{"id":184318,"date":"2025-10-02T05:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184318\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T05:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:39:07","slug":"lambiase-will-lose-max-verstappen-within-months-if-he-falls-into-this-big-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/184318\/","title":{"rendered":"Lambiase will ‘lose’ Max Verstappen ‘within months\u2019 if he falls into this big trap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen\u2019s longtime race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has offered some critical insight into what it\u2019s like to work with one of the most dominant drivers of the modern era.<\/p>\n

According to Lambiase, it\u2019s a straightforward relationship \u2014 but start pandering to the driver, and you\u2019ll end up outside of his circle of trust within an instant.<\/p>\n

Lambiase on working with \u201ccrocodile\u201d Max Verstappen<\/p>\n

Formula 1 fans don\u2019t have to know his name to recognize the sound of Gianpiero Lambiase\u2019s voice on a broadcast. He\u2019s the collected tone instructing Max Verstappen<\/a> on the next pit stop, asking about tyres, or allowing the reigning world champion to vent as needed throughout a grand prix.<\/p>\n

Getting his start in Formula 1 back in 2005, Lambiase moved to Red Bull ahead of the 2015 season and was the race engineer assigned to a young Max Verstappen midway through the 2016 season when the Dutch driver was promoted up from Toro Rosso.<\/p>\n

Since then, the two have formed a successful collaborative bond; GP, as he\u2019s known, is able to give Verstappen clear and direct information, and the driver has expressed his gratitude for it.<\/p>\n

More F1 analysis from PlanetF1.com:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0The seven F1 race tracks Max Verstappen has never won at<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0F1 uncovered: How Red Bull has reinvigorated the RB21<\/a><\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean that the relationship between the two is always smooth sailing; in fact, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, GP painted an incredibly vivid picture of what it\u2019s like to serve as the only point of contact for a driver in the thick of an adrenaline-fueled race.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re on a boat down a river, and you\u2019re surrounded by a whole load of\u00a0crocodiles,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re dealing with the closest crocodile to the boat. That\u2019s all we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to do what is right for the team and driver at the time, and if you start being concerned about what you\u2019re\u00a0saying, then I think you\u2019re lost in showbiz.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of what makes the GP-Verstappen partnership so successful: The engineer and driver both feel that they can communicate openly and honestly with one another. While the driver is tasked with balancing pace, performance, strategy, car, and body, the engineer is effectively serving as that driver\u2019s only support system.<\/p>\n

As Lambiase explains,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re his complete circle of friends in one: a dad, a sports psychologist, best friend, worst enemy, everything.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Verstappen is] very straightforward, blunt and honest, but he expects that similar level of treatment back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you try to pander to him, wrap him in cotton wool, and try to be his best mate and be that yes-man, you will lose him within months.\u201d<\/p>\n

By \u2018losing\u2019 Verstappen, Lambiase means that the driver could lose the necessary trust required to make this relationship function. If Verstappen feels that he\u2019s not receiving legitimate feedback \u2014 which can often be uncomfortable information to receive \u2014 then one of his major pillars of performance has been eroded.<\/p>\n

Learning how to communicate effectively with one\u2019s driver is the primary goal of a race engineer, beyond even instructing that driver how to juggle the variables of a grand prix, and Lambiase\u2019s vivid description shows just how critical that relationship is.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Verstappen\u2019s Nurburgring rival scoffs at \u2018laughable\u2019 lap time debate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen\u2019s longtime race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has offered some critical insight into what it\u2019s like to work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,81643,818,825,44,17165,918,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-184318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-gianpiero-lambiase","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-popular","18":"tag-red-bull","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}