Red Bull race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase missed the debrief after the United States Grand Prix because he needed to rush to make a flight, team chief Christian Horner has explained.
Lambiase and Verstappen were involved in some heated moments over team radio during the race, as the world champion pipped Lewis Hamilton to the win. Hamilton later faced disqualification after an eventful evening in the US, following post-race checks to his car.
Verstappen and Lambiase have been involved in plenty of wars of words this season, including in Belgium in July and Singapore in September. There was more of the same in Austin, but Lambiase's post-race absence had already been on the cards.
Lambiase was heard telling Verstappen "see you on Friday" after the race. Horner addressed the comments himself, telling Sky Sports: "Well, you know it was not a code or anything like that, so the marital bliss between the two of them just rolls on.
"He's had to rush back to the UK so he was rushing to catch a flight," Horner continued. "So yeah, it used to be Helmut [Marko] that left the track early, now it's the race engineer that's straight out after the race."
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Horner also gave some insight into Verstappen's dissatisfaction during the race. "He was managing a brake issue throughout the race," the team principal added. "You could hear, he wasn't happy about the brakes.
"And when you've got that issue you are building in a bit of a margin. So I think all his focus was on that and he knew very well what the gap was and he was managing that."
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Gianpiero Lambiase has celebrated with Max Verstappen after previous wins (Getty Images)Verstappen had already been crowned world champion before the United States Grand Prix, making sure of his third straight title during the Qatar sprint race. He showed no signs of letting up in Austin, though, climbing from sixth on the starting grid to claim victory.
Despite another victory, though, the Dutchman wasn't delighted by the Circuit of the Americas course. "At the moment it feels like it’s better suited to a rally car," he said after the race.
"Like, I'm jumping and bouncing around. In an F1 car, you probably don't even see it as much because of course we are glued to the ground because of the downforce.
"But the bumps and jumps that we have in some places, it's way too much. I don't think it's F1 level. I love this track, honestly, the layout is amazing, but we definitely need new tarmac."
With four races of the season remaining, Verstappen has already surpassed his points tally from the victorious 2022 season. Next up is the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Lambiase returning to duty on Friday per his comments to the champion after Sunday's win in the US.
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