During the Japanese GP, Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, came onto the team radio comms with a bizarre message, leading to fans speculating if the duo had a disagreement before the race. Post-race, Verstappen clarified to veteran F1 journalist Tom Clarkson that while he agrees there was a difference of opinion, it was he who was actually in the wrong.
Verstappen was quoted as revealing, “We had a, er well not an argument, but he was like, “Are you sure you want to do this?” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure”. [I] turned out to be wrong. So he was right.”
The “disagreement” was actually related to the set-up the Dutchman wanted to run for the race. The Suzuka International Circuit is known to be a rear-limited track with oversteering a common occurrence deeper into stints.
Generally, teams set the car up to understeer as an offset for tire grip loss into the race. However, Verstappen, as it turns out, wasn’t having any of those suggestions after a torrid struggle with understeer himself during the Australian GP weekend last time out.
Verstappen then went on to clarify that while the duo do have outbursts on the radio comms that are broadcasted for the world to see, they do indeed share a very good relationship independent of those moments. In the past, Verstappen and Lambiase have become infamous for their often tense and hilarious radio exchanges.
Max Verstappen has a “married couple” equation with Gianpiero Lambiase
Max Verstappen is known to be an aggressive and hard racer. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also recognized this trait of his and believes that the #1 driver needs an equally strong counterpart on the pit wall to complement him.
While talking about the relationship the duo share, Horner had once labeled them as a “married couple” as quoted by PlanetSport. Interestingly, team advisor Helmut Marko made the same hilarious reference to their equation after their Japanese GP radio exchange. GPBlog quoted Marko as saying, “There was the old married couple again.”
Lambiase was actually brought into Red Bull to become Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer. However, as the German departed for Ferrari, Lambiase became Daniil Kvyat’s race engineer.
However, after a mid-season switch in 2016, Lambiase then became Verstappen’s engineer. They’ve been together since, winning 57 races, 101 podiums, and three world championships.
