Red Bull Racing has already decided who will take over as Max Verstappen’s race engineer in Formula 1, following the departure of Gianpiero Lambiase. Tom Hart will be gradually prepared to take on the role, with the team planning a transition during the current season.
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Lambiase is expected to leave Red Bull at the end of the year to join McLaren, after completing the mandatory cooling-off period. Verstappen, in turn, will remain with the team for the next four seasons, without following the engineer in his move.
Hart initially planned to leave Red Bull and work at Williams, where he would have been Alexander Albon’s race engineer. However, after a request from the head of his current team, Laurent Mekies, among other factors, the Brit decided to stay and take on the responsibility of working directly with Verstappen.
The chosen one already has experience in the role. Last season, Hart replaced Lambiase on several occasions when the engineer was unavailable for personal reasons, which allowed the Brit to act as Verstappen’s voice on the radio and gain experience alongside the Dutch driver.
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However, the preparation for the new role is not expected to start with Hart leading a full weekend. According to GPblog, Red Bull intends to initially use him in some sessions, while Lambiase will remain responsible for the other activities during that same weekend.
Thus, the idea is to allow Hart to gain experience progressively before definitively taking the position. Although he is already defined as Lambiase’s successor, the team has not yet determined when he will make his official debut in the new role, and there is no final decision on which session will mark this debut.
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