Who is Simon Rennie? Verstappen’s stand-in race engineer as Lambiase skips Austria

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen will be guided by a different race engineer at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, with Gianpiero Lambiase unavailable, as Simon Rennie stands in to work with the four-time World Champion.

Lambiase absent from Austria

Also known simply as ‘GP’, Lambiase has worked with Verstappen since the Dutchman stepped up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing in the early stages of the 2016 season – their partnership starting with a spectacular victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Plenty more trophies have been achieved together over the years, including 65 Grand Prix wins and four world titles – Verstappen now pushing for what would be a record-equalling fifth successive championship crown.

However, Verstappen is preparing to navigate a race weekend at Red Bull without Lambiase next to him for the very first time, as the Italian-British engineer steps aside for personal reasons. He is set to return at the British Grand Prix.

Rennie’s F1 background

In Lambiase’s place comes Simon Rennie, an experienced Red Bull employee who previously served as a race engineer and is currently Group Leader of Simulation Engineering at the team.

Born in North Yorkshire, England, Rennie started his F1 career with Renault in the mid-2000s, working as a Data Engineer for Fernando Alonso during the Spaniard’s breakthrough 2005 and 2006 title-winning seasons.

Rennie remained at Renault (later rebranded as Lotus) for several years, gaining promotion to race engineer when Alonso returned from McLaren, while also assisting the likes of Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen.

During the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which Raikkonen won, a radio exchange between the Finn and Rennie went viral. Informed by Rennie of the gap to the cars behind him, Raikkonen bluntly replied: “Just leave me alone, I know what to do!”

A loyal Red Bull servant

For the 2013 campaign, Rennie made the switch from Renault to reigning Drivers’ and Constructors’ champions Red Bull, taking over as Mark Webber’s race engineer.

Webber’s retirement later that year led to Rennie working with promoted junior driver Daniel Ricciardo – their partnership spanning five seasons and yielding several race wins.

Rennie decided to take a non-travelling role ahead of the 2019 season, with Ricciardo subsequently leaving long-time backers Red Bull for a new chapter at Renault.

After a year in the factory, Rennie returned as Alex Albon’s race engineer in 2020, but he stepped aside again for 2021 when the Thai-British driver got replaced by Sergio Perez.

Rennie has since been working away in the background at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base, heading up their Simulation Engineering operations to aid the team remotely.

He will be back in the spotlight again this weekend, though, as the 45-year-old replaces Lambiase at the Red Bull Ring and attempts to guide Verstappen to more glory.