Max Verstappen failed to keep his cool in Hungary and it cost him. Will he do better at Spa – and are Red Bull considering an engine change and penalty for him?
He has no shortage of rivals lining up to capitalise, though none of them have managed to win more than one race yet, something which surely has to change soon. And with a fresh new surface we could see some seriously quick lap times at one of F1’s fastest circuits.
Here are the talking points for the Belgian Grand Prix.
Verstappen feeling the heat?
As the Formula 1 season passed its halfway point at Silverstone it had become clear that part two of the championship was not going to be as straightforward for runaway leader Verstappen as part one had been. First McLaren, then Mercedes emerged as genuine contenders for victory.Given his substantial lead in the championship, consistent points-gathering should be sufficient for Verstappen to seal his fourth title. But that kind of conservatism doesn’t come naturally to him, and in Hungary his maximum-aggression approach backfired as he tangled with Lewis Hamilton. Given the penalties Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jnr picked up for similar incidents earlier this year, Verstappen should count himself fortunate not to have got into trouble.
Will this weekend be a continuation of the belligerence on the track and on his radio we saw last weekend? Or will Verstappen decide that reining it in may represent his best path to the title?
Engine changes?
Spa’s long straights make it a useful venue to have a fresh engine and the relative ease of overtaking makes qualifying further down the grid less of a disadvantage. Any drivers already at the limit for their number of power unit components should therefore consider making a change.
Step forward Verstappen, who has taken engine change penalties at this race for the last two years in a row and is once again up at his limit. It would be no surprise to see Red Bull make another change here, but he may well not be the only one.
Will anyone double up?
The strongest candidate could be F1’s newest winner, Oscar Piastri. He performed superbly at Spa last year, out-qualifying Lando Norris in sprint race and grand prix qualifying.
Expect Norris to be a threat again this weekend, while the track layout and expected lower temperatures should suit Mercedes better than the Hungaroring did. Ferrari have sunk back to fourth-quickest team and Spa’s high-speed corners could expose their key weakness – the bouncing which developed after their last major upgrade. The team previously considered reverting to and older specification for this weekend.
RB vs Haas – and Aston Martin?
Haas failed to continue their recent run of good results in Hungary as the high downforce track did not suit their recently upgraded car. But the VF-24 is likely to suit this track much better. “We’ve been efficient on long straights so our strengths should come out and shine here,” said Kevin Magnussen.
That should give them the chance to further close on RB, who are just six points ahead of them in the championship. Aston Martin look out of reach for these two teams, as they are another 36 points clear of RB, but if they haven’t got on top of their recent problems and slip out of points contention, they could face a grim second half of the season.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Last chances for Perez and Sargeant?
Sergio Perez compromised his weekend again in Hungary by crashing in qualifying. Although he did a solid job to salvage seventh place on Sunday, this is still well below what his Red Bull is capable of. Is a lack of compelling alternatives the only thing keeping him in the seat?
Logan Sargeant’s demeanour in Hungary was taken by many as a sign that he fears he could be without a drive soon. Speculation has linked Mercedes junior driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli with that seat, and after taking his second win in Formula 2 last weekend his backers could justifiably conclude there’s less for him to learn in that category than Formula 1.
Record-breaking speeds?
Around half of Spa-Francorchamps, the longest circuit in Formula 1, has been resurfaced ahead of this year’s race. The work was completed several weeks ago, allowing plenty of time for the surface to mature.
Pirelli expect to see “a significant reduction in lap times and a considerable increase in the grip level on the resurfaced sections.” Will we therefore see record-breaking lap times?
Wet conditions meant last year’s lap times didn’t approach the best of 2022, when Verstappen posted a best of 1’43.665. The record was set in 2020 by Hamilton, who lapped in 1’41.252. With two years of car development plus a grippier surface, that could come under threat if – and this is always a big ‘if’ at Spa – it stays dry.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Are you going to the Belgian Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Belgium for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Belgian Grand Prix? Have your say below.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Belgian Grand Prix
- Belgian GP was “still a win” for Russell despite disqualification
- High plank wear also a factor in Russell’s disqualification, say Mercedes
- Russell is sixth F1 driver to be disqualified after winning a grand prix
- Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy
- 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
w0o0dy (@w0o0dy)
24th July 2024, 8:39
Because of his points lead in the championship and his worries about the 2nd half of the season Max wanted to score as much as he can early on. A frankly disappointing strategy (in Hungary of all places) meant they fed him to the wolves and some people in the team obviously didn’t feel the urgency to go after improving the car as strongly as Max. That was probably why Max was so vocal. “You cannot say I didn’t warn you!”
