Team boss Christian Horner said goodbye to his chief race engineer Guillaume “Rocky” Rocquelin and honored his achievements in the team. The Frenchman will be making his final appearance at the circuit in his current position after 15 years with the Milton Keynes team. He then switched to the junior program of the top Formula 1 team to head up the promotion of young talent there.
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 was hired as race engineer by David Coulthard at Red Bull. He then took over the fortunes of Sebastian Vettel’s team, with whom he won four world titles between 2010 and 2013.
Red Bull: Horner raves about Rocquelin
In the 2015 season, Rocquelin was promoted to Chief Race Engineer. His career in this role culminated in 2021 with the team’s fifth driver’s title, won by Max Verstappen. “The engineering team is constantly evolving, especially as we have to look for efficiency given the budget constraint,” says Horner.
“I think Rocky has done a great job for us at the circuit over the last 15 or 16 years, guiding Sebastian to all his race wins and world championships and of course the engineering team to success last year,” said the Red Bull -Team boss next. “So it’s an exciting new challenge for Rocky and it will be his last race weekend here before he transitions into this role.”
Gianpiero Lambiase, who will continue to engineer for Verstappen 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 is well behind Ferrari in both the drivers’ and teams’ championships.