06 March 2023 , 16:49
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Max Verstappen said he was repeatedly told off by his Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase despite romping to victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Dutchman sped off from the moment that the lights went out and never looked back. Even if he did he wouldn't have seen much other than empty track, as Verstappen was 12 second up the road from Sergio Perez and more than half a minute clear of Fernando Alonso when he took the chequered flag.
What made that even more impressive was that, for much of the race, the Red Bulls weren't even operating on full power. Verstappen experienced a small issue with downshifts that he had to manage, while the team were keen to put as little strain on their engines as possible given the enormous performance gap to the rest of the field.
Naturally, though, as a competitive racer, the double champion wanted to put his foot down. But every time he tried, he later told Viaplay, he received a telling off from Lambiase who was keen to get his driver to refocus on the bigger picture.
"After that first stint I just drove home," said the 25-year-old. "Of course, I had a big gap right away and after that we didn't really need to push anymore.
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"Every time I wanted to push a bit, GP – my engineer – got angry, so of course that says enough about today. Of course I'm very happy, it's obviously a top start to the season and a very different start to last year."
Verstappen has worked with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase for several years (Getty Images)The ease with which Red Bull were able to run the show in Bahrain has prompted fears that this year's title race may be a formality again. George Russell has even predicted that the team might win every single Grand Prix this season.
Christian Horner was keen to dismiss such a prospect and said: "Twenty-three races is a marathon. It's about being consistent over the campaign. Today was a great start but we fully expect our rivals to come back hard in future races. None of us are getting carried away with one result. The surface of this track is quite unique.
"It was a well-executed Grand Prix and after last year when we came away with zero points, to have 43 this year feels like a good response. But we've only got one dataset so we're not taking anything for granted. Let's see Jeddah and then Melbourne. Once we've seen two or three races we'll have a better idea.
"I've been around long enough to see things change so quickly. These cars are still relatively immature. As upgrades come, things will change."