How Max Verstappen turned Monza nightmare into unlikely Red Bull podium

Already on Thursday, Verstappen wasn’t optimistic about his chances. According to him, Monza would be a difficult circuit for Red Bull due to energy management.

“I think it’s really going to be painful. I’m not expecting miracles,” he said ahead of the weekend.

The gap to the competition was already there, and the four-time champion expected Monza’s high-speed characteristics to further expose Red Bull’s weaknesses.

Further complicating matters, he had to give up FP1 to Ayumu Iwasa on Friday, meaning his own weekend effectively started in FP2, and it quickly became clear there that the RB22 was not in the desired operating window.

Verstappen complained about the brakes, the lack of rear grip, and the bouncing of the car. Red Bull changed, among other things, the front wing during the session, but he only managed ninth-fastest. Technical director Pierre Wache admitted afterwards that the team again ran into balance issues that had also been visible at Zandvoort.

Verstappen himself was no more satisfied after FP2: “Today it was difficult to get the balance of the car right, and we need to work on that for tomorrow to find some more lap time. The gap to the front-runners is still big, but hopefully we can reduce it a bit in qualifying over one lap."

A day later, the situation already looked different. In FP3, Verstappen set the third-fastest time and said the Red Bull felt much better. In qualifying, however, Verstappen could not maintain that progress. The car started bouncing again, and he suspected there was also an issue with his car that cost him time, especially in the slow corners. He qualified sixth, but moved up one place due to Oscar Piastri’s grid penalty.

The disappointment was palpable after qualifying. Verstappen sat down in Red Bull’s hospitality with a select group of media, including GPblog, and repeatedly returned to the issue with the rear of his RB22.

He did not express much confidence ahead of the race, instead looking forward to the rest of the season and 2027. In response to a question from this site, he explained that more updates are coming this season, though he also made it clear that it’s now time to shift the focus to 2027.

From fifth on the grid, Verstappen's weekend changed completely on Sunday. The Dutchman mixed it up at the front from the start, moved forward quickly, and after the restart even led the race for a period.

The main reason he couldn’t hold that position was a weakness in the car that was particularly punishing at Monza. Red Bull lacked electrical power on the straights, and as a result, Verstappen could barely keep the Mercedes-powered cars behind him.

That’s why he chose the outside line several times when braking for the second chicane. There, Verstappen had to compensate for the lack of straight-line speed. As expected beforehand, Mercedes were too fast on the straights. A virtual safety car later gave Verstappen the chance to pit for fresh tyres, after which he had to work his way past the McLarens again to secure third place.

Then it quickly became apparent that Friday's struggles were long gone. Not because Red Bull’s problems had suddenly disappeared, but because Verstappen and his team had managed to extract much more from the package over the weekend.

“I had my issues yesterday, and of course they were still there today," he said. "But during the race it was also quite clear that, in terms of deployment, we just can’t keep up with the Mercedes-powered cars, and that’s very tough at a circuit like Monza."

The development since Friday left him satisfied: “For us, the podium, after a very difficult weekend in Zandvoort where the car wasn’t really to my liking, was a good result.

Third place wasn't proof that Red Bull have solved all of their problems at Monza. On Friday, Verstappen still had a car with which he ended up ninth and had little confidence in the balance; he saw the improved feeling partially disappear in qualifying on Saturday, and on Sunday could not match Mercedes on pure pace.

Yet he left Monza with a podium. As is so often the case, it again showed how much Verstappen and Red Bull are able to extract from the RB22 during a difficult weekend.