SÃO PAULO — After delivering yet another legendary Interlagos drive, one labelled “sensational” by Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies, Max Verstappen was quick to praise his team for orchestrating a radical turnaround from Saturday and Sunday.
Verstappen qualified a surprising 16th and started Sunday’s race from the pit-lane after Red Bull used the opportunity to make a radical change to his set-up, which included moving back to the floor he had on his car at Austin’s U.S. Grand Prix, and fit a brand new engine. The result was spectacular, with the four-time world champion overcoming an early puncture, pitting four times and cutting through the field to finish third.
Having briefly led at one point as the pit stops played out, he passed Mercedes driver George Russell for a spot on the podium late on and only just failed to catch Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli for second in a drag race to the line.
“Coming from the pit-lane to the podium, 10, 11 seconds off the lead — I think for us it’s a very strong result and definitely didn’t expect that waking up this morning,” Verstappen said after the race.
“Incredible result for us. Very happy with that and just very proud of everyone within the team as well. I mean, yesterday was very tough for us, but, you know, we never give up. We always try to improve and try to find more lap time. And luckily, we found that again today.”
While Red Bull made big changes to the car, it was clear who the team saw as the key factor in delivering the major turnaround.
“I think at first credit to Max for the sensational drive,” Mekies said on Sunday evening on what had sparked the turnaround, which came 12 months after Verstappen delivered what might have been the standout performance of his career in the soaking rain at Interlagos last year.
“He won last year here from P17 on the wet. And I think we would probably agree that it was as sensational as last year to bring it to P3 from the pit lane on a dry, relatively uneventful race.”
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Verstappen was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday afternoon, the first time he had failed to progress through the first qualifying session on merit in his whole F1 career, which started in 2015. With teammate Yuki Tsunoda also failing to progress it was Red Bull’s first double Q1 elimination since its second F1 season in 2006.
Mekies, who replaced long-time Red Bull boss Christian Horner in July, said the team had to take a risky approach to get out of the hole it found itself in on Saturday.
“The simple truth is that we were not happy with where the car was in terms of car balance and driver’s feeling after the sprint race,” Mekies said. “We had finished P4, but it was effectively a P5 without Oscar’s [crash]. And nobody wanted to settle for a car that would have been at that level.
“We felt the optimum windows were not where we were. We tried our only car at that moment to change it before the main qualifying. We obviously got it wrong. But it’s the way we go racing.
“We take risks and if we don’t take that amount of risks we don’t think we’ll be able to win. So we took that risk. It didn’t work. It’s painful. We got the quali wrong. And that’s what it is.”
Mekies said the aggressive approach will continue at Red Bull, even if it left them in a tricky position mid-way through the Brazil weekend.
“We have taken a lot of these risks in the past few months,” he continued. “I insist it is the way this team goes racing. That’s the spirit in our racing.
“The car was alive today. That’s the most important thing. The car was probably good enough to fight for the win today … And that’s what we’re after after the relatively average result of the sprint. You do gain a lot. You learn a lot more in the dark moment of the qualifying last night, [more] than in any other moment.”
