Yet another farewell
Undoubtedly the most important news that has been made official so far in this long spring break of Formula 1 was that of the future farewell of Giampiero Lambiase to Red Bull. The man who for a decade has been Max Verstappen’s guardian angel on the pit wall, developing a bond with the Dutch driver that goes far beyond the ‘simple’ driver-engineer relationship, will join McLaren “no later than 2028“. Naturally, comments regarding this upcoming change of colors have been plentiful, especially in reference to what the impact of this choice on Verstappen might be.
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The four-time world champion continues to flirt with the idea of a farewell to F1, disappointed by the new technical regulations and the lack of competitiveness of his Red Bull, and in the past he had already made no secret of the fact that he struggled to imagine his own future in the Circus without Lambiase by his side. According to Jolyon Palmer, former F1 driver and now a respected pundit for the official F1 website, Lambiase’s departure is just “the tip of the iceberg” of the internal upheaval that the Austro-British team is experiencing and the “inevitable” consequence of all this will be Verstappen’s departure itself.
An “inevitable” decision
“Red Bull is not competitive and the path to becoming so again is certainly not the easiest when you consider all the personnel who have left – Palmer observed during the latest episode of the podcast F1 Nation, recalling the series of departures of the likes of Horner, Marko, Newey, Marshall and Wheatley just to mention the names best known to the general public – for me Lambiase is a fundamental figure; in a way he acts as a link between the driver and the team. I see this as another reason why Max is not happy in the team. Simply, because of many aspects, I don’t see how he can stay for long, probably already beyond the end of this year, unless [at Red Bull] they have a concrete plan and show clear signs of progress. The whole house has changed – Palmer added, with a real estate metaphor – the building is the same, but all the furnishings are gone. He still shows up for work in Milton Keynes, but he greets different people in all the different areas. Not only that: he is not fighting for the title and he doesn’t like driving these cars. It seems to me that it is inevitable [that he leaves]”.
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“Others must see this situation as the collapse of an empire – the former British driver concluded – this is a great team with all the successes it has achieved, the ruthlessness with which it has pursued those successes, the way it has managed to make the most of its potential in all aspects. Now everyone is leaving. We are talking about Lambiase, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you consider all the people who have left, it has been a difficult period for Red Bull. I wondered if the situation would stabilize a bit with Mekies at the helm and if the repercussions of Christian Horner’s departure would subside, but when you see so many other big names leaving it probably means that it is not so attractive for people to join them”.
