”Use your head a bit more”: Max Verstappen’s radio engineer was having none of it during the 2023 F1 Belgian GP

Max Verstappen and his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase had feisty exchanges over the team radio on multiple instances throughout the 2023 F1 Belgian GP weekend.

It all began in the qualifying session on Friday when Max Verstappen barely managed to scrape through to the Q3 session and expressed his disappointment. To his surprise, GP (Gianpiero) came back with a blunt response telling him that the team had given him the best strategy.

More fiery exchanges followed on race day when the Dutchman starting sixth on the grid was in the lead and expressed his wish to extend his advantage on Lap 33. Verstappen's race engineer was particularly unhappy with his tire management in the third stint, asking him to "use his head," given the degradation in the first stint.

Lambiase: “This tire had reasonable degradation in the first stint. I’d ask you to use your head a bit more.”

Verstappen's reply was born out of jest as he asked if they could repeat their strategy from Austria, pitting late for the fastest lap. But GP had none of it asking him to manage his tires.

Verstappen: “I could also push on and we do another stop, a little bit of pit stop training?”

Lambiase: “No, not this time.”

The intense conversation between the "old married couple," as described by Christian Horner, has caught the attention of F1 fans. The back and forth between the driver and the race engineer provided entertainment throughout the weekend.

While their conversations do appear to be testing their relationship, Max Verstappen admitted that's how the pairing operated. He revealed that his comments were born out of jest almost fifty percent of the time.

The driver/race engineer combination does seem to work as they are currently on an eight-race win streak, one less from equalling Sebastian Vettel's record nine wins.

---

Red Bull boss calls Max Verstappen and GP an "old married couple"

Christian Horner called Gianpiero Lambiase a cool operator who doesn't take any messing about. With such a personality joining forces with a character like Max Verstappen, the combination is expected to be fiery.

Horner compared the pairing to an "old married couple" in a post-race interview, adding that the relationship was not under threat. He said:

“GP is a bit of our Jason Statham. He’s a cool operator and he doesn’t take any messing about. There’s great trust and respect between the two of them. And Sometimes they’re like an old married couple, sometimes you think they need a bit of counseling. It’s engaging for you guys but they’ve been together since Max’s first race here, so they know each other extremely well.”

Lambiase joined the Jordan F1 team in 2005 and remained with the Silverstone outfit through name changes to Force India. He joined Red Bull as a race engineer in 2015 and teamed up with Max Verstappen in 2016.

GP has played a crucial role in helping the Dutchman win 45 races and two championships in their time together.