Max Verstappen threatened to leave F1 if his race engineer quits, saying that his stay in the sport is 100% on him.
Verstappen and engineer Gianpiero Lambiase have been a pair throughout the former’s time at Red Bull. ‘GP’ has been in his corner since his younger racing days, and has seen him grow from a raw racer to world champion in 2021.
The Dutchman has gone on record many times to say that they balance each other out by having honest conversations during race weekends. They are frank with each other and don’t hold back while having chats.
Such a relationship between the pair has seen them become one of the most effective driver-engineer pairings on the grid. It is so deep that Verstappen threatened to leave F1 if his engineer ever quits.
“I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too,” the Red Bull driver told Ziggo Sport, as quoted by Planet F1.
“Of course, we can be pretty strict with each other sometimes, but I want that too. He has to tell me when I’m being a jerk and I have to tell him. I always told him that.
“He can tell me that on the radio as well, but it’s been going really well lately. The last few years I tried to be the engineer and he tried to be the driver.”
Cool as a cucumber
“I have a lot of respect of sometimes how calm he stays,” he continued.
“When you are in the car your heart rate goes up, you are under pressure.
“Sometimes you have your moments where you speak up or raise your voice, but then if you also have from the other side someone raising their voice you can end up in a massive argument on the radio while driving, which I don’t think is good.
“We always talk about things. Also, when we have disagreements or whatever, we very easily get over it again because at the end of the day, we have the same goal – we both want to win every single weekend, we want to try and have the best possible result.
“Yeah, sometimes, of course that can get a bit emotional, but I think that is a part of racing,” he concluded.
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