Marko: The engineers started paying more attention to Max.

      Since 2016 eight Formula 1 races have been held in Baku, in which Red Bull Racing drivers have claimed four victories: two by Sergio Pérez and one each by Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.

      In Monza the four-time world champion took the 66th win of his career — in part thanks to the team’s continued upgrades to the car, with a new floor fitted to the RB21 in Italy.

      According to Helmut Marko, it performed very well, although the clear advantage over rivals from McLaren was primarily explained by the fact that the team made an effort to fully take Max’s preferences into account.

      “Our engineers have started to listen to him more,” emphasized Red Bull’s motorsport adviser. “I think it’s the right approach when you have such a fast and experienced driver in your team, because he is the one who pilots the car. It’s important that we managed to increase the top speed of the RB21, which allowed us to pull away from McLaren. But there were also a number of other changes that were achieved precisely by taking Max’s wishes into account.

      The whole engineering crew is now more open to discussing various issues with the driver, and decisions are not made blindly based only on simulator calculations. They are more based on data obtained on track, as well as on Max’s experience. This has allowed the engineers to improve the car’s handling characteristics and make its behavior more predictable.”

      Last year the Italian Grand Prix went poorly for the team, in part because they didn’t even bring a special version of the aerodynamic package to Monza, and without it they couldn’t achieve the required efficiency. But this time the Red Bull Racing cars featured wings designed for low downforce as well as the upgraded floor.

      Moreover, during Saturday practice an even more “truncated” version of the front wing was fitted to Verstappen’s car, but it was set at a more aggressive angle of attack. As a result the car became faster on the straights and entered corners more readily.

      Between third practice and qualifying the team worked further on the setup to deal with manifestations of instability in high-speed corners, and Max took care of the rest.

      And although the Baku City Circuit requires a somewhat different approach — since there you need to find the right compromise between maximum straight-line speed and an optimal level of downforce in the middle sector of the lap, which is more reminiscent of Monaco — the approaches the team and Max successfully tried in Monza could quite possibly work on the street circuit in the capital of Azerbaijan as well.