F1 fans tuning into Friday’s FP2 session may have heard an unfamiliar voice on Max Verstappen‘s team radio.
The Dutchman sat out FP1 in favour of Ayumu Iwasa earlier in the day, and when he climbed back into his car for FP2, it wasn’t the familiar voice of Gianpiero Lambiase going back and forth with him on the radio.
In fact, it was the voice of performance engineer Tom Hart, who had been linked with a move away from the team earlier in the year but now appears to be sticking around – possibly tempted by the possibility of filling Lambiase’s shoes.
Hart is expected to take over some of Lambiase’s duties with the team once Verstappen’s long-time race engineer leaves for McLaren, where he’s set to start work in 2028. While the team haven’t confirmed a timeline for a full handover of his duties, it seems likely that Hart will be the man in the chair for the four-time world champion full-time next season.
While he’s expected to make further appearances on the radio this season, Lambiase is now back in for the rest of the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
The expectation is that Lambaise’s two roles in the team will be split between McCullough and Hart, with the latter taking up the mantle of Verstappen’s race engineer.
Ted Kravitz discussed the situation on Sky Sports during the session, explaining: “Just to confirm, GP Lambiase is here this weekend, so he is still in charge of Max Verstappen’s engineering team. But that’s Tom Hart on the radio.
“So he was Verstappen’s performance engineer for a long time, has been for a few years. He was going to go to Williams, I believe.
“Tom Hart was going to go to Williams to engineer Alex Albon, but like another engineer, like maybe some more people at Red Bull, has been persuaded to stay with Red Bull Racing. So maybe it’ll be Tom Hart who takes over eventually from GP Lambiase as Max Verstappen’s engineer. He’s engineering him in this session.”
