Why Red Bull is changing the way it goes racing

It’s well known in Formula 1 that if you stand still with your car then you end up going backwards, because others will simply outdevelop you.

But the same is true for team structures too. As the demands of grand prix racing have changed in recent years, and squads experience a perpetual revolving door of personnel, it would be a mistake to become stuck in your ways with how things are run just because that was how it worked best in the past.

So, amid what is proving to be a rollercoaster year for Red Bull – experiencing challenges on and off-track that have included the departure of key figures like Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley – it has opted for a bit of a shake-up.

Amid growing competitiveness up and down the pitlane, and with operational sharpness critical to maximising performance on a race weekend, Red Bull has committed to running things a bit differently for 2025 when it comes to attacking each grand prix.

It is a route that only really opened up for the team following the departure of long-serving sporting director Wheatley, who will be joining Sauber as its new team principal.

As team boss Christian Horner told Autosport in an exclusive interview: “Jonathan moving on to take up a new challenge at Audi has actually provided a great opportunity to just reorganise how we go racing.”

The key changes revolve around splitting up the roles that Wheatley previously had.

Max Verstappen’s long-standing race engineer GianPiero Lambiase (GP) will step up to a new role as Head of Racing.

Former senior strategy engineer Stephen Knowles will be taking on the newly created role of Head of Sporting Regulations, with specific responsibilities to act as the liaison point with the FIA.

Senior engineer of car engineering, Richard Wolverson, will take the new position as Head of Racing Operations, with support from stalwart Tony Burrows. Also, Red Bull’s head of freight operations Gerrard O’Reilly is to take full control of team logistics.

Many of the names may not be well known to fans, but internally they are all viewed as key figures to carry the team forward. As Horner said of the reshuffling: “It’s a step up for everyone. It’s a very strong front manoeuvre.”

Lambiase strengths

Red Bull’s previous trackside structure had remained pretty much untouched since the creation of Red Bull in 2005 – with Wheatley having…