Red Bull’s Monza roar: revival or just a perfect Sunday?
Max Verstappen’s Italian Grand Prix was the sort of Max Verstappen win we haven’t seen much of this year: clinical, fast, and mercilessly simple. He beat Lando Norris by 19 seconds at Monza, a margin that felt like a throwback to 2023 rather than a snapshot of this twitchy, thin‑window 2025 season.
It was also Red Bull’s first Grand Prix victory since Imola and the first under Laurent Mekies’ watch, which explains the grin on Helmut Marko’s face. He called it a “rebirth.” That word will sing in the corridors at Milton Keynes after a summer that’s been more about firefighting than front-running.
But was it a turning point? Or a tailor-made outlier on a circuit that flatters what the RB21 already does well?
There’s no mystery about Monza’s demands, and Red Bull leaned into them. A revised floor went onto Verstappen’s car, and the team chased top speed with a lower-downforce rear wing than some on the engineering side preferred. Technical director Pierre Waché admitted he’d initially wanted to go a touch higher on downforce. Verstappen didn’t, and he won that internal debate. On Sunday, he won the only one that mattered.
That, more than the upgrade list, felt instructive. Throughout much of this season, Verstappen’s described feeling like a passenger as Red Bull threw wide setup swings at a car whose sweet spot kept moving. Monza was different. He sounded in control again, talking about small, logical steps taken since Zandvoort, about common-sense questions coming from Mekies, and about blending simulation with lived experience instead of treating the computer as doctrine.
This is where the new regime is quietly changing the soundtrack. Mekies is an engineer at heart, and while he’s not interested in taking bows — he called his own contribution “zero,” pointing at the 1500 people who make the lap time — the approach has a different flavor. The preparation is sharper, the weekend decisions less rigid, and the driver’s fingerprints are all over the setup. As Marko put it: the engineers are listening more to the driver. It showed.
Strip away the “rebirth” headline, though, and the reality remains: Red Bull has been in the fight all year, just not often on its terms. The RB21 has a known sweet spot at low to medium downforce. It’s why the team has had bright spikes — think Suzuka, think Imola — even as McLaren’s MCL39 has looked the more consistently rounded piece. Monza fits Red Bull’s window. McLaren, on this occasion, didn’t have an answer over one lap or a stint. That doesn’t necessarily make the balance of power different on, say, Singapore streets.
And it’s worth remembering how slowly real change trickles through in Formula 1. Two months on from Christian Horner’s removal, Red Bull is naturally keen to underline that it can win without him. Sunday helped that narrative. But most of what produced the RB21 — the concept, the development plan, the tools the team is using — was already in motion. Mekies inherits the machine; he’s adjusting how it’s driven.
If you’re looking for proof of something deeper, the next few tracks are where you’ll find it. Verstappen himself tempered the noise in parc fermé: still track-dependent, still not a car that will fight for victory everywhere. He’s right. The sport’s approaching the end of a regulation cycle; sinking huge resources into late-season gains is a luxury few can justify with 2026 looming. That’s why Monza felt perfectly timed: maximum reward, minimal deviation.
None of which diminishes the significance. In a season where Red Bull’s highs have been hard-won, this was emphatic. The execution from the pit wall was tidy, the top speed advantage obvious, the tire life kind. Most importantly, Verstappen looked at one with the car in a way we’ve only seen in flashes this year. That’s the piece Red Bull needs to bottle.
So, revival or outlier? Call it an encouraging correction. The team’s calmer, the politics have cooled, and the driver’s voice is carrying a little further in the room. That alone can tilt a tight weekend. To label it a renaissance, we’ll need to see the same certainty somewhere that doesn’t flatter the RB21 on paper. A place like Singapore would move the needle; stringing two or three of these together would make those “rebirth” quotes look less like adrenaline and more like analysis.
For now, Monza was Red Bull back in its favorite pose: front, alone, unbothered. It’s been a while. And it felt, unmistakably, like them.