If his lead decreases and he knows the championship hangs on being conservative I am convinced he will consolidate and will try to stay out of trouble to secure the title.
For now I think his strategy of lighting fire under his teams a**es is the right one.. but if the team fails to respond I could see him drop RedBull in favour of a team on the rise.
Doh
24th July 2024, 12:32
The way I see it with the title is that it’ll take mercedes or Ferrari to be clear 2nd best behind McLaren for max to be under real pressure. That and of course lando will need to win consistently and so far they haven’t shown they can.
If Hungary was a “normal” track max would have finished 3rd easily. Only because it was hard to pass did he struggle. So on pure pace if the redbull drops behind mercedes they they’ll be in deeper water.
Having said that… If lando and max finish 1-5 for just 5 of the remaining 11 races then they’ll be neck and neck. So if lando can consistently win with Oscar consistently 2nd thereby pushingax to 3rd. It’ll take 7 races.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:08
I think we can stop taking ferrari into consideration, mercedes was significantly better in the last few races, it should be up to them and mclaren to take points from verstappen when possible.
Doh
24th July 2024, 20:35
Makes sense. I only included Ferrari considering the quick leaps that McLaren and Mercedes made. Not sure what Ferrari’s issue has been that caused them to drop back though.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
24th July 2024, 18:07
The strategy was absolutely fine. It’s hard to defend an undercut when your under pressure and the leading car of a group. You don’t want to pit too early and the others can always react to what you do. Pitting much earlier than around lap 20 wasn’t really an option for Red Bull as it was a) overall slower and b) difficult to execute with their tire selection. So they went for the overcut which would have worked despite the nature of the track. Verstappen passed Leclerc easily and had several chances to pass Hamilton too, but didn’t make it stick. Without the collision he almost certainly would have gotten ahead eventually.
The general problem Redbull have (also in Silverstone and earlier on this year) is their relative lack of pace in the first stint on medium tires. Hamilton got close enough to undercut and Leclerc was menacingly close as well. It can’t be the tire compound itself because they were fine in the last stint. My assumption is that it has something to do with tire management in a heavy car.
SteveP
24th July 2024, 19:46
A strategy that various analysts have said should have worked for an easy 3rd and possibly better, although the better would be a stretch.
What happened? The red mist descended, and he majorly mucked up what should have been an easy pass of LH by rushing it.
I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect that unless he’s got his head straight, or has a massive performance advantage again, Spa will see him fighting for road space and someone getting hurt.
Neil
24th July 2024, 22:05
Sounds like entitlement
Biggsy
24th July 2024, 8:46
Nothing Alonso nor Sainz did this year comes even close to what Max did in Hungary, and yet, he somehow escaped penalty.
Doh
24th July 2024, 12:34
True. He got away with a lot in Austria and Hungary. Without or without penalties had those two incidents gone just a little differently he would have been down to a 30 odd point lead
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:11
That’s true, he escaped big consequences, such as suspension damage, which seeing the incidents wasn’t unthinkable.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
24th July 2024, 20:28
He’s been getting away with it his entire career. Watch what’s going to happen over the rest of the season… He also has zero respect for the stewards and the sport – anyone else saying what he said would be doing extra drive throughs just for kicks..
J3D89
24th July 2024, 23:42
Or we should say that Sainz and alo shouldve never been penalized… Max should’ve gotten something during the race..
Craig
24th July 2024, 9:01
With their engine advantage the Red Bull should cruise to an easy victory. Anything less and I think Verstappen may very well crack further.
