Max Verstappen strategy request approved after ‘unusual’ Baku choice

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies said it was Max Verstappen who pushed to start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on hard tyres, even though Verstappen did admit that was an “unusual” move from pole position.

However, it was a risk which paid off handsomely, as Verstappen recorded an impressive victory, leading from lights to flag. That makes it back-to-back wins for the reigning four-time World Champion, who has given himself an outside shot of making it five in a row.

Max Verstappen executed hard tyre gamble and won

Six red flags later – a new F1 qualifying record – Verstappen emerged as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix polesitter. The common strategy for those starting towards the front was to do so with medium tyres. But, Verstappen lined-up on the grid with hard tyres on his RB21.

Verstappen kept his lead at the start and increasingly pulled away, pitting in the later stages for mediums from the lead, and comfortably coming out still P1. He turned that into victory by a margin of 14.609 seconds from George Russell.

Speaking after the race, Mekies said Verstappen had pushed for that strategy with a “very clear idea” of how he believed the race would be contested. His decision paid off.

“We looked at yesterday’s qualifying with the red flags,” Mekies began.

“Obviously here, there is a long history of many, many Safety Cars, and 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, up until the Safety Car comes.

“Because otherwise, somebody’s going to have a cheap pit-stop and it’s not going to be you.

“And in some respect, Monza was a bit like that as well, where we want to try to extend it at some stage in Monza, if you recall, we had to pit because the tyres were were pretty much gone, and we had been exposed for a few laps to a Safety Car.

“So Max has pushed a lot for that. It 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 a Safety Car happens in Lap 10, you will not find it funny, if you’re stuck on a hard. But, he had a very, very clear in his mind that he wanted to exploit the pace of the car and disappear with the hard, and he has done exactly that.”

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Verstappen admitted that it was an “unusual” strategy request to start from pole on the hardest compound, but it proved the “right call” ultimately.

Asked in the post-race press conference how risky it was to start on hards, when this was the first time in the race weekend he had used that compound, Verstappen replied: “Well, not so much from knowing how good it would be. It’s more like the start or an untimely Safety Car.

“So as soon as we crossed, like, 20 laps into the race, I was a bit happier, but it was a bit of a risk.

“I think it’s a bit unusual, of course, when you’re on pole, to start on the hardest compound that is available. But we did it, and I think it was the right call.

“We said before the race, well, one way or another one strategy will work, and we’ll come out of the race happy with it. Luckily, we chose the right one.”

Verstappen has reduced his deficit to Championship leader Oscar Piastri to 69 points with seven rounds to go.

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