He’s the familiar voice over the radio who guided Max Verstappen to the Formula One world title, but who is his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase?
When an F1 driver is out on track, their only point of contact with the outside world is through their race engineer.
Based in the pits, the race engineer provides updates as to which systems need monitoring or changing, advising about traffic or calling the driver in for a pit-stop.
Drivers sometimes take their race engineer with them when they move team, or in the case of Max Verstappen, you get given one.
When he was promoted to Red Bull in mid-2016, Verstappen was paired with Gianpiero Lambiase.
But who is Lambiase? How long has he worked in F1 and which drivers has he been race engineer for in the past?
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Max Verstappen’s F1 race engineer
Some driver/race engineer duos have become iconic in F1.
There’s Brazilian Felipe Massa at Ferrari, who was eventually given Rob Smedley after a re-jig.
The dulcet tones of Middlesbrough’s finest helped calm Massa, as the two went oh so close to the 2008 world title.
It was Smedley’s “Felipe baby, stay cool,” and infamous “Fernando is faster than you,” radio messages that cemented the legacy.
Of course, Lewis Hamilton’s engineer at Mercedes Peter Bonnington has became well-known for his “Get in there, Lewis!” messages after another pole or win.
As the Hamilton/Bonnington partnership romped to six world titles, the Verstappen/Lambiase double act was just starting.
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Lambiase has been Verstappen’s engineer for every single one of his 118 starts at Red Bull.
The two were put together after Verstappen replaced Danill Kvyat at Red Bull ahead of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen, famously, would go onto win that race on his Red Bull debut.
It made him the youngest grand prix winner of all time at just 18 years, 227 days old.
It was also the first grand prix victory for Lambiase.
Verstappen has praised the firm, direct attitude Lambiase displays over the radio.
As of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the pair have registered the following:
- Titles – 1 – 2021
- Wins – 20
- Podiums – 60
- Fastest laps – 16
- Pole positions – 13
- Points – 1495.5
Where did Lambiase work before Red Bull?
Interestingly, both Lambiase and Bonnington started their F1 careers at the same team.
That was at Jordan Grand Prix – the team owned by Eddie Jordan – who gave Michael Schumacher his F1 debut in 1991.
Lambiase started at Jordan in 2005 – the final year the team ran in that guise in F1.
For 2006 it became Midland F1 and then Spyker for 2007.
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In 2008, the identity crisis ended as the team became known as Force India, with Lambiase taking his first steps into race engineering in 2010.
By 2015, he departed for Red Bull, with Verstappen joining a year later.
Force India became Racing Point in mid-2018, before being rebranded as Aston Martin in the 2021 season.
Which drivers has Lambiase worked with?
Since he first became a race engineer in 2010, Lambiase has worked with five drivers in F1.
- 2010 – Vitantonio Liuzzi – Force India
- 2011-2013 – Paul di Resta – Force India
- 2014 – Sergio Perez – Force India
- 2015-2016 – Danill Kvyat – Red Bull
- 2016 – present – Max Verstappen – Red Bull
Perez is of course teammate to Verstappen at Red Bull, joining the Milton Keynes team ahead of the 2021 season.
During their spell together in 2014, Perez and Lambiase claimed a season-best result of third in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
It was Force India’s first podium in nearly five years, and just the second ever for the team, in all its guises post-Jordan.
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