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Last Updated: 01/08/23 1:59pm
Max Verstappen and his Red Bull engineer squabbled at the Belgian GP
Max Verstappen and his Red Bull engineer squabbled at the Belgian GP
Despite exchanging some sharp messages over team radio at last weekend’s Belgian Gran Prix, Max Verstappen and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase are “like siblings”, Karun Chandhok and David Croft told the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
Verstappen took an eighth consecutive victory with another dominant performance but it wasn’t without some team radio flare ups with Lambiase.
In Qualifying on Friday, Verstappen was not happy to scrape into Q3 as he made it clear the team went against his run plan. The Dutchman apologised for his rant when he took pole position and Lambiase half-joked “slowly getting used to it”.
In the Grand Prix itself on Sunday, Verstappen was told to “use his head a bit more” by Lambiase after setting a very quick out lap on his way to Red Bull’s 13th straight win.
“They are the best combination for each other, that they could possibly have. GP [Lambiase] is vastly experienced, he’s been around the sport a long, long time. He used to be Paul di Resta’s race engineer for many years at Force India,” Croft told the latest edition of the Sky Sports F1 Podcast.
“He takes no nonsense from Max but understands there will be times his driver gets a bit hot headed, isn’t in full control of the facts, would like to make the decisions himself and will get a little bit irate when it’s not quite what he envisaged.
“He understands, he has the patience, he absorbs at all, and he puts Max right in a way that Max respects and there is a huge amount of respect from the pair of them.
“They work together superbly well they both know each other’s faults and each other’s pros. It’s a seamless relationship. I know we heard a lot of it over the weekend but that’s only because it’s racing and in the heat of the moment these sort of things happen.”
Chandhok: Reminds me of Vettel and ‘Rocky’
Max Verstappen comments on his squabbles with his Red Bull engineer at the Belgian GP
Between 2010 and 2013, Sebastian Vettel and engineer Guillaume Rocquelin won four world titles together at Red Bull as they set new records and dominated the sport.
Verstappen appears set for a similar amount of success and Chandhok says the championship leader’s relationship with Lambiase is reminiscent of Vettel and Rocquelin.
“It was almost like this big brother sitting on the pit wall,” said Chandhok.
“Then the little brother gets all hot headed, the adrenaline’s pumping in the car and they bicker like siblings. But actually, they are in it together, chasing that common goal of winning races and world championships. Rocky and Seb won four and these guys are well on their way to a third title.”
Red Bull managed to break another F1 trophy as they celebrated Max Verstappen’s win at the Belgian GP
Croft added: “Seb used to push it as well and used to do things that Rocky didn’t want Seb to do and Max tries the same. At the end of the day, Max respects GP enough to not push it too far.
“But I think they are a great combination and I want to hear more of that over the team radio. You have Bono [Peter Bonnington] and you have Lewis [Hamilton] – what a brilliant race engineer and driver combination that’s been over the years.
“We had Andrew Shovlin and Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button with Tom Stallard. These are the people that are the connection between the driver in the cockpit, who will feel vulnerable because he doesn’t know, all the time, what decisions are being made, and the rest of the pit wall and those with all the data at their fingertips and mouses. So you have got to have that essential trust.”
Max Verstappen has an argument with Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase as the Dutchman is not happy about his run plan
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