Max Verstappen has admitted he would walk away from F1 if his engineer left the sport.
The Dutchman has worked with Gianpiero Lambiase throughout his time at Red Bull, who he just won his maiden world title with earlier this month.
He revealed he can be very honest with him and they bring out the best in each other, especially during race weekends.
Their relationship is so important to Verstappen’s success, he would leave the sport if his engineer chose to do so.
“I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too,” the Red Bull driver told Ziggo Sport.
“Of course, we can be pretty strict with each other sometimes, but I want that too. He has to tell me when I’m being a jerk and I have to tell him. I always told him that.
“He can tell me that on the radio as well, but it’s been going really well lately. The last few years I tried to be the engineer and he tried to be the driver.”
Back in October, the 24-year-old gave a glowing assessment of his engineer and the calmness he possesses, especially in such an intense environment like F1.
“I have a lot of respect of sometimes how calm he stays,” Verstappen said to GP Racing magazine.
“When you are in the car your heart rate goes up, you are under pressure.
“Sometimes you have your moments where you speak up or raise your voice, but then if you also have from the other side someone raising their voice you can end up in a massive argument on the radio while driving, which I don’t think is good.”
He added: “We always talk about things. Also, when we have disagreements or whatever, we very easily get over it again because at the end of the day, we have the same goal – we both want to win every single weekend, we want to try and have the best possible result.
“Yeah, sometimes, of course that can get a bit emotional, but I think that is a part of racing.”
Verstappen was brought to tears after re-watching the footage of his controversial F1 world title win over Lewis Hamilton.
“Yeah, wow, that was an emotional moment,” the Dutchman said while watching the footage, beginning to get choked up.
"Those are very beautiful [images].”
“These are very important moments which you will never forget in your life.”
