Max Verstappen has said that he wants to keep working with his Race Engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, and that, if he were to leave F1, the Dutch driver would follow him out of the sport. Lambiase is a former Race Engineer for Giancarlo Fisichella, Paul Di Resta, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sergio Perez, having moved to Red Bull to become Daniil Kvyat's engineer. When Kvyat was demoted to Toro Rosso in favour of Verstappen, Lambiase stayed on to oversee the rookie's learning and has been at Verstappen's side ever since. "I told him that I only want to work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too." Verstappen told Ziggo Sport, explaining that the pair talk to each other all the time and maintain 24/7 communication with questions and ideas on how to improve.
"He tells me if I'm a jerk!"
The strong working relationship has resulted in Verstappen and Lambiase joining the ranks of the World Champions, and Verstappen revealed that the engineer has no fear of telling him when he's out of line. "Yes, absolutely. It is unbelievable how we work together," he said. "Of course, we can be very strict with each other at some point, but I also want that. He should be able to tell me if I'm a jerk and vice versa. I have always told him that. "In recent years, I often tried to be a bit more the engineer and he the driver!" Verstappen revealed that Helmut Marko is a fan of how the pair work together and communicate. "He always likes it when he listens to my side of the conversation," Verstappen added. "He thinks it's very nice to see how we communicate with each other."
Most read
