{"id":635196,"date":"2026-04-28T01:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635196\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:16:18","slug":"david-coulthard-explains-why-f1-race-engineer-relationship-is-more-than-professional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/635196\/","title":{"rendered":"David Coulthard explains why F1 race engineer relationship is \u201cmore than professional\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard<\/a> has explained the importance of the relationship between a driver and their race engineer.<\/p>\n

This follows the news that Max Verstappen’s long-serving race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase will join McLaren<\/a> as chief racing officer no later than 2028.<\/p>\n

Lambiase’s impending exit has raised questions over the four-time champion’s future with Red Bull, after Verstappen’s previous comments that he would not want to work with any other race engineer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“A race engineer is not only someone that understands vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, aero models, and all of the other good things that you need to deal with when they’re setting up a race car, but they’re also part psychologist,” Coulthard explained on the Up To Speed podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Because over the course of a season, a driver will have weekends when he’s feeling on a high, other weekends when he’s feeling on a low, just a natural ebb and flow of life. They’ve got to be able to know when to give them a kick and when to give them a tickle and everything in between.<\/p>\n

“And I think that some of the great driver engineering pairings that we can recall over the years have seen that relationship be displayed publicly.”<\/p>\n

\"Oracle <\/p>\n

Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Race Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase walks in the paddock<\/p>\n

Photo by: Kym Illman \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

The former Red Bull driver added: “The importance of the relationship is absolutely clear. It’s more than a professional relationship. There’s got to be absolute trust. The driver has to believe 100% his race engineer is doing everything he can to fight his corner.”<\/p>\n

It has not been confirmed who will take\u00a0Lambiase’s place at Red Bull, but Verstappen fully backed the Briton’s decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve spoken about it, and when he told me what the opportunity was, I said: you\u2019d be stupid not to take it,” Verstappen said at a Viaplay event.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s an incredible opportunity for him, not just in terms of the role but also for his future. You have to think about your family and long-term security as well.”<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard has explained the importance of the relationship between a driver and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,307594,817,813,816,297692,260774,85,1511],"class_list":{"0":"post-635196","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-david-coulthard-explains-why-f1-race-engineer-relationship-is-u201cmore-than-professionalu201d","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-jeddah-street-circuit","15":"tag-saudi-arabian-gp","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-trendingteam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635196","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=635196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}