Max Verstappen says F1 Italian GP ended up being better than expected after getting right balance, as Laurent Mekies pats team for turnaround from last year.
After a low-key outing last year, Red Bull turned it around in F1 Italian GP at Monza after winning the race by just over 19s margin on McLaren. Verstappen looked good straightaway on Friday and it translated into pole on Saturday. He started strongly on Sunday and ended dominantly.
There was a small blip when he ran wide at Turn 1 and team asked him to give the lead to Lando Norris, but he made quick of re-passing the Brit and stretching his lead then after. The skinny rear wing helped Red Bull, as team boss Mekies praised the team for working on it since last year.
The balance was perfect for the liking of Verstappen and the set-up too. He had a bit of fun on the radio as well, whether it was the message referring to Team Redline and or paying attention to McLaren team orders. Mekies, meanwhile, had kind words for the Dutchman, while adding on the strategy.
Race, win –
Verstappen: “I would say probably a bit better than expected, but once I got back in the lead, I just tried to focus on my own pace and it kept on going, going well. I would say only the last maybe six to eight laps of that stint I started to struggle a little bit on the Medium. But up until that point, yeah, it was nice for once. The car was doing a little bit more what I liked. It just seems like this weekend has been another step forward with the behaviour of the car and that also then shows in the race, I think. So that was a big positive for us. Then, of course, we did a bit more of a normal strategy, you know, Medium–Hard.
“Of course, McLaren stayed out to try and gamble for the Safety Car, and I think that’s why the gap is a little bit bigger than it should have been. But still for us, an incredible weekend. That it’s just not… Well, before it felt like you were a passenger in the car. We had some races where it was just not balanced. And now, finally, there was more balance in the car and then the tyres also behave a little bit more normal.”
Mekies: “I think the starting point is last year’s result. It was a struggle last year in Monza. It is always a tricky balance because you do things only for Monza, you do wings only for Monza, you do set-up only for Monza. Last year was a very difficult point and the guys did an amazing job analyzing last year, coming here with very specific solution and it seems like they have overshot the target. Meaning the car was actually in a much better window compared to the other track. So, if you add to that Max did just a perfection, perfect weekend, such a strong weekend, it put us there. We were not anticipating to have a base advantage in the race, but it turned out to be the case. So, then after to your question, you know, tonight we will probably think that a lot of that is probably not Monza specific, but we find out in Baku how much of the learnings with the components we had this weekend and with the way we run the car this weekend can be transferred or not to other tracks.
“No, we didn’t expect that [large gap]. So it was good to be fundamentally less than a tenth ahead of McLaren in quality, that’s what yesterday’s picture was. And all our numbers were telling us that normally in the race they have a bigger advantage than what they have in qualifying, so we were expecting a defence race and trying to work out scenarios on how to defend against these guys. Ultimately, we had a pace advantage today. Certainly, Max has done an amazing job and it’s a good sign. Again, same as the very first question, after all the hard work put into the race pace, every weekend you get a difficult result on the race pace compared to your qualifying pace. It’s a lot of hard work from everyone in the factory and today it seemed like we had an advantage compared to them, which is great.”
Lap 1 and subsequent battle –
Verstappen: “Yeah, it was. There was a lot going on after the first lap, even into Turn 1. I think Oscar and Charles were fighting as well. I could see in my mirror. So it took two, three laps to settle in a bit, and then from there onwards it was fine. You don’t know. I mean, of course, you are pushing a bit to try and get ahead and then time will tell, right, in that stint if it was going to hang on or not. But after a few laps, it looked like it was going really well.”
Norris: “It was a little bumpy at one point, but it was what I expected. It was close and it was fun racing. Tough, again, as expected. Enjoyable – it’s what I probably enjoy more than anything, these kinds of battles. It was nice to go out on top for a couple of laps, but it didn’t last very long. Max’s pace was just far too good for us today, especially in that first stint, especially in the first three quarters of the first stint. Close, even when he got me into Turn 1, I think we were both pretty late on the brakes and we just about made the corner. It was close. I felt like there was probably a little bit of rubbing at some point. So, like, nerve-rackingly close and exciting for that reason. But I wish it could last a bit longer than it did. Just a tough race for us, not the pace we wanted.
