{"id":95177,"date":"2025-10-22T22:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/95177\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:19:11","slug":"red-bull-might-have-copied-a-genius-ferrari-tactic-that-could-win-max-verstappen-the-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/95177\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull might have \u2018copied\u2019 a genius Ferrari tactic that could win Max Verstappen the championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has managed to bring himself back into title contention this season, and he might have Ferrari to thank for it.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Formula 1 drivers\u2019 championship<\/a> makes for interesting reading with only five races to go.<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri still leads the championship from his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, but Max Verstappen<\/a> is making rapid progress.<\/p>\n

Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull<\/a> suddenly seems to be on a par with McLaren\u2019s MCL39, despite the fact that Andrea Stella\u2019s team have already wrapped up the constructors\u2019 championship with six races to spare.<\/p>\n

Position Drivers’ Championship PointsPts 1 346 2 332 3 306 4 252 5 192 6 142 7 89 8 73 9 41 10 39 <\/p>\n

New team principal Laurent Mekies is refusing to take credit for Red Bull\u2019s achievements<\/a>, but it\u2019s clear there\u2019s been a shift in how the team operates since Christian Horner\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

Verstappen looks immediately more competitive at the start of race weekends, and even his struggling teammate, Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, has scored points at three of the last five events.<\/p>\n

It turns out Red Bull might have started taking inspiration from rivals Ferrari<\/a>, even if their 2025 campaign isn\u2019t going to plan.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies<\/a><\/p>\n

\"RedPhoto by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty ImagesRed Bull have \u2018copied\u2019 Ferrari\u2019s simulator-first approach to Formula 1 race weekends<\/p>\n

A report from the Italian outlet Gazzetta dello Sport<\/a> has shared more details about Red Bull\u2019s sudden uptick in form.<\/p>\n

They believe that Red Bull\u2019s recent updates<\/a> have played a part in their improvement, but the team\u2019s new approach to races has played a major role.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s believed that while one of Red Bull\u2019s major strengths this season has been their development from FP1 to qualifying, the team are now putting more weight behind what they find in the simulator before each race.<\/p>\n

Friday 24th October to Sunday 26th October
\n Friday 24th October 18:30 1st Practice Friday 24th October 22:00 2nd Practice Saturday 25th October 17:30 3rd Practice Saturday 25th October 21:00 1st Qualifying Saturday 25th October 21:25 2nd Qualifying Saturday 25th October 21:48 3rd Qualifying Sunday 26th October 20:00 Race <\/p>\n

These \u2018rumours\u2019 as Gazzetta suggests, believe that this tactic started at Ferrari when they delivered a new floor, but now Red Bull have \u2018copied\u2019 this approach at each race.<\/p>\n

It means Red Bull have a \u2018more defined set-up baseline\u2019 going into FP1 before then making specific changes based on Verstappen and Tsunoda\u2019s feedback.<\/p>\n

Mekies has been surprised by Verstappen\u2019s technical expertise<\/a>, which might explain their change in approach.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Red Bull have found a way to extract even more out of the fastest driver on the grid.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory<\/a><\/p>\n

Red Bull putting their full faith in Max Verstappen is the key to winning the drivers\u2019 championship<\/p>\n

There have already been examples since Mekies took over of Verstappen taking on more responsibility at Red Bull.<\/p>\n

Verstappen defied Pierre Wache\u2019s suggestions at the Italian Grand Prix<\/a> to make a setup change that ultimately won him the race.<\/p>\n

His decision-making and racing instincts are some of the best on the grid and match those of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso despite being more than 10 years younger than both F1 champions.<\/p>\n

Position Constructors’ Standings PointsPts 1 678 2 341 3 334 4 331 5 111 6 72 7 69 8 59 9 48 10 20 <\/p>\n

Mekies previously worked at Ferrari, and while it\u2019s not known whether the Scuderia took this approach while he was with the team, picking up how well it\u2019s working for Hamilton and Charles Leclerc is a genius move.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has topped several FP1 sessions this year<\/a>, highlighting how well Ferrari prepare for a race weekend compared to many of their rivals.<\/p>\n

The difference with Red Bull is that the RB21 is now fast enough to sustain that performance and take it into qualifying and the race itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen has managed to bring himself back into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3517,38758,3516,111,139,69,11107,213],"class_list":["post-95177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ferrari","tag-laurent-mekies","tag-max-verstappen","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}