Following a victory in Monza, a pole position in Baku on Saturday, and a generally positive feeling about the car and the atmosphere at Red Bull Racing, the rest of the season looks promising. The smiles are back at Red Bull, although Max Verstappen is not counting his chickens just yet. “But I’m feeling good,” he shares in Baku.
How quickly things can change: since the summer break, things have been going much better for Verstappen and Red Bull – the smiles are back. This is also evident in the paddock, the atmosphere at Red Bull Racing is good. The Dutchman nods. “We’ve had many great moments together. And when you go through a difficult period, it’s not pleasant. But it’s even more beautiful when you get through those bad moments with everyone. It gives confidence, it’s important that people see light at the end of the tunnel. And that what they’re working on is okay.”
How did Verstappen, as a ‘motivator’, play a role in the (temporary) revival? “Well, mainly by driving laps,” he says with a grin. “But apart from that: we’ve had a lot of discussions, debates about how we can adjust things, how we can test things. And we’ve all handled that well together.””This aligns with the sentiment Max Verstappen has been expressing all weekend in Azerbaijan. On Friday, after the first training sessions, he was already quite positive about the RB21. He notes that he and the team don’t need to make any radical adjustments to the setup. “And then you can fine-tune things more throughout a weekend. This way, you also go into the qualification with a much better reference.”
However, the success in Monza, the pole in Baku, and the good feeling still do not guarantee that Red Bull can fight for the win in every race. Verstappen: “Because here, just like in Monza, you are still driving with relatively little downforce. So we really have to wait and see how it goes when you are driving in Singapore, for example, with a lot of downforce, or on other circuits where that is the case.”
