With the top-class overtaking maneuver against Oscar Piatri in Tamburello, Max Verstappen set an exclamation mark right from the start at the Grand Prix of the Emilia-Romagna 2025. But for Red Bull, Imola was more than just a driver’s performance. It is much more important to Helmut Marko and Christian Horner that Verstappen was then able to keep both McLaren with pure pace at a distance.
Helmut Marko is referring to: After a phase of uncertainty, the team apparently finally has a competitive car again. He feels reminded of Sebastian Vettel in earlier times and dares to explain McLaren in the Formula 1 title fight.
“It works and it is the first time that he had a car, more or less for a year that is in balance, is doing what he wants,” says Marko on ORF.
After the weak Friday, where Red Bull had lost around four tenths of a second on McLaren during training, the turn came in time: “We were just faster today. We were at least the same in tire wear.” He refers primarily to the phase after the Safety Car Restart: “18 seconds ahead, we were a bit queasy. But then it drove away by one second and more per round.”
The decisive factor: Verstappen had the fresher tires at the RE-Start. “We had a sentence new, hard. We briefly considered soft, but the risk would have been too great,” Marko explains the strategy. The soft tires had already collapsed in qualifying over a round, the risk would have been too great.
Update works: breakthrough when driving after one year
Christian Horner also emphasizes at “Sky” that after a long phase, Red Bull with an extremely tricky car to hit the window in Imola for the first time: “I think we brought the car to a good working window.”
“The parts we brought with us work. As soon as you have the balance, you can control the tire temperatures – and that was the key.” The team leader from the first stint is particularly impressed: “It was so long on the medium, and we even had better tire management than McLaren.”
It was different in the past, the McLaren MCL39 was considered more tire -gentle than the Red Bull RB21. After the extremely poor Friday, Red Bull made changes to the vehicle overnight on Saturday. Verstappen already said on Saturday that the car finally feels better again. The announcement followed in the race.
For Red Bull it was the trend -setting and relieving confirmation that the technology package, which has been hotly expected in the past few weeks, actually works. “We knew that what has come in technology had to sit,” says Marko. “And after a year, God finally brought the progress that we needed.”
In the World Cup, Verstappen reduced his gap to Oscar Piatri to 22 points by winning-i.e. in striking distance to a single Grand Prix victory. For Marko there was no reason to panic anyway: as he stated:
“I think we were in 2012 [mit Sebastian Vettel] After the summer break, over 40 points in the back. We also caught up with that. “The teaching from Imola:” We have to perform absolutely perfectly weekend after weekend. Otherwise we have no chance against these McLaren. “
McLaren recognizes Red Bull’s strength
At McLaren, the defeat can be recognized without excuses. “Max was fast, Red Bull was quick. I think we had nothing in our hands against her today,” says Lando Norris at “Sky”. “Even if we had stood on Pole, I think Max was just too fast for us.”
Team boss Zak Brown draws a similar conclusion at Viaplay: “We couldn’t beat them today, they were quick. But it is still a long season and that only shows that nothing has been decided here yet.”
McLaren will certainly not remain idle when it comes to updates. But the next step is Monaco. Here completely different qualities count than on other routes – and last but not least the driver.