Marko Wins $100 On Verstappen Bet Against His Race Engineer Lambiase

Thursday, 07 November 2024 at 20:00

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko revealed after the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix that he won the bet against Max Verstappen's engineer.

People inside the Red Bull Racing garage and Helmut Marko are no strangers to fun bets between themselves on the results of the Grand Prix weekends.

In Abu Dhabi last year (2023), Marko lost $500 to Red Bull's team principal, Christian Horner, as he didn't believe Max Verstappen could score pole position after being 0.5 seconds off the pace in the last practice session. He said then:

"I never believed that we could come back for qualifying the way that we did. I should have known Max!"

Marko learned his lesson not to bet against Verstappen, and at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, he bet $50 (against the Dutchman's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase) that Verstappen would secure the pole position.

As we know, with the benefit of hindsight, Verstappen then scored the pole position not only in Bahrain but all first seven Grand Prix weekends of the season.

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Speaking to De Telegraaf after the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the 81-year-old Austrian revealed that he won a bet against Verstappen's engineer again, but this time, he bet on the race result.

The triple World Champion had a very unlucky qualifying session and also had to take a penalty for a new engine, which meant he had to start the Grand Prix from P17.

While Verstappen's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase didn't believe the 27-year-old could make it on the podium, Helmut Marko bet $100 that he would.

The result? Max Verstappen not only finished on the podium, but he won the Grand Prix by more than 19 seconds ahead of everyone.

"With Max's engineer, I bet Max would finish on the podium. GP didn't think so. We put a hundred dollars on it. But I only said a podium and no victory… Max always wants to do better."