Verstappen: 'He really understands me'

It's not always easy for an F1 driver to stay calm. Even Max Verstappen sometimes raises his voice when he's in a fight on track. Fortunately, his engineer can always be there to calm him down. An 'ok Max' from Gianpiero Lambiase is often more than enough to restore his driver's composure.

Differences of opinion

It's fair to say that Verstappen and Lambiase are a close-knit twosome. "GP and I now have been working together for a few years," Verstappen tells Autosport.com. "We have a very good and honest relationship, I think. He really understands what I need from the car, and also how I can feed back things to him."

Moreover, Lambiase always remains calm. Never does he sound any panic, as is sometimes the case with engineers from other teams. "I have a lot of respect for sometimes how calm he stays," Verstappen continues. "When you are in the car your heart rate goes up, you're under pressure. Sometimes you have your moments where you speak up or raise your voice, but then if you also have from the other side someone raising their voice, you can end up in a massive argument on the radio while driving, which I don't think is good."

That's not to say Verstappen and Lambiase are always on the same page. "Of course, we have moments where we don't agree. But I think that's also wanted because at the end of the day, you want to make each other better, and you want to make the car faster. It's good to be able to have discussions and come [up] with the best solution for it. We [are] also very honest to each other like I am to Helmut and Christian. And I think that makes it so good."