Rain and Luck: Verstappen’s Spa Strategy

Max Verstappen anticipates a challenging race at Spa due to his engine penalty. He’s hoping for rain and a bit of luck to boost his chances in Belgium.

Max Verstappen admits he is more likely to limit the damage than to attempt to win the Belgian Grand Prix, as he is set to take a penalty for changing his power unit.

Red Bull has considered the best time to take new components as Verstappen has already used the maximum allowed number of internal combustion engines, MGU-H, MGU-K, battery, and control electronics. Spa-Francorchamps is a place where Verstappen has taken similar grid penalties in the past and still fought for victory, but he says the competitive situation this season makes it unlikely for that scenario to repeat.

“Probably here for the penalty, you are well informed I see! But I knew of course this was coming. It’s not a surprise for me. We will see on Sunday how difficult it will be. Some tracks are naturally a bit better than others. Of course, on a street circuit, you wouldn’t want an engine penalty. So yes, very likely it will be here.”

“It will be difficult to come back for the win. If you look at our recent races where we haven’t been particularly the fastest, I wouldn’t say with 10 more places we have a chance to win. But again, a race can always be upset by hot moments. We need to be open-minded and try to make the best of it. That’s what we are going to try to do.”

“For now, I also don’t know how competitive we will be here. At a few places, there is new tarmac, so we need to see how the tires react to that as well. There are still a lot of unknowns. Obviously, with the weather, there will be quite a bit of rain on Friday and Saturday. So we just have to follow the weather and progress throughout the weekend, and see how competitive we are.”

Does he have any predictions?

“Hungary wasn’t what we expected, but Spa will be completely different. It will rain a lot, and we have to deal with that. We can set up the car a bit differently, try to work on the car’s balance, and hopefully, that will help us.”

“With the penalty, it will be difficult. The teams are much closer this year, McLaren being probably the fastest, so it won’t be easy to come back as in the past two years. The last two years, of course, we had an advantage and, in some way, I was maybe a bit excited to do it. Now, I know it will be tough, but you never know. An F1 Grand Prix is never that simple; usually, things can happen, and hopefully, a bit of luck.”

McLaren’s double podium in Hungary sparked debate about whether Lando Norris should be prioritized to close the 76-point gap between him and Verstappen in the drivers’ championship. Verstappen admits that Norris might be able to lead the title fight later in the season.

“Yes, of course, if they dominate the race and keep winning, then for sure. But in the end, we have to focus on ourselves because we can also do better in terms of optimizing the car’s performance. That’s where my focus is.”

“Of course, you have the championship in mind, but I think we need to focus first on trying to find a bit more performance in the car.”