Red Bull restructures technical department amid 2026 struggles

• Red Bull expanded Ben Waterhouse’s role and hire Andrea Landi.
• Verstappen confirmed his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will join McLaren.
• Following a mass exodus of leadership, Red Bull has fallen to sixth in standings.

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Red Bull didn’t need a headline to know something was off this season; the timing screens told a clear picture. A team that had spent the better part of the last few years operating a step ahead of the field suddenly found itself fighting just to stay relevant.

The RB22, far from being the dominant force many expected, has instead exposed underlying issues that have left even Max Verstappen searching for answers.

Three race weekends into 2026, Red Bull sits in an uncharacteristic sixth in the constructors’ standings with just 16 points, even behind Haas and Alpine.

For a team built on precision and ruthless execution, such a spiral is almost jarring as it is unbelievable. But if the results have raised eyebrows, the moves behind the scenes have been even more telling, with the head honchos at Buckinghamshire giving the team a new shake-up.

Inside Red Bull’s F1 restructure as new leadership steps in

For quite some time, Red Bull has been dealing with a steady stream of departures. From long-time team boss Christian Horner to key figures like Helmut Marko, Jonathan Wheatley, and design mastermind Rob Marshall, the core that once defined Red Bull’s golden era has gradually thinned out, with more speculated to leave.

On top of that come the exits of Will Courtenay and Craig Skinner. The latest move, however, is less about who’s leaving and more about how Red Bull intends to rebuild.

In what appears to be more a consolidation of responsibilities than a promotion in title, Ben Waterhouse, a long-serving figure within the organization, has been handed an expanded role as Chief Performance and Design Engineer.

“This evolution strengthens integration between these areas and will accelerate the development of competitive, high performing solutions. These changes support the team’s long term technical ambitions and reflect its continued focus on developing internal talent while attracting leading expertise from across the sport,” the team stated in an official statement.

We are pleased to announce a series of organisational changes within our technical department, aimed at reinforcing our focus on performance and innovation. pic.twitter.com/KlVtvmTA25

— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) April 17, 2026

Reporting to Technical Director Pierre Wache, Waterhouse’s role is designed to eliminate the kind of disconnect that can turn a fast car into a difficult one.

Then there’s the arrival of Andrea Landi, who joins from Racing Bulls as Head of Performance from July. Landi’s background, spanning Ferrari and Red Bull’s sister outfit, adds both external perspective and internal familiarity.

Not to mention that at Racing Bulls, the technical deck has been reshuffled, with Dan Fallows stepping in as technical director following his stint at Aston Martin.

Max Verstappen’s reaction reflects a changing Red Bull reality

Well, if the technical changes hint at a team recalibrating, Verstappen’s recent comments offer a glimpse into how that shift is being felt on the inside.

As a matter of fact, the biggest talking point hasn’t been a car update or a race result; it’s the impending departure of his long-time race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. After years of working together, Lambiase is set to join rival McLaren in 2028, marking the end of one of the most successful driver-engineer partnerships in recent F1 history.

“He told me what kind of offer he’d received. I said: ‘You’d be daft not to take it,'” Verstappen revealed during a Viaplay event in Amsterdam on Thursday evening. That perspective says a lot. Red Bull, once the destination team, is now part of a more fluid talent market where even its most trusted figures are open to moving on. And Verstappen, rather than resisting that shift, seems to be accepting it.

Furthermore, there’s a sense of closure in his words as well. “We’ve already achieved everything together,” he said, acknowledging that their shared success, multiple championships, countless wins, has reached a natural endpoint.

But beneath that acceptance lies a more complicated picture. The timing of Lambiase’s departure, coupled with the team’s current struggles, inevitably raises questions about stability.

Even his father, Jos Verstappen, hinted at that shift, noting that “things have changed.”

For the four-time F1 champion, though, the approach remains pragmatic. There’s no public frustration, no dramatic statements, just an understanding that the sport moves on, with or without you. And his willingness to support Lambiase’s decision reflects a maturity that goes beyond results.