{"id":122548,"date":"2025-09-08T09:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122548\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T09:09:10","slug":"the-new-red-bull-philosophy-behind-verstappens-surprise-f1-italian-gp-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/122548\/","title":{"rendered":"The new Red Bull philosophy behind Verstappen’s surprise F1 Italian GP win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Italian Grand Prix resulted in a dominant victory for Max Verstappen<\/a>, at the track where Red Bull struggled massively last year and where Verstappen described the car as \u201ca monster.\u201d Twelve months on reality looked very different, helped by a specific low-downforce rear wing, a fresh Honda power unit and above all a slightly different approach to the race weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car worked perfectly this time, the strategy was good, so everything was fine,\u201d Helmut Marko said in the Monza paddock post-race. \u201cAnd Max was sovereign, besides that first corner. To win with 20 seconds’ margin on McLaren<\/a>, that’s a real achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s motorsport advisor was the first one to predict that a victory was on the cards for Red Bull in Italy. The gathered media looked at the Austrian in shock after he made that bold prediction on Friday, but post-race Marko smiled: \u201cYou\u2019re always shocked when I say something!\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull no longer \u201cblindly\u201d following the simulator<\/p>\n

On a more serious note, Marko explained that the team\u2019s approach heading into race weekends has changed after the summer break: \u201cThe difference is that the preparation of a weekend is a different one now.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaurent 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 drivable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the product of that. Basically, it’s the same product as we had before, just some upgrades were coming and they are working. But 20 seconds on McLaren, I wouldn’t have predicted that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

When Marko speaks of a new philosophy, it relates back to Zandvoort. \u201cI’ve already said in Budapest that we knew what we did wrong, unfortunately we couldn’t change it any more. But in Zandvoort it was shown that the direction we are going into is the right one. Zandvoort was never our circuit, and we were lucky with second place there, but third was a secured spot for us, and we developed from there. Last year we were 40 seconds behind the winner in Monza and back then we had a monster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Verstappen played a key role in finding \u2013 and sticking with \u2013 the right set-up, although Marko adds that the arrival of Laurent Mekies has made a difference as well. \u201cThe engineers are listening more to the drivers now. If you have such a fast and experienced driver, I think that’s the right way to do it. He has to drive the car anyway. And in the end it was important that our top speed improved,\u201d said Marko, noting that Verstappen himself chose to stick with the low-downforce configuration going into qualifying, despite some other opinions within the team. \u201cWe saw that we could drive away from the McLarens. The driver’s input was recognised.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that sense, Marko sees great value in Mekies, with whom Verstappen can talk on a more technical level: \u201cThe whole technical team is more open now and they discuss things. They are not blindly taking what the simulation says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen is just as positive about Red Bull\u2019s new approach to race weekends, and building his relationship with Mekies.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp 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. Quite extreme changes, which shows that we were not in control,\u201d Verstappen explained. \u201cWe were not fully understanding what to do. With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions to the engineers \u2013 common-sense questions \u2013 so I think that works really well.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlus, you try to learn from the things that you have tried. At one point some things give you a bit of a direction, and that’s what we kept working on. I definitely felt that in Zandvoort we already took a step that seemed to work quite well, and another step here, which again felt a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Sutton \/ Formula 1 via Getty Images<\/p>\n

While Verstappen and Marko are full of praise for Mekies\u2019 contribution, the Frenchman himself remained modest in his post-race media debrief: \u201cThe level of my contribution is zero, and I’m not joking either.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s 1,500 people working on making that car faster, so these are the talents that make the car faster, that make the hundredths and the thousandths [of lap time gains] and that make the set of options with the new components available. So the short answer is that my contribution is zero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pushed once more on the topic, Mekies emphasised that he feels all people in the factory and Verstappen deserve more praise instead of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur only role is to make sure that the talents that we have are put in the right conditions to express their talent at best,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s the only thing we are doing, so that’s the extent of the contribution. That’s it, nothing more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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