Race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin to take on Red Bull Junior Team role, says Horner

Guillaume Rocquelin, who played a key role in Sebastian Vettel’s four world titles with Red Bull as his race engineer, is set to move to a new role working with the team’s junior programme.

Rocquelin, or Rocky as he is known inside the team, entered Formula 1 with Red Bull, working as David Coulthard’s race engineer until 2008.

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He then performed that role with Vettel from 2009 to 2014 before being promoted into his current role as Head of Race Engineering, where his focus has been on trackside performance.

Speaking in Melbourne on Saturday, ahead of final practice for the Australian Grand Prix, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said this would be Rocquelin’s last race weekend trackside.

“The engineering team is continuing to evolve, with efficiencies,” he said. “Rocky done a great job last 15 years, engineering Sebastian to titles.

“He’s going to take on a new role working with a plethora of young drivers, looking to utilise all his experience to develop Red Bull junior drivers.

“This will be his last race weekend here before he moves onto that role.”

Horner said Gianpiero Lambiase will become the team’s trackside engineer lead, dovetailing the role with his duty as world champion Max Verstappen’s race engineer.

Red Bull have a strong group of young drivers, with five – including Juri Vips and Liam Lawson – in F2 and three drivers, headlined by 16-year-old American Jak Crawford, in F3.