Behind Verstappen’s Monza victory is a plan that began in 2024: Team boss Mekies explains why Red Bull got everything right this time
For many observers, Max Verstappen’s victory at the Formula 1 race in Monza in 2025 came out of nowhere, after McLaren had won five Grands Prix in a row and Verstappen had remained winless since May. But Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies disagrees: Verstappen’s Monza victory dates back to the 2024 Italian Grand Prix.
“We really had problems at Monza back then. That was the starting point, in a sense,” explains Mekies.
From the team’s perspective, the last real high-speed track on the Formula 1 calendar is “always a delicate balancing act because you do a lot of things just for Monza: special wings, special set-up—all that just for this track.”
Red Bull’s Monza updates
In 2024, Red Bull had updates for the front and rear wings that were developed specifically for Monza. However, it didn’t help: Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc won the race, while Verstappen only finished sixth.
This prompted Red Bull to “analyze in detail” the car’s high-speed weakness, according to Mekies. “That’s why we went to Monza this year with very specific solutions.”
On the one hand, the team once again equipped its car with a modified front wing, but on the other hand, it did without a special Monza rear wing. Instead, Red Bull used various underbody updates, which, however, were not specifically tailored to Monza.
Baku must confirm the upward trend
The result confirmed the measures: “The car was in a much better window than on other tracks,” says Mekies. “It seems that we even exceeded our goal at Monza. Max also delivered an extremely strong performance. All of this put us in a position to win.”
But how sustainable is this improvement in performance by Red Bull? “We’ll find out in Baku,” says team boss Mekies. “There we’ll see whether the components used in Monza and the setup can be transferred to another track.”
Initial conclusion: In Friday’s practice, Verstappen was already six-tenths of a second behind the leaders from Ferrari in sixth place.
