Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez poke fun at Dutchman's fine for touching Lewis Hamilton's rear wing

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have poked fun at the penalty Verstappen received for touching Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in Brazil.

In a video posted on the Red Bull official channel, the two Red Bull teammates exchanged gifts for Christmas. One of Perez’s gifts to Verstappen was a handheld spyglass. In a note accompanying the present, Perez wrote:

“My next gift to you is not so much the item itself. But how much this item is going to save you money in the long run. I know you’d like to inspect your rival setups, but it can be expensive to touch their car.”

“So please use this gift to spy in the future and it might save you some cash.”

Max Verstappen seemed amused by the gift and thanked Perez for his thoughtfulness. He then proceeded to use the spyglass and mockingly said that he could see a “flexible rear-wing”.

At the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix, Verstappen was caught on video touching the rear wing of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, post-qualifying. While rivals inspecting each other’s cars are pretty common in F1, the Dutchman's actions were considered to have contravened the parc fermé conditions.

Hamilton’s car later failed the rear wing-related FIA test and was therefore disqualified from qualifying. Mercedes accused Max Verstappen of tampering with the wing, for which, the stewards imposed a fine of €50,000 on the Red Bull driver.

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Max Verstappen says that he would stop racing in F1 if his race engineer leaves the sport

Max Verstappen has claimed he would quit F1 if his race engineer at Red Bull Gianpiero Lambiase were to leave.

In an interview with Ziggo Sport, the newly crowned F1 world champion said:

“I have said to him I only work with him. As soon as he stops, I stop too.”

“Of course, we can be pretty strict with each other sometimes, but I want that too. He has to tell me when I’m being a jerk and I have to tell him. I always told him that.”

“He can tell me that on the radio as well, but it’s been going really well lately. The last few years I tried to be the engineer and he tried to be the driver.”

Lambiase, fondly known as GP, has worked with Max Verstappen since the latter's debut for Red Bull in mid-2016. Similar to Lewis Hamilton and Peter “Bono” Bonnington at Mercedes, Verstappen and GP have a solid relationship.

Interestingly, before working for Red Bull, Lambiase worked with Force India (now Aston Martin) as Sergio Perez’s race engineer.

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