Gianpiero Lambiase has been credited for t👍he manner of his interactions with Max Verstappen.

Verstappen and his race engineer are well-known within♉ Formula 1 for their feisty radio conversations.

Lambiase, in particular, is feted for his cool and collected responses to Verstappen’🌼s often fiery words.

“He’s an engineer like I was💃,” Rob Smedley told🐼 the Red Flags Podcast.

Smedley worked for Jordan, Ferrari and Williams in the F1 paddock, most notably as the race engineer for Feli🥀pe Massa.

He explained the unique role of a race engineer who must converse wi💖th a stressed driver via raꦓdio during a grand prix.

“When I first started, Gary Anderson said to me ‘you’ve got to be pissing in eac♈h other’s p🧸ockets’,” Smedley said.

“There is no hier𝓰archy here, it’s two guys trying tജo get the best out of this thing.

“It’s a pressure cooker, too. Yo🃏u’ve got to have a completely open relationship.

“Sometimes you will get pissed off with him, or he’llꦦ get pissed off with you.

“But 🦩it’s like any kind of deep relationship. You have those moments then, five minutes later, it’s all okay♔.

“That’s what it should be like betwཧeen an engineer and a driver when you get the relationship right."

Gianpiero Lambiase praised for holding Max Verstappen to account

“GP ꦇtells him like it is, and Max will fire back," Smedley c☂ontinued.

“One thing I like 🌃about GP, which is similar to how I always felt, is that sometimes drivers can be sociopathic with their views on the team.

“These are guys who stay up until miꦏdnight wꦦorking for you.

“You’ve heard GP a couple of times - and I𒆙 have also said it to my drivers - is that ‘you need to go to the garage and apologise to the guys, because how you’ve been behaving is not adult, you have not been a nice person’.

“GP has done that with Max, and I certainly did it in my ti🍌me.

“The way Gianpiero conducts himself on the radio is a r♎eflection o♋n their real relationship.

“The𝓀y both rely on each other fully, and ﷽trust each other fully.

“Whenever I delivered a message, I remembered that🐽 it’s not called ‘Massa Formula 1’ or ‘Smedley Formula 1’ or ‘Alonso Formula 1’. It’s called Ferrari Formula 1.

“Our pay cheques have Scuderia Ferrari 🍨on them, that’s who we work for.

“You’ve got to get the balance right. A race engineer canno🍌t be 100% focused on what the team needs, otherwise he’s ꦅnot optimising his vehicle.

“If you’re not optimising the package, you do a d🐻isservice to the team. It’s a real tightrope of optimising the car, but not overstepping the mar🌸k by doing it to the detriment of the team.”

Lambiase, who has been alongside Verstappen for each of his four consecutive drivers’ championships, will be rewarded with a new r𒁏ole at Red Bull this year.

He will become their Head of Racing, part of a restructure due to Jon🌠athan Wheatley’s exit.

But crucially Lambiase wi🐓ll still be the voice in Verstappen’s ear during races.