“I think we were hoping to at least fight for a win. But Max’s race was a bit too easy today. So, yeah, work to do, clearly, on our side. It’s not my decision in the end. Got nothing to say. It was good. The main part I said was nerve-rackingly close was when he overtook me into Turn 1 on the outside, on lap two or three, whatever it was. That’s the one where it’s like, who wants to brake the latest? But I knew being on the inside that Max is in a much stronger position than I am. He can afford to be a lot more on the edge and aggressive than I can. I can’t afford to lose a front wing or have a little bit of damage, whatever it might be. I felt like I took the risks that needed to be taken and did my part, but just not quick enough.”
Mekies: “So I think it’s always a case-by-case basis and the guys on the pit wall did a very good job at making their own assumption of the situation. And it’s a difficult decision at that moment, as you can imagine, to ask your drivers to give the lead back, especially as at this very moment you have no idea if you are going to have a pace advantage or not. So it may as well be your win getting away from you. But nonetheless, it was felt that we should be giving the position back, not to risk a penalty. That’s what we have done. Max has been unbelievable in being able to attack back Lando and pass him. And as it turned out, it put our mind at ease after a few laps.”
Radio chatter –
Verstappen: “It was a bit more of a joke because our engineer in sim racing with Team Redline always says that, he’s just quite stressed sometimes. When I’m in the race, he’s always like, “Yeah, no risk, full push.” So that’s why I said it. It was all under control. The car felt nice. The tyres were fine. GP, of course, wants to also just make sure that I’m driving without any risk, and that’s what I did.”
Strategy, set-up –
Mekies: “So, I guess short answer is yes, we had a Monza specific rear wing. The decision was made a long time ago, I guess probably a year ago, so that was good. Obviously the wing is working well. On top of that, it is fair to say that on Saturday we have tried to step down with Max at the very end of FP3 and whilst it looked a lot more difficult to get the balance right with that lower level, Max has been very strong and good at pushing us to keep it on the car and to find other solutions to give him the balance back. And the guys have been doing an amazing job in managing that, so that’s why ultimately both cars were on a different level today. So we knew it was going to be a one-stop medium hard and yes, we chose to keep another set of hards. The hards seemed to be working very well this weekend for the few guys that tried it.
“We obviously didn’t try it before the race with Max, but we tried it with Yuki in FP3 and we saw a few other cars being very strong on hard, so we kept it as a safety car tire, just in case a safety car was coming at the moment where you would be tempted to put another set. So that’s the only reason why we kept another set. And to be honest, we were in a position to be able to keep the set because on Friday the pace was good and therefore on Saturday morning we took the decision to keep the second hard because we felt we could reach Q3 with one set in Q1 and one set in Q2. So again, it’s risk-taking, we could have looked a bit stupid, but we did go to Q3 with only spending these two sets, so we had two sets of softs in Q3 and we managed to pocket these two sets of hards. Ultimately, we didn’t use them, but that was the rationale behind it.”
Car working –
Mekies: “I think it’s fair to say that we feel as a team that the car is working better in the medium and low downforce track compared to the high or very high downforce track. That’s true. Whether it is a dedicated strategy, I think I would lie if I was telling you it’s a dedicated strategy. It’s what we find out against competition. We seem to be performing better in medium to low downforce track compared to high to very high.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-italian-grand-prix-verstappen-and-norris-fight-for-the-lead-on-the-race-start.1842611136784378480
Here’s Max Verstappen repassing Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-italian-grand-prix-verstappen-retakes-the-lead-from-norris-on-lap-4.1842611304602417913
Here’s win for Max Verstappen: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-italian-grand-prix-verstappen-crosses-the-line-to-take-his-third-victory-of-the-year.1842618270479632192
Here’s McLaren trio on team orders
Here’s how F1 Italian GP panned out