Autobayng News Team
Max Verstappen was so relaxed on the way to his second victory in a row last weekend he shared a joke with his race engineer on the final lap.
Gianpiero Lambiase referred to the pair’s latest running joke on the last lap as Verstappen accelerated towards turn five – the corner which claimed his championship rival Oscar Piastri at the start of the race.
“No risk, no push,” said Lambiase, prompting laughter from the team’s driver.
The comment referred to another exchange between the pair during Verstappen’s win in the Italian Grand Prix two weeks earlier.
Once Verstappen secured his position in front of the McLaren drivers at Monza, Lambiase told him: “That’s seven laps remaining including this one. Gap behind is 18 seconds. You’ve done all of the hard work so let’s just bring this home. No risk.”
Verstappen replied with the deliberately contradictory acknowledgement: “No risk, full push!”
This, he explained afterwards, was a reference to a joke which had come from his simracing sessions with Team Redline.
“It was a bit of a joke because our engineer in sim racing with Team Redline always says that,” said Verstappen. “He’s just quite stressed sometimes.
“When I’m in a race, he’s always like: ‘Yeah, no risk, full push.’ So that’s why I said it.
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“It was all under control. The car felt nice. The tyres were fine. GP, of course, wants to also just make sure that I’m driving without any risk, and that’s what I did.”
Verstappen also made a similar comment after the race in Baku when team principal Laurent Mekies joined him in the post-race celebrations. “That was super, super impressive,” said Mekies. “Somebody told us Baku was not your best track.”
“Well, there’s always a time to prove people are wrong,” Verstappen replied. “And at the same time, no risk, no fun.”
Verstappen’s radio from the end of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix
| Lap: 51/51 VER: 1’44.556 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Okay Max, final lap. Mode seven. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | No risk, no push. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | [Laughs] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Another great drive Max. Fabulous work, mate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chequered flag | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yes, what an unbelievable race guys! On fire on both compounds. Really well executed. Really, really well done the whole weekend. Another incredible weekend for us so well done to everyone involved. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mekies | Well done, Max. Well done. You hung on to these hard tyres to make your point, I guess, so that was super, super impressive. Somebody told us Baku was not your best track, but… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Well, there’s always a time to prove people are wrong. And at the same time, no risk, no fun. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Well done we’re into the pit lane. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yeah, good. By the way, the start was quite lovely. That was not bad on that compound. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Not at all, no. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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- How Verstappen’s engineer had him laughing on his way to victory in Baku
