Red Bull secured pole position in Q3 of the 16th round of the F1 season, largely thanks to Max Verstappen, an exceptional interpreter of these ground-effect cars. Beyond the extraordinary skills of the four-time world champion, the pole also owes much to borderline choices and additional refinements made to the RB21’s rear wing, which was “trimmed” to improve aerodynamic efficiency.
Red Bull’s aggressive choices: the only chance to challenge McLaren
It will only take a few laps in tomorrow’s race to see whether the choices made by the Austrian team’s engineers, in agreement with Verstappen, will prove a disadvantage over the race distance. The 2022 and 2023 Italian Grands Prix, where Ferrari claimed pole with ultra-low-downforce setups, revealed the weaknesses of cars optimized purely for qualifying.
However, both the Dutch ace and the team accepted the risk, similar to what happened at Silverstone. Now out of championship contention, the Hasselt-born champion is approaching this part of the season without overthinking. Even last week in the Netherlands, he opted for a very aggressive race strategy, starting the first stint on Soft tyres.
With no margin to manage, Verstappen is embracing riskier options that may offer a shot at victory. Aligning with the McLaren drivers’ choices would have been an early admission of defeat, given the MCL39’s clear technical advantage shown so far. Once again, we saw hands-on methods used to tweak the rear-end specifications.
The team brought a very low-downforce wing, tailored for Monza. Their goal was to find the optimal level of downforce based on simulations for the Italian track. Max Verstappen had already noticed too much understeer, while he never complained about excess rotation. This led the team, with Max’s agreement, to consider further unloading the rear.
Simply reducing the angle of incidence wasn’t enough, so with a simple “Dremel,” the engineers cut a piece off the trailing edge of the second flap. This artisanal modification, based on factory simulations, increased top speed, bringing it closer to Ferrari. The rear end became lighter, yet stability was maintained thanks to the floor working efficiently after small updates introduced this weekend.
Flawless weekend so far, but what about the race?
As Max himself admitted after the two Friday practice sessions, the first day of the weekend was one of the best of the season. For a long time, the Milton Keynes engineers focused on fine-tuning the RB21 rather than overhauling it completely. Verstappen is in a better position compared to 2025, despite last year being fully engaged in the title fight.
The race will also be crucial for validating the RB21 floor updates introduced at Monza. Max is hoping for a miracle, and there’s no hiding it. His visible joy after qualifying, far greater than usual in previous seasons, highlights how challenging it is to achieve such results with the current machinery.
Verstappen has, however, rationally analyzed what could happen over the 300-kilometer race distance. While he believes McLaren remains unbeatable due to their car’s superiority, Max is confident that his car was ready from the start and improved with each session. That’s exactly what the team wanted: a solid weekend following pre-event concerns.
The hope is that the RB21 has the potential to fight the two MCL39 cars. After all, this will be the theme for the upcoming Grands Prix: risking everything to compensate for a performance gap that cannot be closed with further upgrades to the Austrian car. With 2026 approaching, even in a season without objectives, Max’s desire to win never diminishes.
Leave a Reply