'Like Younger Brother': Verstappen's Race Engineer Not Interested In Working With Anyone Else

Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 19:30

Max Verstappen has a very close relationship with his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, who wouldn't want to work with other drivers.

The three-time World Champion and his race engineer, often called GP, have an interesting relationship from the fans' perspective. On the one hand, it's clear that they are professionals, but due to the high-performance nature of their jobs, some of their conversations can get quite intense.

As Sebastian Vettel once famously explained during a press conference, in no other sport are athlete's words broadcasted live, and if they were, worse things would probably be heard than what F1 drivers say to their race engineers in the heat of the moment.

Many fans may not understand this and see the relationship between Lambiase and Verstappen as rocky. But that couldn't be further from the truth.

Both have enormous respect for each other, and on top of that, they even have a relatively close relationship outside of the race track, as Lambiase called him "a younger brother" in a recent interview with BBC.

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"I honestly see Max as a younger brother. We can talk about anything and anyone at any time. We're at the point where we just felt completely relaxed and at ease with each other."

Lambiase even said that, at the moment, he couldn't imagine working with anyone else after being Verstappen's race engineer for so long.

"Maybe I am speaking out of turn, but I don't think I would have any interest in working with another driver now."

It's not only because of their relationship, but after working with arguably one of the greatest drivers of all time, it just wouldn't be fair to the next candidate to bear the expectations that the Dutch driver created.

"Having had the success that we have enjoyed together with Max, working with one of the greatest talents that the sport has ever seen, I don't think it would be fair on another driver, from their perspective or mine, to try and replicate what we have achieved with Max."