Red Bull Can’t Afford to Lose Max Verstappen‘s Race Engineer
Red Bull Racing’s championship-winning team is already bleeding talent, and losing Gianpiero Lambiase might be the final straw they can’t afford.
Lambiase would join an alarming exodus of key figures who’ve already jumped ship – Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, Jonathan Wheatley to Audi, and Rob Marshall to McLaren.
“GP” and Max Verstappen have formed what’s now the longest-running driver-engineer partnership in Formula 1. Their relationship has become iconic in the paddock, with their direct and sometimes blunt radio exchanges becoming fan favorites.
Yuki Tsunoda recently couldn’t hide his admiration for Lambiase’s skills.
“GP is honestly one of the most impressive engineers I’ve ever worked with. His ideas are incredible,” Tsunoda told DAZN Japan.
“It’s completely different [the way they communicate]. You hear how efficiently everything runs. I wanted to achieve that level of communication.”
As Tsunoda points out, the chemistry between Verstappen and Lambiase is nearly impossible to replicate.
We’ve already seen this year how difficult engineer changes can be. Lewis Hamilton left his long-time race engineer “Bono” (Peter Bonnington) at Mercedes when he moved to Ferrari, and his adjustment to working with Riccardo Adami has been anything but smooth.
Verstappen has had a small taste of life without GP this season. When Lambiase missed two races for personal reasons, Simon Rennie stepped in on the radio. While an internal switch might not be as challenging as Hamilton’s complete team change, those crucial split-second decisions during tight battles could suffer without the well-oiled Verstappen-Lambiase connection.
The pair has been working together for nearly a decade. That’s almost 200 race weekends of shared experience, understanding each other’s quirks, and developing shorthand communication that works under pressure.
That kind of partnership is irreplaceable.
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