Just days after Red Bull resigned itself to being second-best to McLaren in 2025, Max Verstappen silenced every critic with a crushing 20-second victory at Monza.
“Wasn’t it 19?” runner-up Lando Norris smirked. “I just don’t want any misinformation.”
The scale of Verstappen’s dominance stunned the paddock. “Today, one driver made everyone look ridiculous,” admitted Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Norris, however, wasn’t about to toast Verstappen’s feat from pole, having branded him “an idiot” for his aggressive first-corner tactics. The tension carried into the post-race cool-down room, and when pressed later if Max had raced fairly, Norris shrugged: “It’s not my decision in the end. Got nothing to say. It was good.”
Verstappen refused to bite. “Not at all,” he told Viaplay. “There’s no point to it. None of that matters anymore.”
Instead, the spotlight was firmly on Red Bull’s revival under its new leadership. “At one point, it felt like McLaren would have a big advantage on every circuit. It’s fantastic to get this win now,” said new team boss Laurent Mekies.
Helmut Marko pointed straight at Mekies as the man steering Red Bull’s rebirth in the post-Christian Horner era. “He steered the team in the right direction,” the 82-year-old said. “The engineers kept pushing the car to its limits. They did a great job. The atmosphere at Red Bull is back. We’re really happy.”
Marko even revealed that McLaren boss Andrea Stella came over to congratulate him. “And rightly so,” he smiled. “We’re rivals, but not enemies. This is the right atmosphere between the teams now.”
The Austrian was clear that Mekies’ culture shift has been key. “Two races ago in Hungary we looked really bad. Now we saw total dominance. Last year Monza was one of our worst weekends. Now we’re very optimistic. Laurent has brought a new approach—how we go about racing. That’s clearly paying off.”
It’s not just a philosophy shift either. Marko told De Telegraaf: “We’re using our full potential now. In the past we never ran at full engine power on Friday. Now we were much more at the limit. That’s partly Laurent, and also a new floor on Max’s car which worked well. We also listen more carefully to our driver. Max has over 200 races – a wealth of experience – and we rely on that as much as data.”
Verstappen echoed that sentiment. “With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions. I definitely felt already in Zandvoort we took a step, and here another that felt better.”
When asked directly by Bild if Red Bull’s resurgence was tied to Horner’s departure, Marko didn’t hesitate: “Absolutely. We’re laughing again! The old Red Bull spirit is back.”
The title fight is still out of reach — Verstappen trails Oscar Piastri by 94 points — but the mood in the Red Bull camp has flipped. “I think we can win a few more races,” Marko said. “We’ve put the championship aside, but the Red Bull feeling and spirit are back. We’re back on the right track.”
