Max Verstappen grabbed all the headlines this past weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, not so much for winning the race but for violating team orders. Since the Dutchman was shown a black and white flag for violating track limits on three occasions, his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, had ‘begged‘ him not to go for the race’s fastest lap.
However, the Red Bull driver violated the team order and still went for the fastest lap. Verstappen defended his stance after the race by explaining that he didn’t take any extra risk by going for it. The 25-year-old said that since he is the one who is driving the car, he knows how hard he can push.
Just as Verstappen’s moment with his race engineer has gone viral all across social media, one of the Dutchman’s old stories about Lambiase has just come to light. Verstappen had once revealed that Lambiase was initially supposed to work with Sebastian Vettel. However, the German left Red Bull to join Ferrari.
“Two weeks later Seb left“: Max Verstappen on Gianpiero Lambiase being assigned to him
In an interview last year, Max Verstappen explained what incident prompted him to work alongside Gianpiero Lambiase. As quoted by Natalie, the Dutchman said, “He (Lambiase) was promised that he would work with Seb, so he signed. But two weeks later Seb left. We still laugh about it. He got promised to work with Seb and ended up with me.”
Lambiase joined Red Bull in 2015 and was initially assigned to work with Daniil Kvyat after Vettel had just left the team. However, as Verstappen replaced the Russian soon after, Lambiase was then assigned to work with the Dutchman. Ever since Verstappen began working with Lambiase, he has been all praises for him.
While speaking in an interview with racingnews365.com in November last year, the 25-year-old hilariously described his relationship with the Italian race engineer as a ‘marriage.’ Verstappen explained that they have a fantastic relationship with each other, although they sometimes shout at one another.
Horner has often described Lambiase and Verstappen as an ‘old married couple‘
After Max Verstappen refused to follow Gianpiero Lambiase’s instructions on the team radio at the Spanish GP, Christian Horner once again described their relationship as an ‘old married couple.’ The Red Bull team principal explained his point by further adding that the two behave as though they are “debating about which channel of television they should be watching.”
While Verstappen and Lambiase get along well, things could have been far different for the Italian race engineer had Sebastian Vettel still been on the team. In an old video (as quoted by VizorIts), Vettel’s old engineer Rocky made it clear that he did not want anyone else other than him to work with the German at Red Bull.
“When I took my decision (to take up the role of the head of race engineering), Sebastian was still supposed to stay with us. To be honest, his departure made things easier for me. I am not sure I would have liked to see someone else working with him at Red Bull,” said Rocky.
