Sky Sports F1 commentator Karun Chandhok says Red Bull must sign a high-profile figure from a rival team to stop a run of senior departures that have left the Milton Keynes squad destabilised.
The immediate trigger for the warning was the surprise announcement that Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase — Max Verstappen’s race engineer and Red Bull’s head of racing — will join McLaren in 2028. Lambiase follows recent moves by Rob Marshall (chief designer) and Will Courtenay (head of strategy) to Woking, while other senior exits over the past year include Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.
Chandhok told The F1 Show podcast that new team principal Laurent Mekies and Red Bull’s Austrian ownership face a substantial challenge to stop what he called a ‘brain drain’ and to rebuild an attractive working culture after a difficult start to the sport’s new regulations.
Even with on-track success last year — Red Bull won six of the final nine Grands Prix — Chandhok said that success alone has not been enough to retain staff. He pointed to a broader cultural shift within the organisation as a factor in the exits and warned that high-profile hires at rivals can trigger further departures.
‘How long before GP starts calling the other 20 people who are sitting in their engineering office and saying, ‘this place down at Woking is a really nice place to work — how do you fancy coming down here?” Chandhok asked, suggesting Lambiase could be a catalyst for more people leaving. He referenced historical examples of senior figures such as Newey and Ross Brawn attracting teams of followers when they moved.
Chandhok urged Red Bull to make at least one major signing from elsewhere on the grid, not only for the direct expertise the individual would bring but for the wider pool of talent they could attract.
Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft added that Red Bull has not just lost headline names but also experienced personnel below the top roles, saying staff are increasingly weighing up whether their future success might lie outside Milton Keynes.
On the implications for Max Verstappen, Chandhok described Lambiase’s departure as ‘definitely the end of an era’ but said it would not automatically mean Verstappen will leave. He noted that the driver-engineer relationship is important but not necessarily decisive. Chandhok also suggested Verstappen could opt for a sabbatical in 2027 or 2028, leaving open the possibility of a return or a longer break to pursue other interests.
The personnel turmoil comes as Red Bull have introduced their own power unit this season and struggled to find consistent pace and handling from the R22 chassis. The team sits sixth in the Constructors’ Championship with 16 points and will get back on track at the Miami Grand Prix on May 1-3, the season’s second Sprint weekend.
Chandhok’s message to Red Bull is clear: to stop the exodus they need to do more than promise results — they must restore culture, stability and make strategic hires that will both strengthen the car and draw talent back to Milton Keynes.