Xevi Pujolar victim of Max Verstappen’s departure
Max Verstappen's departure has two collateral consequences: his engineers Xevi Pujolar and Olivier Helvig will not be following him to Red Bull, but Toro Rosso will not be keeping them.
The announcement of the seat swap between Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat doesn’t make everyone happy. Indeed, Xevi Pujolar, his race engineer, and Olivier Helvig, his data engineer, will not follow Max Verstappen to Red Bull.
Indeed, the team from Milton Keynes confirmed to Motorsport.com that Daniil Kvyat’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, will remain in his role and will be alongside the Dutch driver as of next weekend in Barcelona.
Nevertheless, if Toro Rosso has not made any official confirmation, the Spanish engineer took it upon himself by declaring his pride in the work accomplished within the Faenza team since his arrival during the 2014 season.
I did really enjoy and feel really proud of the work I did with @ToroRossoSpy ✊✌️ now time to get ready for the next challenge! Grazie Faenza
— Xevi Pujolar (@xevipujolar) May 5, 2016
The reasons for the engineer’s departure are reportedly linked to a major public dispute between the team director, Franz Tost, and Max Verstappen’s engineers, following the Russian Grand Prix qualifying session. According to information from El Confidential, they allegedly decided not to follow their superior’s orders regarding tire choices in order to prioritize the race at the expense of possible qualifying performance.
If it seems very difficult for the engineer to find such a central role in a Formula 1 team in the short term, he will be able to dedicate more time to the lifestyle clothing brand Y-Yhes, founded by his wife Maite Viladomat in 2011.
With the participation of www.racingbusiness.fr
