Max Verstappen’s long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will be absent from the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend due to personal circumstances.

Red Bull Racing confirmed to PlanetF1.com that Lambiase, who has been with Verstappen ever since the Dutchman’s move to Red Bull in 2016, will miss this weekend as Simon Rennie steps in.

Max Verstappen loses long-time race engineer for Austrian GP

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

‘GP’ and Verstappen are perhaps the most well-known race engineer and driver pairing on the grid with the two having plenty of frank exchanges over the course of their working relationship.

In Austria however, Verstappen’s comments and feedback will be heard by Rennie who is the Group Leader of Simulation Engineering at Red Bull.

Rennie has experience being a trackside race engineer though having worked with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen in the past.

In 2013, he moved to Red Bull to become Mark Webber’s engineer before working with Daniel Ricciardo from 2014.

In 2019, the British engineer switched to a factory role but was back on the grid in 2020, this time in the ears of Alex Albon. When Sergio Perez joined the team, Rennie stepped aside as Hugh Bird was appointed.

Despite never working directly with him, Verstappen will be familiar with Rennie due to the latter’s role as simulator race engineer, meaning that whenever the Dutchman has been back at the factory, it is Rennie he has been listening to.

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Who is Max Verstappen’s new race engineer Simon Rennie?

Rennie began his F1 career in 2004 when he joined Renault and was part of the team’s title success in 2005 and 2006, working as a Data Engineer for Alonso.

In 2009, he moved up to the Race Engineer role before performing the same role for Robert Kubica in 2010.

After Kubica’s rally crash, Rennie worked with Nick Heidfeld before Raikkonen joined the team in 2012. It was to Rennie that Raikkonen produced his “Leave me alone, I know what to do” that has since gone down in F1 folklore.

2013 saw him move across to Red Bull and into the ears of Webber in a job swap with Ciaron Pilbeam. When the Aussie retired, Rennie worked with another Australian in the form of Ricciardo but stepped back to a factory role in 2019.

A year later, he was back trackside after Albon requested a more senior race engineer but he stepped aside again in 2021 when Perez arrived.

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