The most iconic driver-race engineer partnerships in F1 history

The impending departure of Gianpiero Lambiase from Red Bull will bring to a close one of the most renowned partnerships between a race engineer and a driver, with “GP” and Max Verstappen having delivered four Drivers’ titles and dozens of pole positions and race wins since they began working together in 2016.

Across the past three decades or so the role of race engineer has significantly evolved amid the growth of the F1 teams, while the advent of team radio broadcasts on television coverage has heightened public awareness and raised the profile of the people carrying out this critical job. We’ve picked out some of the other most famous driver-race engineer relationships in Formula 1.

Jacques Villeneuve and Jock Clear

Hotshot Jacques Villeneuve landed in F1 with Williams in 1996 after success in the US and was immediately a front-runner, swiftly building a rapport with Jock Clear. The pair won the 1997 Drivers’ title together, and Clear followed Villeneuve to the start-up BAR operation when the Canadian made the surprising career switch. Clear continued to engineer Villeneuve until the driver quit BAR-Honda before the final round of 2003.

“I think as a personality he has so much self confidence that puts him in good stead in pretty much most of the situations that he’s been in as a racing driver,” Clear told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast in 2021.

“But the downside of that is that it did mean he would come up with some pretty weird ideas about why things weren’t going right for him. And then you’d have to say: ‘maybe you just drove a s*** race, Jacques, have you considered that one?’”

In the roundabout way that F1 works sometimes, Clear then ended up as race engineer in 2011 to Michael Schumacher, Villeneuve’s arch nemesis in 1997.

Jenson Button and Andrew Shovlin

Jenson Button’s move to BAR in 2003 brought him into a working partnership with Andrew Shovlin, and together they enjoyed the highs of a breakthrough maiden win in 2006, followed by the lows of Honda’s woes in 2007/08, and the manufacturer’s shock end-of-year withdrawal.

But after Ross Brawn resurrected the team the BGP001 proved devastatingly fast out of the blocks, and it was Shovlin who guided Button through a tumultuous 2009 campaign in which Brawn’s early lead – after Button’s six wins from the first seven races – was whittled away by rivals.

Nevertheless Button held on to claim an emotional title, helped all the way by Shovlin. Button switched to rivals McLaren for 2010, but Shovlin remained at Brawn through the team’s transition to Mercedes, where he remains today in the senior role of Trackside Engineering Director.

Felipe Massa and Rob Smedley

Felipe Massa had a rocky start to life with Ferrari in 2006 but mid-season Rob Smedley came onboard as his race engineer, replacing Gabriele Delli Colli. The two immediately clicked, and Massa’s form improved, leading to breakthrough victories in the closing stages of the campaign.

The straight-talking Smedley and Massa had extreme highs and soul-searching lows. That included the agonising late title defeat in 2008, the Brazilian’s horrifying injury mid-2009, and then the team orders saga at Hockenheim in 2010, when Smedley’s “Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message” was followed by a “good lad, sorry,” when Massa duly complied.

Smedley regarded Massa as akin to a younger brother, which led to some more amusing moments, including the Middlesbrough-born Smedley plainly saying “Felipe baby, stay cool!” when an agitated Massa requested a different visor during Malaysia’s deluge in 2009. Smedley joined Massa at Williams in 2014, albeit this time in charge of trackside operations.

Nico Rosberg and Tony Ross

Nico Rosberg stepped up to Formula 1 with Williams in 2006, and after having had spells with Juan Pablo Montoya and Nick Heidfeld, Tony Ross was assigned as engineer to the German youngster. After four seasons Rosberg switched to Mercedes, and Ross stayed on to engineer Rubens Barrichello at Williams, but Rosberg and Jock Clear never gelled.

For 2011 Ross moved across to Mercedes, reuniting with Rosberg, and the pair remained together until 2016. Ross was perhaps best known for some unusual celebratory messages to Rosberg, and their partnership came to an end in style, with Rosberg retiring from competition just days after his 2016 title triumph.

Ross stayed on for a couple of years, engineering Valtteri Bottas, though had to unwind some muscle memory after accidentally calling him ‘Nico’ over the radio early in 2017.

Fernando Alonso and Andrea Stella

Fernando Alonso has had a plethora of race engineers during his lengthy career in Formula 1, though the most memorable was surely the alliance with Andrea Stella at Ferrari. The Italian moved up to become Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer in 2009, and in 2010 took on Alonso, who challenged for the title.

