Max Verstappen reflects on dominant win in F1 Azerbaijan GP, as Laurent Mekies elaborates on the strategy they adopted in the victory.
Red Bull’s Verstappen made the most of it on Saturday in F1 Azerbaijan GP when others faltered to secure pole in front of Carlos Sainz and Liam Lawson. He was sublime and kept it clean, with the car working well around the Baku street circuit, following on from Monza.
In the end, he finished a good 14s ahead of George Russell and scored heavy against the two McLaren drivers. “I think overall, just a great weekend for us,” said Verstappen. “I think for sure, you know, starting up front was key, especially in the beginning, just managing your tyres to go long.
“But, yeah, overall, very happy with how the race was going. I mean, I could go very long in that first stint. The car was doing pretty much what I wanted it to do. Just how much you commit, right, to push around here, which is not always easy with the layout of the track, the wind as well. It was quite tough today with that.
“But, yeah, we just stayed out until basically everyone pitted. And then there were only a few laps left on the medium, clearing a few backmarkers, which took a bit of time. But after that, just bringing it home. And for us, that’s another just great result. A bit unusual. This season has been really swinging left and right, but at least now two weekends in a row, it’s been going really well. I guess together with Monza.
“Yep. Monza has never really been a particularly strong track for us, so to do that, that was already a big plus. And I guess all in all for me here in Baku, it’s been alright, but never amazing — apart from maybe ’21, ’22, I guess. But the rest has always been a bit difficult. So, yeah, to have a weekend like this, it was very important,” summed up Verstappen. He took a bold choice to start on the hard compound, a strategy which Verstappen pushed Red Bull into as team boss Mekies revealed.
Considering the cloudy conditions, it is not easy to start on the hardest compound available. But he looked at the long game of safety cars and wanting to go as long in the first stint in the hope of late safety car and red flag. It didn’t happen but he had enough legs to dominate. The hard tyre was the best tyre eventually.
“Well, not so much from knowing how good it would be,” said Verstappen. “It’s more like the start or an untimely Safety Car. So as soon as we crossed, like, 20 laps into the race, I was a bit happier, but it was a bit of a risk. I think it’s a bit unusual, of course, when you’re on pole, to start on the hardest compound that is available.
“But we did it, and I think it was the right call. We said before the race, well, one way or another one strategy will work, and we’ll come out of the race happy with it. Luckily, we chose the right one.” Team boss Mekies backed Verstappen and praised his strategy decision which was correct.
“We looked at yesterday’s qualifying with the six or seven red flags,” he said. “Obviously, here there is a long history of many, many safety cars. Max had a very clear idea that it will become a race where you just drive, waiting for the safety car, where you try to wait as long as you can until the safety car comes because otherwise somebody is going to have a cheap pit stop and it’s not going to be you.
“In some respect, Monza was a bit like that as well, where we all tried to extend. At some stage in Monza, if you recall, we had to pit because the tyres were pretty much gone and we have been exposed for a few laps to a safety car. Max pushed a lot for that. It doesn’t come for free. It doesn’t come for free at the race start. It doesn’t come for free because it’s exposing you on other parts of the race.
“If a safety car happens in lap 10, you will not find it funny if you have something on half. But he had it very, very clear in his mind that he wanted to explode the pace of the car and disappear with the hard and he has done exactly that,” summed up Mekies. The result didn’t help them have a read on either George Russell or even McLaren, if Red Bull has gained a lot on their rivals or not.
“George, I think it’s relatively possible to read,” continued Mekies. “I think probably a couple of tenths, nothing more than that. But in fairness, also in qualifying, maybe not in Q3, but in qualifying yesterday, they were no more than two tenths away. I think that’s what you found. You also did half-medium. I think in average, maybe a couple of tenths away.
“There is no room to relax there. And McLaren, much more difficult to read because they were not finding any free air. We have seen them extremely fast at some point on Friday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning. So we probably never know what the real pace is,” summed up Mekies.
Here’s Max Verstappen at the start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-verstappen-leads-on-the-race-start-as-piastri-drops-to-last.1843871645009390099
Here’s Max Verstappen after dominating Azerbaijan GP: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-azerbaijan-grand-prix-verstappen-crosses-the-line-to-take-the-victory-in-baku.1843879081520877440
Here’s Red Bull announcing Christian Horner’s departure
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out