(Motorsport-Total.com) – Red Bull surprisingly celebrated the first podium of the year in Montreal, although Saturday did not remotely suggest this. Max Verstappen only secured 6th place in qualifying and was particularly critical afterwards, especially towards the Dutch media in the paddock.
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One day later, the conclusion was significantly more positive than expected, even though Verstappen emphasized that the result in Canada did not fully reflect the true balance of power. “To be honest, I felt more comfortable in the car in Miami,” admitted Verstappen. “So I am a bit surprised that we are on the podium here. But you have to see it in context. George [Russell] retired, and McLaren completely messed up the strategy.”
Team principal Laurent Mekies still sees the result at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve as confirmation of the progress Red Bull had already made in Miami. “The big picture shows that we at least confirmed the step from Florida,” said the Frenchman. “I even believe we found a bit more because we were able to snatch some performance from the top teams.”
Verstappen wanted to prove Red Bull wrong
Mekies had already hinted that development during the season would not be linear – the same applies to race weekends. “We don’t have easy weekends anyway,” laughed the team principal.
The four-time world champion complained that Red Bull ignored his feedback regarding the preferred setup direction. He ultimately went along with the team’s path only to prove that the setup did not work. “I’ve pointed it out so many times, but sometimes you just have to let them feel for themselves that it doesn’t work,” Verstappen ranted.
Addressing these comments, Mekies clarified to Motorsport.com that experimenting with setups is firmly embedded in Red Bull’s DNA and the team has no intention of stopping.
Why Red Bull continues to take risks with the setup
“We take risks every time we feel the balance is off or the gap to the competition doesn’t suit us,” explained Mekies. “And when you take such risks, you have to explore new setup directions.”
This approach is especially important at the beginning of a new regulation cycle, as teams still need to understand their package. “We are still at the very start of the year and at the very start with this generation of cars. We will try things with our drivers to unlock more potential – even if it costs us a bit in the short term.”
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From this, the necessary conclusions are drawn: “You learn from it for qualifying and for the race. This weekend we learned an enormous amount. How far we were from the car’s ultimate potential? Actually, nobody knows.”
The collective decides on the setup at Red Bull
However, there are different ways to take risks. In the past, Red Bull tended to follow Verstappen’s preferred direction. Was it different this weekend?
“Absolutely not,” Mekies replied decisively. “Even if it may have felt different to him: The reality is that our drivers are fully involved in the decisions.”
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Nevertheless, there is always friction internally. “That doesn’t mean we don’t play our little games with the motto: ‘What do you think and what do I think?’ But at the end of the day, we agree on what we try on track. And then sometimes there is a little ‘I told you so’ moment afterwards.”
Stay aggressive, explore new paths
Exactly that was the case in Montreal after qualifying. But according to the team principal, this dynamic is essential to move forward. “We still learn together. Both sides are perfectly clear that you need this dynamic and sometimes also this ‘I told you so’ feeling to make progress.”
Finally, Mekies emphasized that taking risks inevitably means that sometimes things go wrong. “If you take risks, you will also suffer pain sometimes. But that’s exactly why we need this feeling from the drivers. They should push us and say: ‘Look, maybe we are only four or five tenths off the best cars, but it felt like it could be much better.’ For us, that is the pure invitation to remain aggressive and explore new paths.”
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