Red Bull wound back the clock at the Italian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen revelled in a season-high showing at the circuit that marked the low point in his title-winning Formula 1 season in 2024.
Much like that torrid weekend at Monza 12 months ago, Red Bull has experienced a turbulent campaign. A package that hasn’t been competitive enough to rival the huge strides that McLaren made over the winter has come amid more upheaval behind the scenes, with a change at the helm coinciding with renewed speculation connecting Verstappen with a possible move elsewhere.
However, on Italian soil, that was all pushed to one side as Verstappen, who has re-pledged his commitment to the team, stormed to pole position with the fastest lap ever recorded in F1 and then converted that into the biggest winning margin this season.
McLaren, which had clocked 12 victories in 15 races in the build-up to last weekend, had anticipated being vulnerable to the chasing pack on a circuit where the teams’ low-downforce configurations are put to the test and one where the margins are tighter than anywhere else on the entire F1 calendar.
But even Verstappen’s eventual 18-second winning margin at the chequered flag came as a surprise to Red Bull. The Dutchman had been in No Man’s Land at the Temple in Speed on his previous visit, branding the RB20 a “monster” as he lagged home an alarming 38 seconds back in sixth position.
“I think the starting point is last year,” Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner in July, told media including Motorsport Week. “We had a really big trouble last year in Monza.
“So it’s always a tricky balance because you do a lot of things only for Monza. You do wings only for Monza, you do set-up only for Monza. So last year was a very difficult point and the guys did an amazing job, analysing last year, coming here with a very specific solution and it seems like they have overshot the target! Meaning the car was actually in a much better window compared to the other tracks. So if you add to that, Max did just a perfect weekend. It was such a strong weekend. It put us there. We were not anticipating to have a base advantage in the race, but it turned out to be the case.”
Red Bull’s improvement was no coincidence. The team introduced a revised floor on Verstappen’s RB21 that delivered a “small step in the right direction”. However, there was another added component that was more instrumental to Verstappen’s triumph.
Red Bull invests in crucial area
Last season’s travails prompted Red Bull to – at long last- commit resources to drawing up and constructing a bespoke rear wing designed to tackle Monza’s long straights.
But despite a promising maiden outing with the new wing in the opening two practice sessions, Verstappen opted to go even more aggressive with a trimmed-out iteration compared to his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Verstappen divulged that there had been scepticism within the Red Bull garage about the set-up direction he pursued – but having used his mercurial talents to hang on in the corners with less downforce at his disposal to capitalise on the added top-end boost it brought, the reigning F1 champion’s choice was vindicated with a record-breaking run.
“We had a Monza-specific wing,” Mekies acknowledged. “The decision was made a long time ago. I guess probably a year ago. So that was good. Obviously the wing is working well. On top of that, it is fair to say that on Saturday, we have tried a step down with Max at the very end of FP3. And whilst it looked a lot more difficult to get the balance right with that lower level, Max has been very strong and good at pushing us to keep it on the car and to find other solutions to give him the balance back. And the guys have been doing an amazing job in managing that. So that’s why ultimately both cars were at a different level today.”
Mekies’ immediate impact at Red Bull
Red Bull’s victory – Verstappen’s 66th in the sport – delivered a much-needed morale boost to the side, with Mekies signalling that he inherited a group that had even started to question themselves amid the sharp downturn in competitiveness that it had struggled to arrest over the past 12 months.
Mekies, remaining humble, expressed that he had “zero contribution” to the win. But Verstappen disputed that claim, citing the Frenchman’s engineering experience as an important element in the team’s turnaround.
“Up until now we’ve had a lot of races where we were just shooting left and right a little bit with the set-up of the car,” Verstappen addressed. “Quite extreme changes, which shows that we were not in control. We were not fully understanding what to do.
“With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions to the engineers – common-sense questions – so I think that works really well. Plus, you try to understand from the things that you have tried, that at one point some things give you a bit of an idea of a direction, and that’s what we kept on working on.
“I definitely felt that in Zandvoort already we took a step that seemed to work quite well, and then here another step which I felt again was a little bit better.”
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko elaborated more, highlighting that there has been a change in approach since Mekies’ arrival, becoming less reliant on the simulations and incorporating Verstappen’s thoughts more into the decisions taken on a race weekend.
“The difference is that the preparation of a weekend is a different one now,” Marko said.
“Laurent is an excellent engineer, so now the idea is more to take whatever the simulation shows us, but mix that with the experience that Max has and with the experience that our racing engineers have. “That’s how we want to make a car that is more predictable and driveable. This is the product of that. Basically, it’s the same product as we had before, some updates were coming and they are working.
“The whole technical team is more open now and they discuss things. They are not blindly taking what the simulation says.”
Can Red Bull build on Monza success?
But while the squad’s revised processes helped propel Verstappen back to the top step at Monza, Mekies is more than aware that doesn’t mean the RB21 in its current guise is a consistent McLaren-beating car.
“I think it’s fair to say that we feel as a team that the car is working better in the medium and low downforce track, compared to the high or very high downforce track,” he said.
“Tonight we will probably think that a lot of that is probably Monza-specific. But we find out in Baku how much of the learnings with the components we had this weekend and with the way we run the car this weekend can be transferred or not to other tracks.”
Regardless, Red Bull’s unexpected upturn has indicated that the team might be back on the right track as it prepares to embark on a new challenge as an engine supplier with next season’s impending rules overhaul.
And although Verstappen is destined to head into that reset in 2026 without the #1 plate on his car, he will be re-energised by the prospect of being in condition to chase even more race victories between now and then.
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