What Max Verstappen’s race engineer was spotted saying on the pit wall after Hungarian GP radio spat

Follow us on Google Discover

It was a frustrating Hungarian Grand Prix for Max Verstappen after he dropped to fifth due to a combination of poor strategy from his team and incidents on track.

Verstappen could be heard over team radio furiously arguing with Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase after the team elected to make him stay out longer than everyone else before both pit stops.

This caused Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to undercut Verstappen, meaning he dropped from third to fifth and had to overtake them at the end of the race.

While he cruised past the Ferrari with ease, Hamilton put up more of a fight. The Mercedes driver had already run him wide and off the track earlier in the race at Turn 2, and now Verstappen made a move up the inside of Turn 1.

Both front tyres locked up on the RB20, causing Verstappen to go straight on at the apex and clip Hamilton’s front right tyre with his left rear. Verstappen claimed Hamilton moved under braking, but his engineer dismissed it as he felt any arguing would be “childish” on team radio.

The exchanges between the pair created a tense atmosphere within Red Bull, with team principal Christian Horner notably not congratulating Verstappen at the end. Journalist Julianne Cerasoli was told Lambiase was spotted saying something on the Red Bull pit wall post-race when discussing the situation on the Pit Pass F1 podcast.

What Max Verstappen engineer’s was spotted saying on the Red Bull pit-wall

After the race during the cool-down lap, Lambiase informed Verstappen that he was summoned to the medical delegate after his airborne crash with Hamilton.

This led to another sarcastic exchange between the two, although Lambiase did not respond after Verstappen’s remark.

He was later seen climbing off the pit-wall and saying a phrase to himself according to Cerasoli.

“Someone told me they saw Gianpiero Lambiase, his engineer, leaving the pit wall and saying to himself ‘Che giornata’ which is Italian for ‘What a day!’ We knew from yesterday Verstappen was very frustrated.”

Max Verstappen loses out to McLaren in Hungary

Verstappen would have finished on the podium had it not been his ‘all-or-nothing’ move on Hamilton towards the end, given the offset between his and Hamilton’s new set of medium tyres.

Hamilton had pitted 10 laps prior to Verstappen, meaning the Dutchman had a significant amount of life left to make a move in the final laps of the race.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Martin Brundle felt Verstappen had too much speed heading into the corner, while Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko believed Hamilton caused the collision by turning in early. The stewards deemed no further action after investigating Hamilton for moving under braking after the race.

Instead, he dropped back to fifth and threw away five points while McLaren achieved a one-two victory with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.