Red Bull opened up for first practice at Imola on Friday afternoon with Tom Hart acting as the voice in Verstappen's ear instead of Lambiase, who is also Red Bull's head of race engineering.
The team explained to Motorsport.com that the temporary situation is being enacted to provide Hart with additional experience working as a race engineer – as he also did during second practice for the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – and so he better understands Lambiase's role to improve their respective working relationship.
