Max Verstappen and 'GP' Lambiase's most heated radio exchanges revisited

After ten years of working together, it was announced on Thursday that Lambiase will join the Woking-based team in 2028 as McLaren's Chief Racing Officer, a move that has only heightened speculation surrounding Verstappen's F1 future.

The race engineer is credited as being a major pillar behind Verstappen's success, alongside former motorsport advisor Helmut Marko and the Dutchman's father Jos, with 'GP' at Verstappen's side for four world championships and 71 victories since 2016.

While Lambiase has previously opened up on the 'brotherly' bond he shares with Verstappen, his ability to work with the Dutchman when things have been most intense has been needed on a number of occasions, let's take a look at some of the most fiery exchanges between the pair.

Despite securing a Red Bull one-two with teammate Sergio Perez at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in 2022, a DRS malfunction led to a rather expletive outburst from Verstappen to race engineer Lambiase.

The Dutchman ought to have been on edge after going off track and losing a few positions in the early stages, before several wheel-to-wheel battles with Mercedes' George Russell.

GP's ever-present composure was on display, as Verstappen's rant on his DRS problems ensued.

GP: "Max, info, the DRS flap did not open after the last lap. Keep trying."

GP: "OK Max, just so you are aware, DRS did work…"

Verstappen: "Where is the f****** DRS!

Verstappen: "You can’t even make a f***** DRS!"

GP: "Max, try pressing the DRS after your kerbing…

GP: "Max, I think you may have closed it last time…

Verstappen: "Because I’m pressing it 50 f****** times before it opens!"

GP: "Just try one button press after the kerb…"

Fortunately, the DRS issues subsided, and Verstappen's three-stop pit strategy delivered him victory, on his way to securing a second Drivers' world championship.

Later that year, Verstappen, already world champion for a second time, was allowed to pass Perez and attack cars further ahead, but on the condition the Dutchman would let his Red Bull teammate through again if he failed to make any ground.

Verstappen, running in P6, could not get past Alpine's Alonso, but refused to give the place back to Perez, despite GP's constant pleading with the Dutchman.

Verstappen: "How many laps?"

GP: "This is the final lap, Max."

GP: "Max, if we don’t pass Fernando on the exit of 12, can we let Checo through, please. Let Checo back through."

GP: "Don’t worry about the DRS, Max. Let Checo through."

GP: "Let Checo through."

GP: "Max, let Checo through please."

GP: "Max, what happened?"

Verstappen: "I told you already last time guys, don’t ask that again to me, okay. Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons and I stand by it.

GP: "Into the pit lane, please."

While it was never explicitly stated why Verstappen refused to let Perez through, it was wildly speculated that Verstappen retaliated to the Mexican's qualifying crash at the Monaco GP earlier that year, which prevented him from another lap and potentially securing pole.

This one was after Verstappen came very close to a shock Q2 exit at the 2023 Belgian GP, as the Dutchman finished P10 and scraped into Q3 thanks to Pierre Gasly's failure to set a faster lap time.

Verstappen: "I should have just pushed two laps in a row like I said. Ahh.

GP: "But you are through, Max.

Max: "Yeah, I don’t give a f*** if I’m through in P10! It’s just s*** execution.

Giving as good as he gets as usual, GP quipped back at his driver.

GP: "OK, and then when the track was two seconds quicker for your final lap and you didn’t have any energy left, how would that have gone down? But you tell me what you want to do in Q3 and we’ll do it. Let me know. Sets, fuel, run plan."

Verstappen had no answers to that message, but he did bounce back in Q3 to take pole position, and suddenly the pair were friends again.

Verstappen: "Oh, nice gap that. At least, we had a good Q3 and sorry, GP, for being so on the rant.

GP: "Slowly getting used to it Max."

This race saw Verstappen arguably at his most tetchy. Struggling with a difficult RB20, and strategy errors, Verstappen was certainly not in a good mood throughout the 2024 Hungarian GP.

Undercut by both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in Budapest, Verstappen made his feelings known over the radio with regard to the team's strategy.

On Lap 42, he said: “It’s quite impressive how we let ourselves get undercut and just completely f**ked my race.”

Then, on Lap 54, Lambiase made his own frustrations be known, Verstappen was pushing hard on fresh medium tyres to catch Leclerc, but a message from his race engineer wary of shredding his tyres infuriated the Dutchman.

GP: “Well, that’s some gentle introduction.”

Verstappen: “No mate, don’t give me that bulls**t now. You guys gave me this f**king strategy, OK? I’m trying to rescue what’s left. For f**k’s sake.”

After an initial skirmish with Hamilton two laps earlier, Verstappen then dived down the inside of Turn 1, but locked up going into the corner and made contact with the then Mercedes driver.

Thankfully, neither driver was out of the race, but Verstappen had been thrown into the air briefly and suffered a hefty landing - ultimately facing no further action after an FIA investigation.

GP had already dismissed his driver's complaints after the first battle with his arch-rival, and similarly chose not to entertain Verstappen's calls after the contact with Hamilton.

Verstappen: “He moved under braking.”

GP: “I’m not going to get into a radio fight with the other teams, Max. We’ll let the stewards do their thing. It’s childish on the radio, childish.”

It may not be one of the more iconic radio messages just yet, but recent exchanges at the Chinese Grand Prix show how both GP and Verstappen can still keep each other on their toes 10 years on.

While Verstappen struggled with tyre degradation and energy deployment in his RB22, Lambiase had to remind him that he was "on your side."

Verstappen: "My tyres are [inaudible]. I just can’t do anything.”

GP: “Max, our main loss to car ahead and car behind is actually braking and exit of Turn 6.”

Verstappen: “Check my onboard.”

GP: “I am supposed to be on your side, Max. I’m trying to give you some help and some information. Nothing further, mate. That’s it.”

Eventually, Verstappen was forced to retire due to an ERS cooling issue, resulting in a point-less Sprint Grand Prix weekend for the 28-year-old.