Max Verstappen has revealed that Red Bull gained a “very useful lesson” in how to extract the most from the RB21 at last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

And he has called for the team to keep bringing “performance” to the car to assist his battle against McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for the F1 2025 title.

Red Bull RB21 breakthrough? Max Verstappen reveals ‘very useful lesson’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Verstappen claimed his second victory of the season at Imola last weekend, dominating after an impressive pass around the outside of polesitter Piastri at the first corner.

It came after another impressive Red Bull turnaround following Friday practice, when Verstappen was classified no higher than fifth across FP1 and FP2.

Red Bull introduced a major upgrade package to the RB21 at Imola, with team principal Christian Horner declaring the Emilia Romagna GP the team’s best performance since Verstappen’s decisive victory in Brazil last year.

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Verstappen enters this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix in third place in the Drivers’ standings, trailing Norris by nine points with Piastri a further 13 points ahead.

In an exclusive interview with PlanetF1.com in pre-season, Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché revealed that the team have pursued a wider operating window with the RB21 in F1 2025, lowering the overall performance of the car initially to make it more driveable for Verstappen.

Asked why Red Bull have made a habit of producing underwhelming performances on Fridays in recent times, Verstappen admitted the trend is a mystery.

Yet he hinted that the team came away from Imola having learned a “very useful lesson” in how to access the RB21’s potential from the start of a race weekend.

He told media including PlanetF1.com during Thursday’s press conference in Monaco: “I wish I knew why the Fridays are not always great. But we don’t do it on purpose, I swear.

“It’s been a bit more difficult, I think, just to get the car in the right window, but I do think that we learned quite a bit, actually, in Imola of what we want from the car.

“I guess it’s not always easy to extract, for example, now on a street circuit compared to what we had in Imola, but I think it was a very useful lesson.

“And it definitely gave me also more confidence to push.

“And, of course, we do a lot of simulator work, we have the simulator drivers, we communicate what we want from the car, what we need from the car.

“Unfortunately, I think our car has been over the last one-and-a-half years, maybe two years, in quite a narrow window.

“As soon as you are a little bit left or right, it becomes quite a bit more difficult to drive and that probably then translates to a poor Friday.

“But luckily, I think the team is quite good at analysing a lot of things and then making the right calls for the next day.

“So most of the times we improve the situation and for sure at Imola it improved quite a lot.”

Verstappen’s victory on merit in Monaco came two weeks after McLaren secured a crushing one-two finish in Miami, with the third-placed Mercedes of George Russell a massive 37.644 seconds adrift of Piastri at the chequered flag.

Asked if Red Bull have improved sufficiently enough to make a win feasible in Monaco, Verstappen called for calm while pointing out that Red Bull’s best performances so far this season have come at circuits with more high-speed corners.

He said: “If you take the average of Miami and Imola, I don’t think we look that great, so we have to be calm.

“Imola was a very good weekend for us. I say ‘weekend’ because Friday was not good.

“We just have to keep understanding our car probably also a little bit better, what we want with the setup on it.

“I know that this is a very different track.

“If you look at the season so far, we’ve only really been properly competitive on track with high-speed corners.

“Now, Monaco, I don’t think is a high speed track, so I’m a little bit more reserved, I think, for this weekend naturally.

“Even if you have, let’s say, the best car to nail it in qualifying around here, it’s very tough, so we just have to see what happens tomorrow and work from there.

“I have no idea where we are in the order.

“Historically, we’ve not been particularly great on a street circuit, so hopefully we can change that a bit, but I don’t know.”

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Monaco was the scene of Red Bull’s first serious wobble in 2024, with Verstappen complaining of the car’s poor handling over bumps and kerbs en route to a distant sixth place, his worst result since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Verstappen revealed in pre-season that the RB21 still has retained the traits of its predecessor with “some problems” persisting on kerbs and bumps.

Asked if Red Bull have rectified the issue in time for this weekend’s race, he replied: “I don’t know really. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

“But it is a fact that that’s normally not our strong point, but we’ll see.

“I have no idea how it will respond.”

Verstappen went on to deny that consistency will be key to his hopes of landing a fifth consecutive World Championship in F1 2025, claiming more performance will give him the best chance of pipping Piastri and Norris to the title.

He added: “I think, of course, if you want to win a championship you have to be consistent anyway, but I think what we have to focus on is just performance.

“The more performance we have, the easier we make it for ourselves so that’s what we are trying to do.

“Trying to find more performance in our car by the tyre life, all these kind of things together, I think that’s our focus now for the rest of the year.

“But everyone is doing that. We want more.”

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