Mekies praises Hart’s debut as Verstappen’s race engineer

Laurent Mekies praised Tom Hart’s first weekend as Max Verstappen’s race engineer, saying Hart did an excellent job translating the engineering team’s work to Verstappen in his first qualifying session and race.

Hart’s debut came at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, where he took over Verstappen’s radio duties from Gianpiero Lambiase. Mekies called it a complicated first race, not one Hart had chosen. Verstappen finished third behind Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc; Mekies said Red Bull were probably frustrated by the result.

Hart is expected to succeed Lambiase, who is due to leave for McLaren as Chief Racing Officer under Andrea Stella. Hart has worked at Red Bull since 2012 and has been closely involved with Verstappen’s car as a performance engineer since 2020.

To smooth the handover, the two will alternate through the rest of the season: Hart handled Austin and is scheduled for São Paulo and Las Vegas, while Lambiase returns for Mexico City, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Mekies stressed that the schedule was part of the plan, not a performance assessment of either engineer.

Mekies credited Lambiase with supporting Hart behind the scenes. He said building a relationship with Verstappen would take time but expressed confidence that Hart would develop one.