categorically ruled out a separation from the trusted “GP” (as the technician of Italian origins is affectionately called in the team and in the paddock). Today, however, things are very different, especially since now the main background is that the same McLaren that Verstappen had snubbed a few years ago during the explicit courtship of Zak Brown, now seems to become a possible destination for the future, even before Lambiase’s arrival in 2028. Meanwhile, dad Jos, who intervened to comment on the news of the day on the sidelines of the shakedown in Belgium, took care of talking about the separation of the Verstappen-Lambiase couple. 51st TAC Rally in which he is one of the competitors. Dad Jos’s background “We’ve known for a while that Lambiase would leave – said dad Jos – and we also knew when it would happen. But we still have a year and a half or two to work together with him. For Gianpiero this is a huge opportunity and we understood it. In fact, we were the ones who told him that he should seize it, take it with both hands”. “Now it will be up to Red Bull to find a replacement for Lambiase, we’ll see what happens,” concluded Jos Verstappen.