GP on Verstappen: 'Don't know if he would have had the same respect then'

If you watch Formula 1 a lot you know him: Gianpiero Lambiase. Since Max Verstappen has been driving at Red Bull Racing, the British-Italian has been his race engineer. Speaking to the BBC, Lambiase talked about the Dutchman's early years at Red Bull Racing.

During races, Verstappen and Lambiase are not always on the same page. Last year in Spain is an example. The Dutchman's engineer asked if the Red Bull driver wanted to take it easy as he had already taken three track limits. The three-time world champion disobeyed and took the fastest race lap. After this spat, team principal Christian Horner called the two "like an old married couple".

GP over tough Verstappen

Verstappen always said what he thought to his engineer, including in his first season at Red Bull. Lambiase says: "I had experience working with multiple drivers before Max, and that was one of the biggest helps in terms of hitting the ground running with him. I think if I would have been a newbie to my role - I won't quite say he would have eaten me alive, but I'm not sure he would have had that respect for a junior engineer."

'That's what we focused on in years before 2021'

Verstappen's first seasons at Red Bull were tough. Mercedes clearly had the better car. "Max learned some really harsh lessons in the two or three years before 2021," his engineer explained. "His race craft really was something that we focused on, making sure we were just picking up points when it wasn't possible to win a race."

He continued: "We were concentrating on building his consistency, needing to be finishing every race, maybe not putting himself in a situation where he can end up in a 50/50 accident with another driver."