Max Verstappen controlled the Italian Grand Prix, to hand McLaren their most comprehensive defeat of the 2025 season thus far.
But at a track in which the world champion and his Red Bull team were only the fourth-quickest car in 2024, it came as a surprise to see the combination so dominant this year.
Verstappen took pole, with the quickest average lap in Formula 1 history, before then eclipsing the record for the quickest average race time in the sport’s history, having initially ceded the lead to Lando Norris.
But beating the two McLarens by over 19 seconds, the Papaya squad’s team principal Andrea Stella outlined the craziness of how a car’s performance can swing, according to track characteristics, something already evident in the tight midfield battle.
Stella told The Race: "Pretty much in every corner we are the fastest, but the corners are relatively short-duration.
“There are only six corners, and the car is not the fastest in the straights. So we gain a little bit in the corners, and we lose quite a bit of time down the straights."
With the Monza circuit championing straight-line speed, with around three quarters of the lap spent fully on the throttle, the performance of a car through the corners can commonly be secondary to how slippery a car is through flat-out sections.
Did driver skill overcome car performance?
But that only outlines one half of the situation. While McLaren struggled to replicate their standard-bearing form, it still took a team, car and driver in perfect harmony to eclipse them.
As evidenced at Silverstone, and previous races beforehand, Max Verstappen can better the Papaya cars in instances of low-downforce set-ups and short corners.
The Red Bull has struggled through longer corners, such is the instability and unpredictability of their RB21 machinery, but is at its zenith in low-drag conditions.
Monza’s turns are shorter, and combined with the rubbered-in surface, did not expose them to any heavy tyre degradation that has so often been a McLaren stronghold in 2025.
Hence, Verstappen was able to extend his first stint into the race’s final 15 laps, without relinquishing too much time to his pursuers.
But the car had genuine pace underneath it, particularly evident when Verstappen wasted little time in taking the lead from Lando Norris.
Whether that is just circuit specific, with higher downforce tracks poised to undo their strengths (like Singapore, next month) or if the newly-brought floor and front wing will have a lasting and more versatile impact, time will tell.