Max Verstappen's decision on his future in Formula 1 will not be affected by the impending departure of his close ally at Red Bull Gianpiero Lambiase, says team principal Laurent Mekies.
Lambiase, Verstappen's race engineer since the Dutchman joined the team in May 2016, is leaving to become McLaren's chief racing officer by 2028 at the latest.
Mekies said Lambiase's departure was "absolutely not" a factor into Verstappen's thinking about whether to stay in F1 amid his dissatisfaction with the behaviour of the new engines introduced this year.
Mekies said: "Obviously, we speak with Max every day. And Max knows motorsport upside down.
"He's living and breathing this team. He knows most of these guys. He understands very well the dynamics that can happen.
"The team has been extremely successful and you can't promote everyone. And some people make some decisions."
Will rule changes make noticeable difference in Miami? F1 Q&A
Verstappen has made it clear that he is unhappy about the way the new hybrid engines, and their near 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power, have affected the driving experience.
Mekies said that the rule changes introduced for this weekend's Miami Grand Prix would go some of the way to addressing the drivers' key concerns.
These were to return qualifying to being more flat-out driving rather than featuring unnatural energy management techniques, and to reduce the danger of excessive closing speeds when one car is deploying electrical energy and one is harvesting it.
Mekies said: "It's going in the right directions. We don't think it's changing any pecking order. Nobody pretends it's going to fix everything, but it's a good step, and we will certainly support more steps in the future so that the drivers can be flat-out out there."
Mekies said he agreed with the assessment of McLaren team principal Andrea Stella that "hardware changes" were needed to properly address the problems that had emerged with the new engines.
Stella was referring to an adjustment of the power ratio so that more was provided by the internal combustion engine.
Sources have said that talks are already ongoing between F1 bosses on this matter. The main option on the table would be to increase the fuel-flow rate of the internal combustion engine so that the ratio was more like 60:40 next year.
Stella said: "There should be a consideration for some hardware changes, more for the longer term, such that we can place the operating point of the power unit somewhere where less compromises are required from a chassis point of view or from a driving point of view.
"We think this is possible, and we think that all stakeholders should approach this conversation with the willingness to contribute."
This option, if carefully configured, could also allow the sport to keep the operation of the boost and overtaking modes made possible by the electrical elements much as they are now.
Red Bull have had a difficult start to the season and Verstappen, who missed out on last year's title to McLaren's Lando Norris by two points, is ninth in the championship after three races with a best result of sixth.
Red Bull are introducing a major upgrade to their car for Miami, when the season restarts after a break enforced by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix.
This was tested by Verstappen at Silverstone last Wednesday and Mekies said it would address "a fair chunk" of their shortcomings