Who is Simon Rennie? All you need to know about Max Verstappen’s stand-in race engineer as Gianpiero Lambiase skips Austria

Crimson Bull driver Max Verstappen will probably be guided by a special 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

Additionally recognized merely as ‘GP’, Lambiase has labored with Verstappen for the reason that Dutchman stepped up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing within the early levels of the 2016 season – their partnership beginning with a spectacular victory at the Spanish Grand Prix.

A lot extra trophies have been achieved collectively through the years, together with 65 Grand Prix wins and four world titles – Verstappen now pushing for what can be a record-equalling fifth successive championship crown.

Nevertheless, Verstappen is getting ready to navigate a race weekend at Crimson Bull with out Lambiase subsequent to him for the very first time, because the Italian-British engineer steps apart for private causes. He’s set to return on the British Grand Prix.

Rennie’s F1 background

In Lambiase’s place comes Simon Rennie, an skilled Crimson Bull worker who beforehand served as a race engineer and is at the moment Group Chief of Simulation Engineering on the crew.

Born in North Yorkshire, England, Rennie began his F1 profession with Renault within the mid-2000s, working as a Knowledge Engineer for Fernando Alonso throughout the Spaniard’s breakthrough 2005 and 2006 title-winning seasons.

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

Through the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which Raikkonen received, a radio trade between the Finn and Rennie went viral. Knowledgeable by Rennie of the hole to the automobiles behind him, Raikkonen bluntly replied: “Just leave me alone, I know what to do!”

A loyal Crimson Bull servant

For the 2013 marketing campaign, Rennie made the swap from Renault to reigning Drivers’ and Constructors’ champions Crimson Bull, taking on as Mark Webber’s race engineer.

Webber’s retirement later that 12 months led to Rennie working with promoted junior driver Daniel Ricciardo – their partnership spanning 5 seasons and yielding a number of race wins.

Rennie determined to take a non-travelling position forward of the 2019 season, with Ricciardo subsequently leaving long-time backers Crimson Bull for a brand new chapter at Renault.

After a 12 months within the manufacturing unit, Rennie returned as Alex Albon’s race engineer in 2020, however he stepped apart once more for 2021 when the Thai-British driver bought changed by Sergio Perez.

Rennie has since been working away within the background at Crimson Bull’s Milton Keynes base, heading up their Simulation Engineering operations to help the crew remotely.

He will probably be again within the highlight once more this weekend, although, because the 45-year-old replaces Lambiase on the Crimson Bull Ring and makes an attempt to information Verstappen to extra glory.