Max Verstappen defied Red Bull chief with Italian Grand Prix decision and was immediately proved right

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Max Verstappen once again proved he’s on a different level to many of his Formula 1 rivals at the Italian Grand Prix.

Monza is notorious for teams bringing specific parts to the track, given how fast it is, but very few people considered Red Bull to be serious contenders to beat constructors’ championship leaders McLaren last weekend.

However, Max Verstappen looked competitive during practice, and Yuki Tsunoda wasn’t too far behind.

That was until qualifying, when Verstappen set the fastest lap in F1 history, and Tsunoda was seven-tenths further back.

Nico Rosberg divulged a theory about Tsunoda’s struggles, but his weekend went from bad to worse as he once again missed out on scoring points.

On the other side of the garage, Verstappen was trying to work out exactly what Red Bull could do to try and topple McLaren.

Journalist Ronald Vording believes that Verstappen defied Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache when asking for certain changes to his car, and was immediately proved right when he put his car on pole position and went on to win the fastest race in Formula 1 history.

READ MORE: Best moments of Max Verstappen’s F1 career including first pole, podium, win, title and more

Max Verstappen defied Pierre Wache with Italian Grand Prix setup choices at Red Bull

Speaking on Motorsport Netherlands’ YouTube channel after the race at Monza, Vording explained what was happening behind the scenes at Red Bull during the weekend.

He said: “They listened more to the driver.

“More specifically, prior to qualifying, and today it became clear that Pierre Wache himself also recognised that there were some people in the team, including Wache himself, who thought after the third free practice session that maybe they should add a little more wing.

“A bit more wing, a bit more downforce. And Max himself said: ‘No, we’re sticking with low downforce, with a little wing, because that’s going to work.’ Well, it certainly worked over one lap, but even more so and surprisingly well in the race, with Max simply pulling away.

“Well, that means that Max not only played an extremely important role on the track, but also behind the scenes in this victory.

“But that new approach, that new philosophy, also earned a lot of praise for Laurent Mekies, the new team boss.

“Marko said: “Yes, the dynamics in the team are very good now. Max and Mekies can talk to each other on a more technical level, which makes sense, because Mekies has that engineering background, of course.‘

“And Verstappen said the same thing when I asked him about it in the press conference afterwards. He said: ’Mekies asks the right questions, and that challenges the technical team.

‘Well, and because of that, they’re getting to the bottom of things that they may have overlooked in recent months.

“Max said that sometimes we were really shooting left, shooting right, and we didn’t really know where to look. Well, that was very different this weekend. So a lot of credit to Mekies as well.”

READ MORE: Max Verstappen now ‘doesn’t really trust’ one department at Red Bull who won’t take responsibility for 2025 issues

Pierre Wache’s pre-race comments are fascinating after Max Verstappen’s car changes

After Friday’s practice sessions, Wache took part in an official interview previewing the Italian Grand Prix.

Wache explained that Red Bull were trying to focus on the balance of the car, as well as the ‘rear wing level and overall tyre management.’

Red Bull were concerned with McLaren’s superior tyre management going into the race, but Verstappen’s first stint highlighted that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri no longer had an advantage in that area.

‘The main thing we will be working on overnight is the balance on the soft and long run optimisation,’ Wache explained, and his concerns about ‘graining’ were well-founded when looking at Verstappen’s tyres just before his pit stop.

However, the advice Verstappen gave the team paid off, and the feedback he’s able to give the likes of Wache is proving to be extremely effective.

Ralf Schumacher suggested Wache should have followed Christian Horner out of Red Bull, believing that many of the team’s problems were down to his development decisions.

New team principal Laurent Mekies sending Wache onto the podium with Verstappen is surely a sign that he’s backing the Frenchman to deliver ahead of the 2026 regulation changes.