Max Verstappen and his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase share an iconic relationship. While their combination has won Red Bull countless accolades, their dynamic, with Verstappen’s relentless antics and GP’s stone-faced demeanor is the reason why Sergio Perez thinks Lambiase has gone bald.
While reacting to “Old driver Tweets” in a video posted by Red Bull, an old tweet of Perez and his then engineer at Force India, Lambiase was displayed. This prompted Perez to remark, “See! See how much hair he has.”
Verstappen then quipped in by saying being his engineer now must’ve taken a toll on Lambiase. To this Checo hilariously said, “You finished him!”
Back when he was at Force India (now Aston Martin), Lambiase was tasked with handling Perez. However, as soon as the now 43-year-old jumped ship to Red Bull, he became Max Verstappen’s race engineer. Perez blames handling Verstappen’s antics for 8 years as the reason for Lambiase’s baldness.
In the past, Verstappen and Lambiase have been entangled in countless incidents on the radio comms. Famously, Verstappen berated Lambiase during the 2023 US GP when Lambiase was apparently speaking to him during braking zones. Lambiase has given it back to Verstappen at times as well. The “Max, use your head please” remark remaining ever so fresh in the memories of F1 fans from the 2023 Belgian GP.
The bizarre dynamic between Max Verstappen and his race engineer
Max Verstappen seems impenetrable on most occasions. However, a chink in his armory is always visible when he loses his temper of the radio. According to his arch-nemesis, Lewis Hamilton, the Dutchman is under pressure when he starts swearing on the team radio.
Christian Horner even went as far as labelling the duo of Verstappen and Lambiase as an old married couple. He told GPBlog.com, “The relationship they have is more like an old married couple, almost debating about which channel of television they should be watching.”
But the value of this iconic yet bizarre camaraderie isn’t lost on the three-time world champion. Recently, Verstappen was quoted as suggesting that the team should release a compilation of their radio-bust ups as it would work wonders as a marketing tool.
Lambiase was originally destined to be Sebastian Vettel’s race engineer. But when the German departed for Ferrari, he got assigned to Daniil Kvyat, who got replaced by Verstappen mid-way in the 2016 F1 season.
