Red Bull F1 star admits Max Verstappen ‘intimidated’ him ahead of promotion

Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen, generic, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Red Bull

Red Bull star admits Max Verstappen ‘intimidated’ him ahead of F1 promotion

Verstappen made quite the impression

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Saturday 17 January 2026 18:56

A star of the Red Bull F1 team has admitted he felt ‘intimidated’ by Max Verstappen ahead of a major promotion for the Dutchman.

In 2026, the 28-year-old has four championships to his name, but ahead of his F1 debut over a decade ago, Verstappen was known only by reputation.

After being discovered by Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, Verstappen was fast-tracked into F1, making his debut in 2015 for Toro Rosso (Red Bull's junior team) at the mere age of 17 years, five months and 13 days.

To this day, Verstappen is the youngest F1 driver in history.

GP shares first thoughts over Verstappen's Red Bull F1 swap

Article continues under video

Having taken part in just one year of single-seater competition prior to F1, a young Verstappen didn't need long to prove himself worthy of a seat at the main team either.

Marko promoted him into a Red Bull seat ahead of the 2016 Spanish GP, conducting a classic driver swap which saw Daniil Kvyat sent back down to the junior squad.

Verstappen stunned the paddock in Barcelona by taking the grand prix victory on his Red Bull debut, proving the team's harsh demotion of Kvyat was the right thing to do.

That race marked the first of many for Verstappen and his new race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase (known as GP) and now, the key Red Bull team member has reflected on how he took the news that he would be handed a new driver just five rounds into the 2016 championship.

In Chapter 14 of Simon Lazenby’s new book Pressure: How the people who power Formula One thrive at the limits, Lambiase is quoted as saying: "I had a phone call from Helmut Marko after the Chinese Grand Prix and he said we’ve got to make some changes. We are going to put Daniil Kvyat back in the Toro Rosso and you’ll have Max from the next race onwards.

"He’d already created a bit of a buzz in his early years and so there was a reputation about him. And so to say I wasn’t even a little bit intimidated by him, even though he was still a kid, would be lying."

Max Verstappen Gianpiero Lambiase