Lambiase animates the market: is there a derby between Aston Martin and Williams?

Gianpiero Lambiase doesn’t seem to be staying at Red Bull Racing. Another prized piece of the Milton Keynes team is preparing to leave a partnership where he was an important player in the relationship with Max Verstappen and which yielded four drivers’ and manufacturers’ world titles in the era of ground effect single-seaters.

The 45-year-old British engineer has Italian parents and has a double passport: according to colleagues from The Race he was given very close to Aston Martin, but Motorsport.com understands that there is still an ongoing negotiation with Williams carried out by James Vowles.

It was already known at the end of the 2025 championship, which the Dutchman finished in second place behind Lando Norris’ McLaren, that Lambiase would not remain at Max’s side next year too, given that Gianpiero had asked the Red Bull top management to no longer be involved in too many away trips due to personal problems that affected his presence also during this year: he missed the Austrian and Belgian GPs replaced by Simon Rennie.

Radio box, in fact, showed Lambiase was very close to the Grove team before Christmas, but since there was no white smoke, the negotiation with Aston Martin also remains very open.

Gianpiero seems to have been attracted by the Williams project which has the ambition of moving up the ranks of F1 to regain a place in the sun in the Circus according to its historic coat of arms, but a heavy offer would have been put on the table by the Silverstone team for a management role and, therefore, without the obligation to go to all 24 races that make up the calendar.

According to the British press there would have been talk of a CEO or team principal figure: the latter position was assumed pro tempore by Adrian Newey, but the English genius has no intention of maintaining this role in a structure that is constantly evolving after the relocation of Andy Cowell who was destined to make the relationship with Honda, the exclusive supplier of the power unit, more… open.

Newey, therefore, has no intention of taking the organizational burden behind him to dedicate himself to the technical aspect, but it is not clear in what role Lambiase could enter the Aston Martin team.

Adrian has always had great respect for Gianpiero and would be happy to reopen a collaboration that was interrupted by the English engineer’s exit from Milton Keynes following disagreements with Christian Horne

Some see in the offer to Lambiase the opportunity to create a bridge with Max Verstappen in anticipation of a 2027 market, after the Dutch champion has evaluated whether to stay in Milton Keynes (as claimed by Oliver Mintzlaff, great boss of the Red Bull sports area) or if the time has come for a change of scenery to aim for his fifth world title.

If Gianpiero decides to take the Williams route, we will have the assurance that Super Max had nothing to do with the negotiation, but it was only the esteemed British engineer who was the subject of interest.

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– The Motorsport.com team