With Verstappen dominating the current era, F1 viewers regularly listen into the in-race conversations between the Dutchman and his engineer.
But even before Red Bull’s current wave of success increased coverage of their team radio exchanges, Lambiase had forged a reputation for keeping Verstappen in check with a no-nonsense demeanour his driver responded to positively – even teasing back as the final laps of their shock 70th Anniversary triumph played out at Silverstone in 2020.
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Lambiase joined Red Bull in 2015 having previously been a race engineer to Paul di Resta and then Sergio Perez at what was then called Force India (he started out in F1 working for the team’s previous iteration as Jordan in 2005) and has been Red Bull’s head of race engineer since last summer.
In an exclusive interview with Autosport, Horner explained how Vettel – then engineered by Guillaume Rocquelin, better known as ‘Rocky’ after his own radio exchanges with the German a decade ago gained fame – had taken a key role in ensuring Lambiase signed for Red Bull.
“GP has grown a huge amount,” Horner said of Lambiase. “GP originally came as a replacement to Rocky, who was stepping up into the role as head of race engineering – the role that GP effectively has now.
“And he went through a gruelling process that included being interviewed at length by Sebastian to become Rocky’s successor [as Vettel’s race engineer].
Source: Autosport