Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer, has taken a dig at Toto Wolff and Mercedes after qualifying for the British Grand Prix. This after the German team showed that they are interested in the four-time world champion and thus helped to spread many rumours.
During the Grand Prix weekend in Canada, Mercedes driver George Russell already hinted that Max Verstappen was on Mercedes’ radar, after which he definitively confirmed in Austria that Toto Wolff was in talks with Verstappen and his camp for a possible collaboration from 2026. This statement caused quite a bit of speculation, which has caused some unrest internally at Red Bull.
Because if Max Verstappen would actually leave the team, Red Bull would have a huge problem. The Dutchman is namely the only one who knows how to perform in the RB21 and without Verstappen Red Bull Racing would be far back in the field. And from Red Bull there has now been a witty response to the rumours, which were in principle started by Mercedes.
Lambiase lashes out at Wolff and Mercedes
After Max Verstappen’s great lap in Q3 of qualifying in Great Britain, which means he will start the race at Silverstone from pole position, race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase came on the radio to Verstappen to tell him the good news. However, Lambiase did not do it in the usual way.
The Briton with Italian roots said a sentence to Verstappen that rings a bell with Toto Wolff. “You went motor racing, Max,” Lambiase said to his driver – with which he took a dig at Wolff and Mercedes.
That sentence was uttered after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix by then race director Michael Masi, who brought in the safety car on the final lap of the race, allowing Max Verstappen to win the championship from Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff informed Masi that he had broken the rules, after which the race director made it clear that he was simply letting the drivers race.
For Wolff, Hamilton and all of Mercedes, that race caused quite a trauma and Lambiase is now bringing that up again. Coincidentally, Verstappen’s race engineer is doing that at exactly the moment when there are a lot of rumours about a transfer of Max to Mercedes…
