Max Verstappen explains ‘I told you so’ radio exchange with Gianpiero Lambiase

Max Verstappen has explained a radio exchange with his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that was aired during the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s three-time world champion made it three wins from four races this season with another dominant drive as he headed home teammate Sergio Perez by 12 seconds at Suzuka.

It was not all plain sailing for Verstappen, however, as the Dutchman complained about his RB20 understeering and oversteering during the race.

“Yeah, maybe one or two clicks less is OK,” Verstappen was heard saying over team radio.

To which, Lambiase responded: “I won't say I told you so, but understood. Thank you.”

Verstappen was asked about the radio exchange after his victory.

“We had, not an argument, but he said, ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ I was pretty sure and it turned out to be wrong! But he was right,” he admitted.

“In a way, it also fires me up because I am like, ‘even though I am not entirely happy with the balance now I will still try to be as consistent as I can be without shouting back at him.’

“We have a great relationship and it works well like that.”

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko described Verstappen and Lambiase’s relationship as being like an “old married couple”.

“That is the old married couple coming out again!” Marko said.

“There was a very long discussion before about how many clicks of the front wing we had to change. Max insisted and Gianpiero was happy when it turned out that he was right in the end.

“Max and his race engineer are very experienced, also together with the data engineer. They know what to do and they know what Max likes.

“It was more or less the right decision, we just had to make a small adjustment after the first stint, so during the first stop.”