Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies explained how Max Verstappen “amazed” him and the team with his opening lap save in Formula 1‘s Dutch Grand Prix.
The home hero finished second in the race, inheriting the position late on after Lando Norris’ McLaren crawled to a halt with just a handful of laps to go.
Verstappen’s car was in no class to match the papaya team’s performance, with Oscar Piastri streaking to victory on the Zandvoort circuit.
But the four-time World Champion managed to still put on a display to thrill the partisan crowd, displacing Norris for second on the opening lap.
Getting off the cleaner side of the circuit better, Verstappen managed to swoop past the Brit around the outside of Turn 1.
But when resuming his normal racing line into Turns 2 and 3, Verstappen was required to tame the RB21 as its rear end wiggled into the high-banked curve.
Verstappen managed to successfully bring the car under control, and remained in second for a short time until Norris retook the place.
Spurred on by his countrymen and women, Verstappen was able to secure a podium finish in what is the penultimate year the circuit will host a Grand Prix.
After the race, Mekies said that, despite Verstappen’s consistent and undeniable brilliance behind the wheel, he was agog at just how well he kept the car on the road at the start.
“I tell you what, on the pit wall, Lap 1, as much as we worked with him every day, we were still amazed by what he managed to pull off,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“So that’s how it was, because it was like, ‘how did he do that?’ And ‘how did he make the move, and how did he keep it on track?'”
“And so, you know, again, it’s a bit like in Spa, you know, when he got the McLaren on the Sprint start.
“He knew he had one shot, he knew it was now, and he gave it all, and he still leaves us with no words when you see that, so big well done.”
Mekies praises Verstappen for ‘very good job’ with risky Red Bull tyre choice
Verstappen opted for a different strategy on tyres during the race, going for Soft tyres later in the race when most opted for Hards and Mediums due to the track’s surface.
Mekies explained that the Hard tyre didn’t leave Verstappen enthralled after running it during Friday’s free practice, and praised him for his performance on Softs late on.
“We were, I think, the only car in the top 10 to have a new set of Softs, so we knew the other guys would not be too tempted to go for it,” he said.
“In fairness, Max had not been exactly super happy with his Hard run on Friday, and so the perspective to do Medium [then] Hard was not super exciting for us, so we knew Soft-Medium would have been super aggressive, but that’s the choice we’ve made to do the super aggressive one.
“Obviously, it exposed Max in the second part of the stint on Soft. He already had to deal with it, but he managed to do a very good job and probably would have made it in a Soft-Medium straight race to put it 2-3.”
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