Max Verstappen LOSES key Red Bull ally for Belgian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen has lost a key F1 ally for this weekend's race at the Belgian Grand Prix after a Red Bull replacement was confirmed.

The Milton-Keynes based outfit has undergone a major change in recent weeks following the axe of Christian Horner, and the promotion of Laurent Mekies to Red Bull team principal.

Verstappen will have to contend with further, albeit temporary, changes at the Belgian GP this weekend, where long-term race engineer and close ally Gianpiero Lambiase will be absent.

Lambiase will be stepping away from his responsibilities at Spa due to personal reasons, and will be replaced this weekend by engineer Simon Rennie.

Rennie previously stood in for Lambiase at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this year, with the race engineer back in the garage for the subsequent race at Silverstone.

It is unknown whether Lambiase will return to his role for the Hungarian GP next weekend, and the engineer's absence is event specific rather than a permanent change.

Lambiase to miss Belgian GP with Verstappen

Lambiase's replacement, Rennie, has built an impressive CV with Red Bull over the years, serving as race engineer to Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo at the team.

Despite their often fraught team radio messages over the years, Verstappen and Lambiase have a close bond with the pair having worked together since his arrival at the team in 2016.

Speaking to the media about the experience of working with a different race engineer at the Austrian GP Verstappen admitted he had a special relationship with Lambiase, and said: "Yeah, for sure, but that’s how it is now.

“I think so far today’s been really good with Simon, of course I’ve known Simon for a long time on the other side of the garage and working with him also in the simulator. He has a lot of experience, so it’s been actually very good today. He was straight on it and it was nice.”

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