Lambiase reveals 'biggest fear': 'You see how Max treats me now'

Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase go way back. GP has served as Verstappen's race engineer since May 2016, his first-ever win in Formula 1. Lambiase has always had to deal with a motivated driver who expects the best from himself and his team at every moment.

Yet there are some differences, Lambiase and Verstappen himself note. The latter states that he used to be tougher on his race engineer than he is now and that the 'way' in his first seasons in the top class of motorsport did not always deserve the beauty prize either.

Lambiase: "My biggest fear is the moment that we do have increased competition and we’re not winning every race because you see how he’s treating me at the moment! And he’s winning every race. So that’d be I’m really not looking forward to it again," he stated on the Talking Bull podcast. At the moment, the Austrian racing team's successes are great. In the past three years, they have won five out of six world titles, and this season have won 19 out of 20 GPs.

Verstappen more mature

Verstappen added: "I started at the team when I was 18 years old. I’m 26 now. So also, I think as a person, I’ve grown a lot. So when I look back at those kinds of images from the first few races I did with the team, I’m like, ‘Oh, my God’. It’s very different. I think also in my behaviour, I think it’s only natural that also the connection and just me also growing up more, I think that helps a lot in your relationship."

That is not to say that Verstappen is happy with second place. No, sometimes even a first place is not enough for the Dutchman. "I still get upset. Even in such a dominant season, when things don’t go well. It’s the same for GP, we still want to win, and we still want to do everything as perfectly as we can, even though, I mean, no one is perfect."

Perfection

The most successful duo in Formula 1 at the moment try to approach perfection at every moment of the weekend. It is, therefore, the reason why altercations can still be heard over the team radios from time to time.

"That's why sometimes, of course, we still have our arguments, but it's all because we are very driven to win," Verstappen explained. "That’s why sometimes, of course, we still have our arguments, but it’s all because we are very driven to win. We don’t like when we come out of a weekend,’ Oh, how could we have done things better, or quite a bit better?’ It still upsets us, which I think is good because if you don’t have that drive, then I think something is wrong.”