Max Verstappen took one of the most convincing victories of the 2025 season so far, winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This became the Dutchman’s 6th career grand slam after claiming Pole Position and the race win after leading every lap. Despite such a dominant result however, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies believes there is ‘no room to relax‘ for the team. He argues perhaps Red Bull weren’t as ahead of the pack on pace as the result displays.
Mekies explains daring Hard-Medium strategy with Verstappen
As seen similarly in Zandvoort, the strategy for Max Verstappen went against the grain to the rest of the pack. While most opted to start on the C5 Medium Compound tires, to progress onto the C4 Hard Compound tires, Verstappen opted for a reverse strategy. Start on the hards for a long run, and finish the race on the mediums.
This would mean Verstappen would suffer lower pace at the start of the race, with both McLaren’s, Norris and Piastri starting on the faster Mediums in 7th and 9th. The Baku race winner made this bold strategy call to exploit a potential safety car.
Baku City Circuit has been known as a prominent track for safety car incidents, fuelled by the record 6 red flags shown in Qualifying a day earlier. Red Bull Team Principle Laurent Mekies explained in the print media pen that starting on the hards would allow Verstappen to extend his stint until a safety car came.
”Max had a very clear idea that it will become a race where you just drive, waiting for the safety car, where you try to wait as long as you can until the safety car comes, because otherwise somebody is going to have a cheap pit stop and it’s not going to be you. In some respects, Monza was a bit like that as well, where we all tried to extend it.”
How the strategy worked, just not in the intended way.
Mekies detailed that waiting for a safety car stop ”doesn’t come for free at the race start, it doesn’t come for free because it’s exposing you on other parts of the race”, if it comes early. The only safety car of the race was at the start, after a shock Oscar Piastri crash on lap 1. This was a safety car too early to be optimised by any contenders, keeping Red Bull in the clear.
The reigning world champion was very clear to the Red Bull garage that he wanted to, through the Hard-Medium strategy, ”explode the pace of the car”. Mekies further commented that he ‘‘appeared with a heart and has done exactly that”.
Despite the absence of a safety car after the initial chaos, Verstappen was able to maintain control for a lights-flag victory, even without a free stop. This was due to the pace of the Red Bull that remained strong, a struggling Lando Norris in the midfield, and other wildcard contenders such as Liam Lawson, and 3rd place Carlos Sainz in the williams, who helped bunch up the pack for the Dutch driver.
Was McLaren’s true race pace hidden by dirty air?
In McLaren’s case, it was a weekend to forget. A career 2nd retirement from Oscar Piastri after meeting the wall, and a stunted race for Lando Norris, meant the Papaya team weren’t able to fight for victory in Baku.
When questioned in the print media pen about Red Bulls pace comparison to 2nd place George Russell, Mekies claimed it was ”a couple of tenths, nothing more than that”. The Brit was one of the only other drivers to opt for the Hard-Medium strategy like Verstappen.
The performance gap to McLaren however, remained unclear for Mekies. Lando Norris struggled for pace the whole race in the midst of the pack, after starting 7th. Mekies claimed this made Mclaren ”more difficult to read, because they were not finding any free air”. This prevented a real insight for the Austrian outfit into their performance gap to the reigning Constructors Champions.
”We have seen them extremely fast at some point on Friday morning, Friday afternoon, Saturday morning. So we probably never know what the real pace is like”.
Are Red Bull back on top form?
Its now two consecutive dominant victories for Red Bull. With the 2025 season approaching its endgame, these are results that will ease pressure in Milton Keynes, after their most difficult season since 2020.
However, even despite these positive results, Laurent Mekies remains firm that there is ”no room to relax”. This is because of McLarens difficulty in the midfield with Norris, and losing Piastri early on. For Red Bull, its still a long way to go before the end of the season. Even despite their recent triumphs, the pace of the McLarens still remain an obstacle that Mekies doesn’t want to underestimate.
Red Bull now stand 4th in the constructors standings, 14 points off of Ferrari. Meanwhile Max Verstappen remains 3rd in the drivers standings, 69 points shy of Piastri at the top.
All eyes now lie on the Singapore Grand Prix. Can Red Bull can continue in their stride? or will McLaren will take the bull back by the horns.
