Max Verstappen will be without race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase at the Austrian Grand Prix, with the Red Bull man set to miss the weekend due to personal reasons. The 44-year-old has been present on the pit wall for all of the Dutchman's previous F1 starts with the Milton Keynes squad.

In his place will be Simon Rennie, who was previously a race engineer for Fernando Alonso at Renault, as well as Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen. The Brit has been part of the Red Bull stable since 2013, and engineered for both Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. However, in 2019, Rennie stepped back from his trackside role, moving into a position as head of Red Bull's simulator programme at the Milton Keynes factory. Now, though, he is back on the pit wall, helping Verstappen in Lambiase's absence in Spielberg.

For Verstappen, this will be an unwelcome development as he faces a critical weekend at Red Bull's home circuit away from Silverstone. The four-time world champion heads into Sunday's race 43 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Piastri has team-mate Lando Norris sandwiched between himself and reigning champion Verstappen, and the Australian will be desperate to put more breathing room between both of his rivals in Austria after finishing outside of the podium places in Montreal for the first time since the season opener in March.

While Verstappen risks dropping two race wins back from Piastri in Austria this weekend, more of the attention has shifted to his Red Bull future than the championship hunt after comments made by George Russell on Thursday raised eyebrows.

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

"If you're going to be back on top, you need to make sure you've got the best drivers, the best engineers, the best pit crew, and that's what Mercedes are chasing," he said. "So, it's only normal that conversations with the likes of Verstappen are ongoing."

Verstappen, when asked about his future, remained coy. "I’ve had that question before as well in my life," he said. "I don’t think we need to talk about that. I don’t know, do you want me to repeat what I said last year?

"I don’t know. It’s the same answer. I don’t even remember what I said last year, really. But again, it’s not really on my mind. I'm just driving well, trying to push the performance, and then we focus on next year."