Max Verstappen Italian GP wish dismissed by Red Bull

Red Bull will not be delivering a special rear wing to the Italian Grand Prix this weekend, despite Max Verstappen signalling his desire to do so.

Verstappen endured a difficult weekend at Monza 12 months ago, ending qualifying in seventh place.

The Dutchman progressed to sixth on race day but was uncompetitive throughout the grand prix, crossing the line 37 seconds down on race winner Charles Leclerc.

Amid the challenging weekend, Verstappen called on Red Bull to design a special rear wing to aid the squad's straight-line speed around the iconic Monza circuit.

“It doesn’t help here that we don’t have a special Monza rear wing,” Verstappen said at the time.

“That’s not ideal, considering the top speed. We never had that in the past years either, but then the car was good enough to compensate for that.

“Now it’s something we might have to do next year. Now the team has made a different choice and they’d rather spend the money on something else.”

However, Red Bull has no plans to unveil a Monza-spec rear wing and will instead adapt their low downforce package to maximise straight line speed.

With a significant rule change for 2026 fast approaching and a tight budget cap to stick to, the team opted not to design such a unique component.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365, Red Bull's chief engineer Paul Monaghan stated: “I expect you'll see something similar. 

“Here [at Zandvoort] you're close to the biggest rear wing.

“At Monza, you'll be on the smallest so it will get turned upside down again, as will everybody. 

“Whether you choose to make a dedicated Monza wing or take your low downforce and trim it, it achieves something similar. 

“You can argue about the efficiencies of it, but at the end of the day, we've got to balance our books by the end of the year.

“If people choose to make dedicated wings, that's they're choice.”