Christian Horner gives matchmaking credits to Sebastian Vettel for setting Max Verstappen up with his engineer
Christian Horner revealed how Max Verstappen came across his 'perfect match' race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase through Sebastian Vettel.
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To think that the lightning speed of the racecars in Formula 1 is all because of the solo effort of the racers who take part in the king class of motorsports is one of the biggest mistakes that a regular non-F1 fan would make. But the entire motorsports community knows it takes a village to make sure one driver goes out on the track with his car to aim for the topmost spot in the grid during the extravagant Grands Prix that are held according to the F1 schedule at some of the most exotic locations all around the world.
One of the most important personnel who is indispensable to any F1 driver while he is on the racetrack is his race engineer. The job demands for the engineer to communicate all the necessary data to his driver, formulate further plans for the race with him, let him know when he needs to pit his car to change the tires and even talk to him about any obstacles in the way or a yellow flag situation. For reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, that person is none other than Gianpiero Lambiase.
Red Bull have successfully catapulted their golden boy Max Verstappen to the top of the Championship table by giving him the best crew to work with. Speaking of how Gianpiero Lambiase came to the Dutchman’s aid, Christian Horner confessed that all credits go to Sebastian Vettel. He said, “GP originally came as a replacement to Rocky, to become Rocky’s successor [as Vettel’s race engineer]. And he committed to join the team and shortly afterwards Sebastian buggered off to Ferrari! So, he came to engineer Sebastian Vettel, but got Daniil Kvyat.“
Christian Horner reveals Max Verstappen’s engineer was actually not interest in working with him but with Seb Vettel
Gianpiero Lambiase was attracted to Red Bull because of Sebastian Vettel, but the German was long gone by the time GP joined the squad. Then, he got to work with Daniil Kvyat and finally, he ended up as Max Verstappen’s engineer once the current two-time F1 World Champion took up the reigns at Red Bull in the Russian’s place.
Speaking of the dynamics between GP and Max, Horner said, “Max is a strong character to deal with and GP is equally as feisty. So, sometimes they’re like an old married couple arguing about what channel to watch on the TV, but there’s a real respect and a trust and a relationship between the two of them.”
No matter under what situations GP and Max came together, the pair has become Red Bull’s reason for a winning bet at the F1 roulette. Now, it remains to be seen how long the Austrian team can carry on their winning streak–if they can surpass Mercedes while they are at it or if they will fall prey to the pressure from rival teams like Aston Martin.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)