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Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has joked that Max Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase are like "an old married couple".
Lambiase is an experienced head in Formula 1. He began his F1 career in 2005 with Jordan and worked with the team for a decade, as they rebranded into Midland, Spyker, and then Force India.
In 2009, he was Giancarlo Fisichella's performance engineer when the Italian got Force India's first pole position and podium at the Belgium Grand Prix. He later worked as the race engineer for Vitantonio Liuzzi, Paul di Resta, and Sergio Pérez, before moving to Red Bull in 2015.
Lambiase began his time at Red Bull as Daniil Kvyat's engineer, before the Russian was replaced by Verstappen midway through the 2015 season. He has since been the Dutchman's race engineer, with the two forging a successful partnership.
Their quirky relationship took center stage at the Spanish GP when Lambiase informed Verstappen of track limits violations. Lambiase informed that one more violation could lead to a penalty, much to Verstappen's surprise.
Speaking to the media after the race, Horner joked about the two, saying (via racingnews365):
"I think he didn't realise there was a limit there, so his engineer (Gianpiero Lambiase) was just informing him of 'one more strike and it's a penalty' and not to take any risks for the fastest lap. The relationship they have is almost like an old married couple debating about which television channel they should be watching."
“It’s a big pleasure to drive a car like this” - Max Verstappen takes joy in Spanish GP victory
Besides the opening lap of the race, Max Verstappen had a comfortable Spanish GP, where he won his fifth race of the season.
The Red Bull Racing driver converted his pole position to victory, leading all 64 laps in Barcelona. He also took home the fastest lap of the race, which saw him register his first Grand Slam of 2023 and the third in his career.
After the race, Verstappen expressed satisfaction at the RB19's performance.
"It's a big pleasure, you know, to drive with a car like this. And I think yeah, it showed again today. We had quite a lot of different tyre strategies out there. I think for most of the race we were on the right one. But again, a win here is incredible," he told Nico Rosberg in the post-race interview.
