After taking the lead in the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen expressed regret to Gianpiero “GP” Lambiase.that’s because his racing engineer had to pay 50 Euros for his P1.
Verstappen performed admirably when it counted at Friday’s qualifying Q3 session, despite not setting the fastest time in any of the previous three practice sessions.
After defeating Charles Leclerc by 0.228 seconds with a 1:29.179, the current World Champion immediately apologized to his race engineer.
GP wager that Max Verstappen won’t finish first in Bahrain
Over the radio, he apologized to GP, saying, “I’m really sorry! LOL
In response, Christian Horner, the team’s manager, said, “Max’s start was good; nothing to be sorry about.” Three tenths ahead of George and two tenths ahead of Charles.
However, since he had just cost GP 50 euros, it would seem that he had cause for regret.
This is due to the race engineer’s wager against Verstappen winning pole that he had placed with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
Marko disclosed that he will divide his gains with his top driver.
The wager was “just for fun, it raises your morale and your sense of competition,” he told ServusTV, adding that “Max gets half of my winnings, he’s tough in negotiations.”
Marko believes that after managing and shifting problems during the practice sessions, the “Max factor” entered the picture during qualifying.
“We put a lot of effort into our work after practice, and naturally, the Max factor reared its head again,” Marko continued. “It feels good to lead the race from this starting position.”
Sergio Perez is scheduled to start fifth, and Marko says Red Bull is “optimistic” about the race.
But he thinks there might be some opposition from the teams below Verstappen in the grid, especially Mercedes and Ferrari.
“Hopefully, Mercedes and Ferrari will be playing closely behind us. Fernando Alonso is a formidable competitor as well. “I hope we are leading the way,” he said to Sky Deutschland.
The key thing Helmut Marko took away from Abu Dhabi 2023
By placing a wager on Verstappen to win the pole position in Bahrain, Marko partially recovered his losses from the Abu Dhabi final from the previous year.
He felt Verstappen’s pole position would be his best option due to his practice issues, therefore he put a wager on Horner and against Verstappen that Saturday.
After that, Verstappen won pole position by a tenth of a second ahead of Leclerc, and Marko was forced to give Horner 500 euros.
At the time, he remarked, “I never believed that we could come back for qualifying the way that we did.” “We lost in sector three of FP3 by a little half a second, so there was additional motivation as well.
“I answered, ‘No, second row,’ to Christian’s front row suggestion. I lost it, but I’m thrilled that Max finally delivered and that our engineers did an amazing job making the necessary improvements.
“Max, I should have known!”
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