How did Red Bull Racing revived Max Verstappen's car in Brazil 2025 ?

Brazil 2025 Qualifying was absolute cinema in terms of the shocks that it gave to F1 fans, but the biggest of shock was when Max Verstappen was eliminated in Q1 and that too on pure pace.

(img - Max out of Q1)

Max was struggling to find his setup that entire weekend. The team brought a new floor that was very peaky in-terms of the performance, but it was so bad that even Max wasn't able to find his comfort. In practice sessions he was running too low and his car was hitting the track, making it difficult to control. 

Yuki was unable to drive it completely and he crashed after turn 4. To counter this Red Bull gave Yuki a much more raised height setup which was predictable in corners but was very slow.

(img - Yuki crashing in practice session)

On other side of the garage, Max was frustrated so much so that he was forced to use Yuki's slow setup in his qualifying. And what happens next you know it well. He was underconfident, sliding everywhere. The grip was so poor and as a result Max was out in Q1, for the first time in his career on pure pace.

So, what changed coming Race Day?

Well Red Bull just swapped out this peaky floor and fitted the one from Mexico. This floor was not that peaky and has much wider performance window. The ride height they kept for Max was now lower than of Yuki's setup but higher than of what he ran in practice sessions.

(img - Max's engineer telling him about P2 chance)

As a result of changing something in car during Parc Ferme, he was forced to start from Pitlane. What happened next you saw it yourself, from one overtake to another he was flying. He basically repeated his 2024 Brazil mighty chargeback here again. At one point, he was looking for P2 but credit to Kimi Antonelli, he held his position very well. And Max finished from Pitlane to P3, on the podium. Just Simply lovely...