Where Verstappen and Lambiase differ from each other

Things sometimes go so easily this year on Sundays that it seems like Verstappen is driving to the finish on cruise control. "Sometimes I get the feeling that you are just bored basically," Lambiase said in the Austrian racing team's Talking Bull podcast. "I think even if we’re 30 seconds up the road, I’ll still be in the zone, as it were, still trying to maximise everything and taking everything seriously."

In the cockpit of the RB19, things are different. "Whereas I think at that point [Max] has perhaps lost a bit of interest and is like, ‘Come on GP, just chill out of it.'" More than once this year, we heard Verstappen joking over the team radio when he had already driven away from the rest of the field.

Verstappen and Lambiase two hands in one

Although things are not always friendly on the team radio, Lambiase and Verstappen know what to do with each other. Verstappen, therefore, states that there is "great mutual respect" and that so-called "quarrels" on the radio need not always be labelled as arguments. According to Verstappen, the two keep each other on their toes, and you don't always have to agree on things.

That things are fine between them is also shown by the fact that Verstappen indicated back in 2021 that he would quit as soon as Lambiase ceases. "I said to him that I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too," the now three-time world champion said after winning his first world title in Abu Dhabi.