Red Bull sends a signal to Verstappen, though Horner sees it differently

“The world is back in its place,” said the Sky Sports interviewer as he looked at the big screen in the so-called little square: Max Verstappen in first place, followed by the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Not that McLaren has been a established name on the F1 podium for years, but Max Verstappen winning a Grand Prix is the most normal thing in the world. At least, until a year ago that is.

For the 65th time, Verstappen stood on the top step of the podium, -fourth in a row in warm Imola -, thanks to a victory that was as much desired as it was unexpected.

Verstappen was slowly reaching the point where he could hardly afford to lose points to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris; at least if he wanted to keep any hope of retaining the world title.

That the race in Imola would allow Verstappen to close the gap a bit and now 'only' stand 22 points behind Piastri, he had not expected last Friday. The updates introduced by the Austrian team didn't seem to work enough, and Helmut Marko immediately let it be known that it really was a hell of a job to catch up with McLaren.

But two days later, as the Sky interviewer rightly said, the world looks completely different and thereby familiar. Red Bull happy, team principal Christian Horner happy, Helmut Marko happy and obviously Max Verstappen happy.

Especially because it seems that the RB21 has certainly improved and thus Verstappen may indeed hope for title number five.

Having at least a view on a championship, that will make the difference for Verstappen between staying at Red Bull - his dearest wish - or leaving after all.

Therefore, the team had to improve on a technical level, Verstappen has been saying throughout the past year. But not as clearly as last Friday, when he admitted that leaving was an option if Red Bull could not take the needed steps.

The victory in Imola could perhaps be seen as a signal from Red Bull: ‘Max Verstappen, don't write us off’. In the press conference on the first floor of the Red Bull Energy Station, Christian Horner responded somewhat evasively to that proposition among others to GPblog: “Well I think Max has been very good. All year he's been working hard behind the scenes.”

“He's [Verstappen] made the most of it and delivered a fantastic result. So everybody's leaving Imola, certainly upbeat about the upcoming races,” said Horner.

But undoubtedly, Horner also knows that this victory after the updates in Imola comes more than handy for Red Bull in various respects.