Red Bull honours the achievements of its long-serving chief race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin – The Frenchman moves to the red bulls’ junior programme
Team boss Christian Horner has bid farewell to his chief race engineer Guillaume “Rocky” Rocquelin and paid tribute to his achievements with the team. The Frenchman will see his last race at the circuit in his current position after 15 years in the service of the Milton Keynes-based team. He will then move to the Formula One top team’s junior programme to head up the development of young talent.
The 47-year-old made a name for himself in the US IndyCar Series with PacWest and Newman-Haas before his time in the premier class. In 2008, he joined Red Bull as David Coulthard’s race engineer. He then took over the reins at Sebastian Vettel’s team, with whom he won four world championship titles between 2010 and 2013.
In the 2015 season, Rocquelin was promoted to chief race engineer. His career in this role culminated in 2021 with Max Verstappen taking the team’s fifth drivers’ title. “The engineering team is constantly evolving, especially as we have to look at efficiency given the budget constraints,” Horner said.
“I think Rocky has done a great job for us over the last 15 or 16 years at the circuit, leading Sebastian to all his race wins and world championships, and of course leading the engineering team to success last year,” the Red Bull team boss continued. “So it’s an exciting new challenge for Rocky and it will be his last race weekend here before he moves into that role.”
Gianpiero Lambiase, who will continue as Verstappen’s engineer on race weekends, takes over from Rocquelin. “So it’s an evolution,” Horner said. “And I think both guys will do a great job in their new roles.” After three races in the 2022 season, Red Bull are well behind Ferrari in both the drivers’ and team championships.
