Max Verstappen makes Red Bull plea after race engineer 'spat' at Belgian GP

31 July 2023 , 10:18

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Max Verstappen with Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase (Image: Getty Images)

Max Verstappen made it clear he does not want a change of race engineer after his radio arguments with Gianpiero Lambiase over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

Their relationship at Red Bull is under the spotlight amid suggestions of tension. There were a few examples of disagreements at Spa-Francorchamps, the first coming in qualifying on Friday.

Angry about almost missing out in Q3, Verstappen shouted over the radio: "I should have just f***ing pushed two laps in a row, like I said." When reminded that he had made it through safely, he added: "Yeah mate but I don't give a f*** if I'm through in P10. It's s*** execution."

Lambiase was happy to get snippy in his response to that, replying: "Okay then, when the track was two seconds quicker for your final lap and you didn't have any energy left, how would that have gone down?"

They were arguing again in Sunday's race, when Lambiase told Verstappen to be more "sensible" with his tyres management. The racer tried to argue back but the engineer shut that down by stating curtly: "Just follow my instruction, please."

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And later on, when Verstappen was leading comfortably, he jokingly asked if he could "push on and do another stop, a little bit of pit stop training". The response was: "No, not this time."

While the discussions between them often sound tense in the moment, Verstappen insists that is purely how they operate best together. "I think we know each other very well, from all the years we have been working together already," he said.

Max Verstappen won the Belgian GP so comfortably he spent the second half of the race teasing his Red Bull team (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

"The car has been performing really well. Of course, they want to keep it under control but I'm the one in the car feeling how the tyres are behaving. They have the numbers but it's still also a feeling thing.

"I think as long as they tell me from there what they're seeing then I can make my mind up in terms of how to push it out. And I think that's working out very well for us at the moment."

And, in a separate interview, he went on to add: "I find it always a really important part of your performance – not only your race engineer but also everyone very close around you [like] your performance engineer and these kind of things.

"Of course, over the years you build up much more of a relationship, you know each other better. So yeah, for sure, if he were to be remover or whatever, that would definitely not be ideal at all."

Daniel Moxon