Helmut Marko reveals he won $100 bet against Max Verstappen’s race engineer GP over the Dutchman’s Interlagos triumph
Helmut Marko revealed a humorous bet that he won against Max Verstappen's engineer Gianpiero Lambiase owing to Duthcman's win in Brazil.
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Max Verstappen, Gianpiero Lambiase and Helmut Marko (images via IMAGO)
The Brazilian GP was deemed by many to be a bad race in the making for Max Verstappen. Furthermore, this statement was also believed by the Dutchman’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase (GP), who ruled out the possibility of having the reigning champion step onto the podium. This gave the spark required for Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko, who bet on Verstappen’s ability to get a good result out of the weekend against GP and won $100.
Gianpiero Lambiase and Helmut Marko have been betting throughout the 2024 F1 season on Max Verstappen‘s ability to drag the RB20 to the top. Though the 44-year-old race engineer has remained pessimistic while making bets, the Austrian has been contrastingly bold and has earned a decent chunk owing to the Dutchman’s impressive exploits.
Subsequently, the next episode of this stake war took place in Brazil. Verstappen was scheduled to take an engine penalty around Interlagos and McLaren remained the faster car throughout the weekend. This led to GP insisting that with the lurking torrential weather conditions, the 27-year-old could not have made it to the top three, but Verstappen proved him wrong by doing one better and winning the race.
We put a hundred dollars on it. I only said a podium and no victory. Max always wants to do better.
Helmut Marko via De Telegraaf
This banter between Marko and GP is supposed to continue for a few more races. However, Verstappen’s race engineer’s bad predictions have mostly turned out the other way. So GP could go on betting against the Dutchman for a few more races, which might help them seal out the championship earlier.
Max Verstappen credited his go-karting days for excellence in wet conditions at Interlagos
Apart from this, the 27-year-old put in 17 fastest laps over the course of the 69-lap race. This demonstrated his confidence in the murky conditions that loomed around the track. Subsequently, Verstappen dwelled deeper into why he has great control of his car in wet weather conditions which dates back to his junior days.
The reigning champion elucidated how lessons learned in junior categories stuck around with him.
Back in the day in go-karting, the guys that were good in the wet are good nowadays also in Formula 1. I was racing them in go-karting, so it definitely is a thing that you pick up when you’re younger practicing a lot. It rains a bit more where we come from than some other places, you go out there practicing, get more comfortable, and definitely tuning your skills to be better. You carry that into Formula 1, evolve and become even better and you use that to your advantage in races.
Max Verstappen via F1TV
Nonetheless, Verstappen’s advantage in the driver’s championship has extended to 62 points over McLaren’s Lando Norris. This has meant that he has a real possibility of winning his fourth driver’s title under the sparkling lights of Las Vegas. Keeping this in view, the interest around Round 22 of the 2024 F1 season will be huge all over the world.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)