The clip, absent from the live broadcast, catches the moment straight after the chequered flag at Monza on Sunday 6 September, with Mekies opening on the positives.
“The best news is a strong race pace. We know we have more we can extract, but it was a big step forward today,” Mekies said.
Verstappen’s reply cut in the other direction.
“You can see clearly our weaknesses here. Just sitting back on the straights and the ride.”
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That is the exchange that never went out live, first flagged in PlanetF1’s write-up of the post-race audio. It slots neatly next to a mid-race message that did make it onto the world feed, when Verstappen told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase he was “fighting with two hands behind my back against these guys” as the Mercedes pair reeled him in.
A turtle on the straights
Verstappen crossed the line third behind Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, the Mercedes drivers finishing 1-2 after Antonelli’s recovery from 19th on the grid. Verstappen had briefly led before the Silver Arrows’ straight-line advantage settled the order.
Asked afterwards how much he had enjoyed the fight, the Dutchman was blunt.
“To be honest, not a lot when people just drive by you like you’re a turtle,” he told reporters, as quoted by Crash.net.
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He returned to the same theme when explaining why defending had felt impossible: “As soon as I got in the lead, it was very hard to defend… even when we had the VSC, we boxed, you have better tyres, I’m overtaking cars, but as soon as they can hang in that overtake mode, it’s just too powerful for us to actually really defend that.”
Turnaround from Friday to Saturday
The podium was hard won. Only 48 hours earlier Verstappen had been complaining about balance and pace, and the Monza weekend followed a bruising round at Zandvoort where he qualified seventh and crashed out on the opening lap.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen credited the team with a genuine step forward while making clear the ceiling had not moved.
“We managed to have a strong turnaround from Friday to Saturday, and the car was definitely in a better window,” he said, in comments carried by RacingNews365.
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“We still have a few bits and areas that we know need to be better, plus the obvious deployment on the straights.”
Mekies used his official race-day debrief to frame the result the same way.
“Today was a well-deserved podium for Max and the whole Team,” Mekies said in Formula 1’s round-up of team quotes. “It was probably our best race pace in a few weeks and a step in the right direction.”
A warmer verdict for the cameras
Verstappen’s own on-record verdict for public consumption was warmer than the private exchange with Mekies.
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“For us it was really good to be back on the podium, it is always a special one here in Monza,” he said in the same team debrief, describing the day as “a great performance from us.”
Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on 21 September, another circuit where straight-line speed and low-drag efficiency will be tested. Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ standings on 127 points, 140 behind championship leader Antonelli, according to RacingNews365’s post-Monza table.
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