Another race weekend, another radio exchange set aside for Formula 1’s ‘Best Team Radio in 2023’ compilation. Courtesy of, you guessed it, Max Verstappen and his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase. While their radio exchange may not have been as iconic as the back-and-forth at the Belgian GP—“I’d ask you to use your head a bit more”—it sure did raise a few eyebrows. Why? Because Verstappen sounded just as tensed as he did in Belgium. Just as in Spa-Francorchamps, he legitimized a prophecy Lewis Hamilton made.

“You know Max is under pressure when he’s swearing,” said Hamilton in an interview earlier this year. Considering he had the championship under control throughout the year, you would expect the Dutchman to be cool as a cucumber. But just because he had it under control in Belgium and Austin didn’t mean he didn’t want to have the entire situation under control. At the US GP, he felt his hold on things slipping away, eliciting a few rude outbursts.

Max Verstappen’s loss of emotional control was “polite”

The US GP at COTA was a weekend every driver was excited about. Well, everyone other than Verstappen. Why? Because of his aversion to the Sprint format. Following two seasons of comfortable wins at the track, the Dutchman would’ve liked a hat-trick without any snags. But it wasn’t meant to be. It became a hat-trick of wins, but it wasn’t snag-less. On Friday, during qualifying, Verstappen exceeded track limits on his final flying lap and qualified in P6. 

Giving himself work to do for Sunday, Sprint Saturday was pretty straightforward. He secured pole position and won the Sprint quite comfortably. He couldn’t emulate the same flawless performance on Sunday, though. It was because he struggled with his brakes throughout the race. Midway through the race, he said, “These brakes are so sh*t compared to yesterday. What a piece of s**t.” There was nothing Red Bull or his race engineer could do about it other than just listen to Verstappen’s rant. But that also didn’t stop GP from updating the Dutchman with crucial information.

The thing is, GP was giving him that information when Verstappen was in the braking zones, already struggling with the brakes. The first time it happened, Verstappen said, “Please, no talking in the braking zones!” But when GP did it again, the Dutchman shouted, “Stop talking in the braking, man!” Despite everything, he finished in P1 two seconds ahead of P2. In the post-race press conference, Verstappen downplayed his outbursts. “The talking under braking, when you’re already struggling under braking, and you don’t feel that confident, I politely asked to not be spoken to. You’re laughing, but I said ‘please’ when I asked,” he defended.

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Considering how often Verstappen loses his cool on the airwaves, you would think that GP must be tired of being on the receiving end. But that’s not the case at all.

GP puts Max Verstappen back in his place all the time

The relationship between a driver and their engineer is critical. Unless they communicate well, the team won’t function properly. Seeing how smooth Red Bull’s functioning is (at least on Verstappen’s side of the garage), it’s evident that Verstappen and GP’s relationship works well. That’s exactly what F1 commentator David Croft thinks as well. “[Lambiase] doesn’t accept nonsense from Max, but he understands that his driver can be irritable at times and wants to be in control,” said Croft.

“He understands that, has patience, takes it all in, and puts Max in his place in a way that respects Max.” Verstappen knows this, too, because whenever he does shout, it’s usually followed by an apology. Remember when Verstappen qualified on pole in Belgium after the Q2 exit scare, where he said the session was a “sh*t execution?” Following that, he apologized, “Sorry to GP for being so on a rant.” GP hilariously said, “Slowly getting used to it, Max.” There’s no doubt Verstappen enjoys these exchanges just as much as we do because he even suggested he’d like the Red Bull marketing team to compile their radio comms.

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Do you think Max Verstappen was rude to Gianpiero Lambiase at the US GP?