2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg and Sky F1 colleague, David Croft, believe Laurent Mekies made his first major impact on Red Bull and their result at Monza.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen<\/a> delivered a sublime drive to victory from pole at the Italian Grand Prix, having stuck to his guns on an RB21 setup direction which paid off handsomely. Sky F1 lead commentator David Croft suggested that Mekies played a crucial role by making Verstappen\u2019s voice heard, as for all the skills which former boss Christian Horner had, he was not \u201can engineer\u201d.<\/p>\n Would Christian Horner really have blocked Red Bull\u2019s Monza breakthrough?<\/p>\n It has been a challenging season for Red Bull. The team sits fourth in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, the lack of points scored by the second car biting hard, while Verstappen is most likely out of contention to win a fifth straight Drivers\u2019 title. But the Italian Grand Prix provided a huge, much-needed boost.<\/p>\n For the first time since Silverstone, Verstappen put himself on pole position at Monza. Afterwards, he spoke of how he had insisted on an RB21 setup route which \u201csome people\u201d within Red Bull were not convinced of. He followed that path and reaped the rewards.<\/p>\n Turning that into a controlled victory, Verstappen said that in \u201ca lot of races\u201d, Red Bull had been \u201cshooting left and right a little bit with the setup of the car\u201d.<\/p>\n But, with Mekies \u201chaving an engineering background, he\u2019s asking the right questions to the engineers \u2013 common-sense questions \u2013 so I think that works really well.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Mekies, when he was informed of Verstappen\u2019s comments, he told PlanetF1.com\u2019s Thomas Maher and other media outlets that: \u201cThe answer is a very easy one. The level of contribution is zero,\u201d from himself after Red Bull secured their first win since Imola.<\/p>\n Speaking on Sky\u2019s \u2018The F1 Show\u2019 podcast, Croft hinted otherwise. He stated that with Mekies having taken over as Red Bull team boss, following the axing of Christian Horner post-Silverstone, Red Bull now has a team principal who \u201cprobably better understands the engineering demands of what his drivers are telling him than Christian Horner did.\u201d<\/p>\n Expanding further on his stance, Croft said that Mekies \u201cwent into bat with the engineers\u201d and made the call that Verstappen\u2019s guidance should be followed, the fallout from that very positive for the \u201cfuture\u201d of Red Bull.<\/p>\n To Croft\u2019s viewpoint, Rosberg responded: \u201cI mean, careful, because Monza is such an outlier in terms of car wing setup, car setup, so we can\u2019t read too much into the performance of that now, for going forward, for these other tracks.<\/p>\n \u201cBut nevertheless, yeah, I also heard that Laurent, being an engineer, actually had an impact now on this decision that Max was able to make.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause he, as the most senior person in the room with engineering competence, was seeing this dynamic of the engineers seeing their simulation number, and Max wanting to go a different route, and in the end, called the shot and said, \u2018Let\u2019s go with Max\u2019s feeling out there,\u2019 and gave him the freedom to go down his route, which proved to be right.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it was an example of where Laurent had a first really big impact on actual performance and winning a race together as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n It must be stressed that Red Bull did not trigger wholesale changes to its engineering team amidst the Horner to Mekies transition. The same crew which worked under Horner remain with Mekies in charge.<\/p>\n Podcast host Simon Lazenby asked Rosberg and Croft whether they were both saying such a scenario would not have happened at Red Bull under Horner.<\/p>\n Croft replied: \u201cI\u2019m not saying it didn\u2019t happen, but I think Laurent has got the expertise, the background and the knowledge to have that conversation with the engineers, and the engineers then respect Laurent\u2019s views.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause, Christian, for all his strengths, isn\u2019t an engineer. And I think sometimes, you need someone, when you\u2019re having that engineering conversation, your senior person, if they understand all the engineering principles, is going to be able to call the shot in Max\u2019s favour this time, and not say, \u2018Well, actually, Max, the engineers probably know a bit better. Let\u2019s go with them.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not saying that happened before, but it definitely didn\u2019t happen this time around.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosberg said: \u201cNo criticism of course, to Christian, who\u2019s been an awesome leader and one of the greatest we\u2019ve seen in our sport.<\/p>\n \u201cJust that, in this particular case, Laurent\u2019s experience worked to his favour as a leader, in this example.\u201d<\/p>\n More Italian Grand Prix reaction from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Did Lando Norris really deserve to be booed at the Italian Grand Prix?<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 Ranked: Five of the most infamous team orders calls in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n Continuing, Rosberg quipped: \u201cI also like to hear how Crofty, who lives right on Cranfield airport, has learned to identify the loud noise from Max Verstappen\u2019s aeroplane.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Crofty has confirmed that Max Verstappen is very often in at the Red Bull headquarters, and very often, therefore, also in the simulator.<\/p>\n \u201cSo also a bit of a learning for me today, that he\u2019s really someone who has a good work ethic and still is keeping on pushing hard together with the team to keep winning, which was great to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n Verstappen is 94 points behind Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/a> leader Oscar Piastri with eight rounds to go.<\/p>\n