2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Around the streets of Baku, in a remarkably uneventful race a day after one of the craziest qualifying sessions of all time, it was a Max Verstappen masterclass in a Red Bull which has been much improved of late.

He ran and hid from his pole position start, increasing his lead every lap despite just looking after his tyres for the first 20 laps and, having started on the seemingly indestructible hard tyre, was able to run until after everyone else had stopped. Just 11 laps from the end, he rejoined from his only stop without losing the lead. No undercut/overcut threats, no big leads lost to safety cars, just a perfect, totally dominant day at the office, with a fastest lap thrown in.

As Monza also showed, the Red Bull RB21 is very competitive at low-downforce tracks. It retains great aero-efficiency at low wing levels, with good downforce even at higher ride heights. It also received a useful floor upgrade at Monza, reckoned to be worth around 0.1sec but, more significantly, the trackside team has been operating with a slightly different philosophy since Laurent Mekies took over as team boss. One where they are less adamantly guided in set-up by simulation and more by Verstappen’s preferences.