diff --git a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
index 873db8c56d2..ad350582a16 100755
--- a/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
+++ b/cluster/gce/config-test.sh
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@ NODE_LOCAL_SSDS_EXT=${NODE_LOCAL_SSDS_EXT:-}
 NODE_ACCELERATORS=${NODE_ACCELERATORS:-""}
 REGISTER_MASTER_KUBELET=${REGISTER_MASTER:-true}
 KUBE_APISERVER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=300
+# Increase initial delay for the apiserver liveness probe, to avoid prematurely tearing it down
+KUBE_APISERVER_LIVENESS_PROBE_INITIAL_DELAY_SEC=${KUBE_APISERVER_LIVENESS_PROBE_INITIAL_DELAY_SEC:-45}
+# Also increase the initial delay for etcd just to be safe
+ETCD_LIVENESS_PROBE_INITIAL_DELAY_SEC=${ETCD_LIVENESS_PROBE_INITIAL_DELAY_SEC:-45}
 PREEMPTIBLE_NODE=${PREEMPTIBLE_NODE:-false}
 PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER=${PREEMPTIBLE_MASTER:-false}
 KUBE_DELETE_NODES=${KUBE_DELETE_NODES:-true}