Sky Sports analyst sees 'dream marriage' for Max Verstappen

18:33, 24 Jun

Updated: 18:36, 24 Jun

byHidde Korte

Max Verstappen is currently a four-time World Champion and has won all those championships with the Red Bull Racing team. Davide Valsecchi, a former Italian racer and current F1 analyst at Sky Sports, sees a dream 'marriage' for the Dutchman.

Verstappen was promoted to the Red Bull Racing team ahead of the Grand Prix in Spain in 2016. Immediately, he had collaborate with a new race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. The two are often praised for their relationship, because they can say anything to each other. Valsecchi also sees this and points to 'GP' as the best race engineer in Formula 1, though this was not the case in the beginning.

"For sure if you ask him at the beginning of his career with Vestappen in Red Bull [Lambiase] was not as strong as he has now because he learned how to approach and how to handle a driver during the course of the season. This one is not bossing [Verstappen] that before the race you tell the fighter (driver, ed.), 'oh, be hard, come on, kill him.' This one is sport of focus, concentration."

"You need to be humble, you need to be balanced. So you're not push now and gets the time, believe me. It's never like this in the motorsport. And so sometimes I can hear that something that is not perfect. Sometimes I can hear engineers, 'now's the right time, push,' (and the drivers reply, ed.) 'I'm doing it, man.'"

Max Verstappen together with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase

This is what makes Verstappen and Lambiase a perfect duo

Valsecchi continues on and sees where Lambiase distinguishes himself and makes him the best engineer on the grid. "I think with time, the engineer of Vestappen with Vestappen, they find the right balance. Sometimes it's to go along with a Verstappen idea and support him. Sometimes it's to say, 'Max, you're wrong, do it.' So I think they find in the years, they find the right balance to approach themselves and to be extremely useful and performing in the car and in the track. I think there's no easy answer on that. You need to follow a bit the moment and try to balance the condition. It's not so easy to happen."