Stella memorably told Alonso to “use the best of your talent, we know how big it is” in his ultimately fruitless pursuit of roadblock Vitaly Petrov in Abu Dhabi. Alonso and Stella never claimed a breakthrough championship, with 2010’s agonising loss followed by another last-round defeat in 2012, despite the brilliance of Alonso through the campaign.

Alonso moved to McLaren for 2015, and Stella followed suit, though in the new role of Head of Race Operations.

Sebastian Vettel and Guillaume Rocquelin

Guillaume ‘Rocky’ Rocquelin engineered David Coulthard during the twilight of his career before he was assigned the up-and-coming Sebastian Vettel, just as Red Bull launched themselves into front-running contention.

The Vettel and ‘Rocky’ partnership proved formidable, with Rocky often striving to keep the exuberant Vettel in check, particularly concerning the German’s pursuit of records – such as pushing for the fastest lap on the final lap. But together Vettel and Rocky won four straight titles, prevailing in close fights in 2010 and 2012, and enjoying dominant campaigns in 2011 and 2013.

Rocky’s “it’s looking good, but you just wait sunshine, you just wait” message to Vettel in Abu Dhabi, as he awaited confirmation of the title, and his “Multi Map 2 1” instruction during the team orders saga in 2013 were just some of the highlights.

Vettel’s move to Ferrari for 2015 brought the relationship to an end, but Rocky was already set to shift into a different role, and he remains at Red Bull as the head of its driver academy.

Lewis Hamilton and Peter ’Bono’ Bonnington

Is this the most iconic driver-race engineer partnership in F1 history? Lewis Hamilton and Pete Bonnington forged a close relationship at Mercedes in the wake of Hamilton’s move across for 2013, just over a year after Bono had been promoted to the role of race engineer.

As Mercedes hit their stride in 2014, Hamilton and Bono worked closely to deliver a spree of wins and world titles, with Bono sometimes assuaging Hamilton’s temper and concerns, and issuing the famous “get in there Lewis!” after many of the victories.

A prime example of their innate understanding of the other was surely Bono’s calmness on the final lap at Silverstone in 2020, assisting a three-wheeling Hamilton to victory even as his tyre disintegrated (watch below).

Four years later, and after a lengthy winless streak, the duo were at it again at Silverstone as Hamilton returned to the top step of the podium. Hamilton’s move to Ferrari for 2025 ended the partnership, which had delivered 84 victories and six world titles, with Bono staying on to engineer Kimi Antonelli.

Daniel Ricciardo and Simon Rennie

Simon Rennie spent several years engineering different drivers at Renault/Lotus, and was famously on the receiving end of Kimi Raikkonen’s “leave me alone, I know what to do” message in Abu Dhabi in 2012.

For 2013 he moved to Red Bull, engineering Mark Webber’s final season, before landing the up-and-coming Daniel Ricciardo. Together they won seven races and were regular foils to the dominant Mercedes outfit between 2014 and 2018, before Ricciardo upped sticks and moved to Renault.

When Ricciardo was back within the family in 2023, it was Rennie who engineered his initial simulator session, as the Australian strived to regain his focus after a difficult spell. Rennie returned trackside last year twice as a stand-in engineer to Verstappen in Lambiase’s absence.

Lando Norris and Will Joseph

When a young Lando Norris was promoted to a race seat for 2019 it was Will Joseph who was assigned as his race engineer, the pair having first worked together during Norris’ maiden F1 test in mid-2017.

The pair quickly gelled, and were together on McLaren’s journey from also-ran to World Champions, with several landmark milestones along the way, most memorably his “we did it Will!” message after the maiden win in Miami in 2024. There were in addition a few more light-hearted moments, including Norris singing on the radio, and wishing Joseph’s mother a happy birthday.

“I can set-up a race car, I can work with engineers, that’s bread and butter for me, that’s easy,” Joseph told F1TV after last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“Psychology is not what an engineer is typically good at, so maintaining that psychology with a driver is the toughest bit of a race engineer’s job. So that’s what I found toughest. But that’s what we worked on, we have a very close relationship, it is very trusting. There are a lot of unspoken things, because there is the trust and it works, it really works.”