Max Verstappen’s 40th Formula 1 victory was not his hardest-fought success. Arguably it was the opposite.
Despite that, there were moments of tension between the driver and his race engineer Giampiero ‘GP’ Lambiase, which demonstrated the intensity of their pursuit of a perfectly-executed race.Facing little competition from outside their half of the Red Bull garage, the pair ensure their operation remains razor-sharp, extracting the maximum pace at the minimum risk. Both have opportunities and threats on their radars, but occasionally differed over which to prioritise.
Inevitably those are the moments which get most attention. Team principal Christian Horner described the pair as sounding “like an old married couple” at times. But the rest of the time the back-and-forth between the duo is a textbook reference for how the driver-engineer operation should work.
Having started from pole position Verstappen easily dealt with Carlos Sainz Jnr and kept his lead. From then on, with Verstappen on the medium tyre compound and his rivals on softs, it was a matter of keeping the opposition at arm’s length.
Within little time Lambiase was telling Verstappen he didn’t need to lean on his tyres in the high-speed corners anymore and could start to manage them:
Lap: 1/66 VER: 1’23.935 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 3/66 VER: 1’20.499 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 4/66 VER: 1’20.346 |
The Circuit de Catalunya only has two straights of significant length where race engineers can convey lengthy messages to their drivers without interrupting them in the middle of a corner, when maximum concentration is needed. So when Lambiase had to describe an engine settings change to Verstappen, he made sure he heard it:
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Lap: 9/66 VER: 1’20.282 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 10/66 VER: 1’20.334 |
The pair began planning adjustments to Verstappen’s car at his first pit stop when he would change to a harder set of tyres and therefore need a steeper front wing angle to generate more downforce and grip.
Lap: 12/66 VER: 1’20.442 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 15/66 VER: 1’20.282 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 17/66 VER: 1’20.344 |
Although team mate Sergio Perez had started back in 11th and was picking his way past most of the slower cars between them, Red Bull kept an eye on his performance relative to Verstappen’s:
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Lap: 22/66 VER: 1’19.869 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 23/66 VER: 1’20.098 |
Lambiase called Verstappen in for his first pit stop, onto hard tyres. Given how long he’d been able to take his first set of tyres, they were already thinking about switching to a softer set for the final stint:
Lap: 26/66 VER: 1’23.843 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 27/66 VER: 1’38.427 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 28/66 VER: 1’18.707 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 29/66 VER: 1’18.860 |
The pair had a minor difference over how to optimise the car’s set-up later in the stint:
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Lap: 42/66 VER: 1’19.092 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 45/66 VER: 1’19.104 |
Verstappen was less happy with his car’s balance on the hard tyres, and was surprised to learn towards the end of the stint that he’d strayed beyond track limits twice. Doing so three times triggers a warning in the form of a black-and-white flag, and a fourth means an automatic five-second time penalty.
Not a great drama with a lead of 20 seconds-plus, but one which could put his win in jeopardy if there was a late Safety Car deployment, which is why the team took it seriously:
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Lap: 46/66 VER: 1’18.840 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 49/66 VER: 1’19.093 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 51/66 VER: 1’18.768 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 52/66 VER: 1’22.849 |
“He broke the track limits at turn five on one of two laps and then he did it again at 10 and he was very surprised,” said team principal Christian Horner after the race. “I think he didn’t realise there was a limit there. So his engineer was just informing him of one more strike and it’s a penalty and not to take any risks in the fastest lap.
“The relationship they have is one like an old married couple almost debating about which channel of television they should be watching. But Max was totally in control and he was aware of the risk and was still able to do the fastest lap quite comfortably with the tyres that he had on the car.”
Lap: 59/66 VER: 1’17.761 |
Verstappen insisted afterwards he had everything under control. “I went over the white line three times, it happens sometimes,” he said.
“Some tracks it’s a bit easier to do and I was struggling a little bit with the harder tyres to keep it within the white lines. once I had that last warning then I had to keep it within the white lines but it’s not an issue really.”
However Lambiase evidently feared it could become a problem when Verstappen began asking what the fastest lap of the race was, angling for the bonus point that came with it. The pair have had this conversation before and the engineer would have known that trying to talk him out of it was futile, but that didn’t stop him trying.
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Lap: 60/66 VER: 1’18.205 |
There was more than a hint of resigned exasperation in Lambiase’s voice after Verstappen banged in the fastest lap. But just as Lambiase had been anxious to maximise their tyre preservation earlier in the race, Verstappen was no less intent on seizing every point available.
Lap: 61/66 VER: 1’16.330 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lap: 62/66 VER: 1’18.014 |
When the chequered flag fell, Horner couldn’t resist ribbing his driver over his flirtation with track limits.
Lap: 66/66 VER: 1’17.708 |
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James Bond (@jamesbond)
7th June 2023, 12:06
Dreamteam!
papaya
7th June 2023, 16:13
Used to be Bono and Lewis’s lovely communication especially the Hammertime, not hearing that lately?