Horner after Rocquelin's departure: "We have to look at efficiency"
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- GPblog.com
Last weekend it was announced that Gianpiero Lambiase will take over from Guillaume Rocquelin as head of race engineering starting from the Imola Grand Prix. Christian Horner has now given more explanation as to why the decision was made to change the guard.
"We have to look at efficiency, especially in view of budgetary constraints and so on," Horner is quoted by AS-Web. "Rocky has done a great job on the track in recent years. He was Sebastian [Vettel]'s race engineer during all the race wins and world titles and he led the engineering team in last year's success."
New position Rocquelin
Over the past fifteen years, Rocquelin has thus proven to be a hugely valued force within the Red Bull team. The 47-year-old Frenchman will therefore remain involved with the Austrians but in a different role. He will be involved with the junior team and will work with the young talents there to ensure that they continue to develop. According to De Telegraaf, this has also been at Rocquelin's own request and so it is not just to do with the budgetary constraints Horner is talking about.
Horner:"He has worked with so many drivers and has a rich engineering background, so we expect him to bring his experience there. He will play a leading role in the project in terms of how we integrate young people into Red Bull Racing and apply scientific tools to achieve this."
Verstappen attached to Lambiase
However, Lambiase will also simply remain Max Verstappen's race engineer. This will no doubt have been an important condition of the Dutchman himself. Indeed, last season Verstappen let it be known that he only wanted to work with 'GP' and would stop the moment Lambiase did too.