"My biggest fear is when we do have increased competition": When Max Verstappen's race engineer shared his fear

Midway through the 2024 season, Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen's race engineer, shared his fear about the driver. Speaking in a podcast, the Red Bull engineer stated that he feared the moment when they would have increased competition on the grid and would no longer win races.

Lambiase sat with Verstappen on the Talking Bull podcast, where they discussed racing and their bond both on and off the track. While speaking about themselves, Lambiase mentioned the time he feared that Verstappen would no longer be the dominant driver on the grid, and as a result, would have friction in their relationship.

"My biggest fear is the moment that we do have increased competition and we’re not winning every race, Lambiase said. "Because you see how he’s treating me at the moment – and he’s winning every race!”

Notably, Verstappen is a driver who seems to get furious when things don't go his way. On multiple occasions, he has had verbal altercations with his race engineer on the radio. One infamous example is the 2024 Hungarian GP qualifying, where Verstappen was unhappy with Red Bull's qualifying strategy, and vented out his frustration on the radio.

The qualifying session at the Hungaroring took place in rainy conditions, and Verstappen was concerned about his performance. As a result, he asked his team to give him a strategy to improve his position ahead of Sunday's race.

"Mate, I don't think we can improve like this," Verstappen said.

Lambiase asked in return:

"What's your concern? The temperatures, or..."

The Red Bull driver vented:

"The rain! The rain!"

Following this, Lambiase asked Verstappen to calm down, saying:

"Okay, calm down Max. Then if you're concerned about the rain, we can box. We can come back to the garage it's not a problem. You were talking to me about tire temps."

Ultimately, the Red Bull ace pulled off P3 in the qualifying and was 0.046 seconds slower than Lando Norris, the pole sitter. In the race, the Dutchman finished in P5.

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Max Verstappen's race engineer's fear turned out to be true in 2025

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing - Source: Getty

While Max Verstappen won nine races in 2024, coming into 2025, he won just two out of 12. Red Bull is no longer the dominant force on the grid and currently stands in P4 in the constructors' championship.

They are currently no match against the mighty McLarens, the team that won nine out of 12 races. The Austrian team is also behind Ferrari and Mercedes, and one big reason behind it has been the second Red Bull car, which made Verstappen the lone warrior.

In summary, Max Verstappen and Gianpiero Lambiase are no longer the 'perfect pair' that won 19 out of 22 races in 2023 and took four back-to-back F1 championships.

Edited by Samya Majumdar