Why Red Bull and McLaren sat down after surprising comments about Lambiase's role

As soon as news of Gianpiero Lambiase’s move from Red Bull to McLaren in 2028 leaked, his future Formula 1 role immediately became a topic of discussion.

Reports quickly linked Red Bull’s head of racing, who also acts as Max Verstappen’s race engineer, to the position of team principal, while McLaren’s current team boss Andrea Stella was in turn linked with Ferrari.

Ferrari dismissed the latter as wide of the mark, and McLaren quickly responded by clarifying Lambiase’s future role. “Lambiase will take on the existing role of Chief Racing Officer, reporting into Team Principal Andrea Stella,” read a statement from the papaya team.

The press releases from Red Bull and McLaren were aligned, but Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies still raised eyebrows in Miami by telling Sky Sports on Friday: “Now GP had an extraordinary opportunity. You know, he's going to be a team principal there.”

Later that same day, those words were put to Brown, who responded with a laugh: “He knows something I don't, apparently. I've got one, and I've got a great one. I've got the best one in pitlane, Andrea Stella. So I couldn't be happier with Andrea.”

This led to Brown paying Red Bull a visit on Sunday morning. There, the McLaren Racing CEO, Mekies and Red Bull GmbH managing director Oliver Mintzlaff sat down together to discuss the media comments.

When Autosport asked Mekies about that conversation after the Miami Grand Prix, the Frenchman laughed: “It was about Red Bull, he just wanted to taste the Red Bull!”

Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images

On a more serious note, Mekies continued: “First of all, we talk very often with Zak and with my other colleagues. So it's not related to one thing or another, but certainly none of us wanted to go into a ping-pong about it. We had a good chat about it, like we always do, and we move on.”

The same applies to Stella, who said he could smile about all the rumours regarding the team principal role at McLaren and his own future.

“Honestly, some of the recent rumours, including those regarding astronomical salaries and mythical pre-contracts, have made me smile,” he said. “It almost seems as though the ‘silly season’, which usually begins before summer, has arrived early.

“It almost looks like that some envious pastry chef has tried to spoil the preparation of a good dessert at the McLaren patisserie. However, we do know very well how to distinguish the good ingredients from the poisoned biscuits…”

How Red Bull plans to handle Lambiase’s departure

While McLaren, according to Stella, is focused on preparing its own dessert, the same applies at Red Bull, with Mekies focusing on the team’s future – including the longer-term replacement of Lambiase.

“I have said it many times, we don't want to be defensive about the fact that we lost some talent,” Mekies said. “It's a fact. And it's been there for three or four years.

“As a result of that, it's the highest priority in the team to make sure that we create the environment in order to retain, develop and attract the best talent in the pitlane.”

Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images

Mekies stresses that the task is twofold: attracting people from rivals where possible, but above all retaining the team’s own personnel.

“We feel we have the best talent already, department by department,” he said. “And that starts with Ben [Hodgkinson] on the power unit side with his team, and with Pierre [Wache] on the chassis side and his team. And under them, we feel we have the best talent department by department as well.

“When we can, we will always try to see how we can promote internally. We have created a number of talents over the last few years, and we are proud of that. We want to continue that way.”

Promoting talent internally is exactly how Red Bull has tried to deal with most of the departures in recent years. However, Mekies adds that Red Bull will not hesitate to look outside if necessary to replace Lambiase.

“If and when we need to go and get a specific set of skills or experience from some of our dear competitors around the pitlane, we will do it – as we have done before,” he pointed out.

“You have seen a couple of weeks ago, we had a very good mix in our new structure, a very good mix of internal promotion with Ben Waterhouse having now extended perimeters and with Andrea Landi joining soon from Ferrari and Racing Bulls.

“And that's how we look at things. We go and give the best chances to our talents. And if we need to go elsewhere to inject, we will do it happily.”