The key factors in Verstappen and Red Bull’s turnaround

Twelve months ago, the world of Formula 1 still looked very different in many ways. Max Verstappen led the championship with a sizeable margin, trying to drag an inferior car across the line for his fourth world title. Oscar Piastri had only one Grand Prix victory to his name, while Helmut Marko had called the situation at Red Bull “alarming” for the first time a week prior to the Italian GP – following Lando Norris’s dominant win in Zandvoort.

The alarm bells truly began ringing at Monza, where Verstappen finished sixth after a weekend full of frustrations. “In 2023 we still had the most dominant car, but we have turned it into a monster,” Verstappen fumed at the time. He even added that winning the world championship wouldn’t be realistic with the problematic Red Bull car.

In reality, the Dutchman managed to get the job done, but the low point at Monza still served as an internal wake-up call for the team. Verstappen himself played a key role in several meetings in between the races in Monza and Singapore to dig deeper into the root causes, something former team boss Christian Horner described as crucially important. By Singapore, Verstappen said that the worst was behind them.

Those words proved true, although Red Bull was still far from where the team should be. In fact, the decline has continued in 2025. The gap to McLaren has only grown, and by the summer break Red Bull already had to admit that both world titles are completely out of reach this year. Certainly no reason for optimism, but the reality in Monza is at least far better than it was a year ago. How can that be explained, and what does it mean for races to come?

Simulator, set-up and engine modes

The nuanced answer is that, as always in F1, it’s a combination of factors. On Friday, Marko listed three of them behind the Red Bull garage: the lessons of 2024, this weekend’s floor upgrade, and a “different philosophy” to set up the car. When asked which one mattered most, Verstappen was clear: “I think it’s mainly related to set up. We’ve learned a lot more about how to set up this car.”

Those lessons don’t just trace back to Monza last year, but also to Verstappen’s home race this season. “I think we have learned a lot about the car in Zandvoort.” As one would expect, Verstappen didn’t go into details, but there are hints. Part of it lies in the team’s preparation of a race weekend. This year, the correlation of both the wind tunnel and simulator has not always been on point, and so Red Bull, as Marko admitted, now relies a bit less on those tools than before.

Moreover, he said on Friday that the team no longer plays around with engine modes as much during practice: “We just used our normal race mode.” When pointed out that Red Bull used to turn its engines down to sandbag rivals, Marko replied: “Yes, but we don’t do that anymore. We know that the engine can last, so we just follow our plan.”

Running conservative engine modes left the team struggling to gauge where it really stood against the rest – especially critical on a power track like Monza. It’s also worth noting that Verstappen has taken a fresh power unit this weekend. Add to it that last year’s struggles with the low-downforce package – a conscious decision under the budget cap – are less of a handicap this season.

Verstappen’s own set-up call: Sticking with less rear wing

On top of those structural factors, there were some key decisions during the Monza weekend as well. Verstappen explained during his Dutch media session that some team members wanted to take a different approach before qualifying. Verstappen, however, pushed through his own vision, and it paid off.

“When I walked back to my room, I could still see some faces and a few people doubting that set-up direction. But I just felt, ‘this is what we need to do,’ and luckily it worked out.”

Another example of the team trusting driver’s instinct a bit more: “In the end, I’m the one sitting in the car and feeling certain things.”

According to paddock sources several team members – including technical director Pierre Wache – believed it would be better to run slightly more wing and therefore slightly more downforce. It would improve the theoretical lap time for qualifying, but Verstappen opted for the current approach with a touch more top speed. The latter can be useful in the race for both attack and defence. “On Friday, we were mainly losing time in Sector 1, but we’ve fixed that. We focused on setting up the car for the race,” Marko explained. “We went for a balance with relatively low downforce since our top speed wasn’t outstanding, but still enough downforce to fight for pole-position. Max has executed that brilliantly.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images

The obvious question is what this choice means for tyre wear. Higher top speed may help Verstappen on Sunday, but looking after the Pirelli tyres is equally important, as he knows: “I think I have a little bit more top speed, but ultimately you need to go fast around the corners as well. They’re always very strong in that regard, and they manage the tyres better than anyone else. That’s still an important advantage they have, but I just hope that our car feels a bit better and that maybe I’ll have a chance to go with them.”

What does it mean for the races to come?

The final question is what all of this means for the upcoming Grands Prix. If Red Bull understands its car a little better, can that knowledge carry over to other tracks?

The answer is mixed. Verstappen stresses that Red Bull often performs better on low- and medium-downforce circuits, where mid-corner understeer is less of a handicap. At the same time, he knows that the RB21 still has, and will continue to have, structural weaknesses. “It depends a bit on the track. I know that street circuits with bumps and slow corners aren’t good for us. That will still be an issue. But if we can hold onto this approach a bit, then it will help us on Fridays.”

It certainly won’t result in Monza-style outliers every weekend – McLaren remains a class above the rest of the field – but Verstappen hopes the learning process will at least make for smoother weekends. If the FP1 baseline is good, then there’s no need to turn the car upside down from Friday to Saturday, allowing more steady progress. “In 2023 we needed much less to be fast, because we had a good margin. Maybe you didn’t even dare to take certain set-up directions, but now we have to, just to be competitive.”

A bigger operating window would help in that regard. Marko said on Friday that the team has now widened the window, though Verstappen remains more cautious. “Yes and no,” he replied when asked if the RB21’s operating window is bigger. “It’s still very sensitive, but I think we understand a bit better where we need to be with this car in terms of set up.”

In other words, it’s all about knowing how to find that set up window, no matter how small it may be. At Monza, Red Bull seems to have found it – at least for qualifying – but it offers no guarantees for what’s ahead. It’s a first step in the right direction of understanding the RB21, but one swallow does not make an (Italian) summer.