MadMax (@madmax)
24th July 2024, 9:30
Dont u dare speak about a RBR engine advantage. It’s all caused by their superior aero-design. *just-kidding*
BTW: Shouldn’t the headline read ‘Can Verstappen find his cool as pressure grows?’. I mean, if he keeps his cool from Hungary, then we will continue to experience the swearing bully on the team radio.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
24th July 2024, 10:06
The long drag up to Les Combes often brings some lap 1 drama. The weekend weather is a mix as well so we could well have a grid that has faster cars mid pack.
Hopefully will be fun.
Jungle
24th July 2024, 10:15
Can’t wait. Honestly can’t pick the winner!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:13
Unless mclaren is significantly ahead like hungary, I’m gonna have to say verstappen, he’s usually strong at spa and red bull is also usually better there than at other tracks.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
24th July 2024, 10:25
I still suspect that some of Max’s recent attitude problems could well stem from the situation at Red Bull these days.
He said himself that he wasn’t happy working in a stressed environment.
Even though things will have calmed down now after all the Horner and Newey stuff, there may still be unspoken issues between people that is creating a bad atmosphere.
Will Spa be as entertaining as Hungary?
I don’t think so …. but I am often mistaken :)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:14
If it rains more than a few drops, it should.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th July 2024, 11:06
Verstappen feeling the heat? – Definitely.
Engine changes? – Probably, although to be precise, Max’s grid penalty for last year’s edition was only about exceeding gearbox components.
Will anyone double up? – I think so.
RB vs Haas – and Aston Martin? – The former duo definitely, but I’m sure Aston is safe for P5 in the constuctors’ championship.
Last chances for Perez and Sargeant? – Very much possible for the former, although once again, people should stop thinking about Sargeant in the same context, given James Vowles made clear again in Hungary that they aren’t planning to change during the season, not to mention Antonelli won’t start racing in F1 during this season anyway, which has been clear for a while already.
This one thing I’ve struggled to comprehend more or less throughout my time watching & following F1 is that people are hell-bent to twist what relevant individuals have said or contradict them instead of simply fully believing for whatever purposes.
Record-breaking speeds? – Unlikely, even with fresh tarmac, given how much faster 2020 season has been on average.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
24th July 2024, 12:07
And Perez has a contract for next season, but it doesn’t stop people speculating that he might be moved on.
In both cases, it is the same. Plans change. People change their minds. Drivers sometimes prove themselves to be so stupefyingly slow or horrendously crash-prone (or both) that replacing them becomes the only sensible option. And sometimes, shockingly, team representatives don’t tell the whole truth to the media.
As the article notes, there are plenty of reasons to believe that Sargeant might be on the way out – not least his demeanour in Hungary, which might be as a result of him knowing he’s on borrowed time. That can’t be handwaved away, whatever the team principal is saying publicly.
Jere (@jerejj)
24th July 2024, 14:15
I never implied anything about existing contract for next season or beyond, but simply about this season in Sargeant’s case.
Yes, plans & minds can always change, but the point is that as long as nothing different is said, nothing will change, which is the truth here.
He hasn’t entirely ruled out a premature sacking, but this is different from actually planning or intending to do so by definition, so definitive assumptions are pointless at this point.
Simon
24th July 2024, 20:50
@jerejj
https://y.yarn.co/6e440858-9d61-4242-b742-65bfc5d51d4d.mp4
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:17
Ricciardo for example, mclaren had to pay several millions to end his contract early, but he was just too slow.
Patrick (@anunaki)
24th July 2024, 12:11
Spa is DRS heaven so it’s much more likely to finish in order. Unlike Hungary where track position is key
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
24th July 2024, 17:42
@anunaki Funnily enough they’ve just confirmed the Kemmel straight zone will be 75 metres shorter this year.
Patrick (@anunaki)
24th July 2024, 19:38
@keithcollantine you think they are reading this forum? All jokes besides l, I think it’s a good thing to bring down the power of DRS at Spa
MacLeod (@macleod)
24th July 2024, 14:32
Maybe should Max take the RB19 for a spin that one is fast enough.
An Sionnach
24th July 2024, 15:45
Max fails to maximise his points one time in how long and all those vultures who were already circling are squawking about it? Let’s see. I don’t know how things will develop. My advice is to accept that the championship may be out of his hands. Accept it, get the best finish possible and hope that Lando doesn’t win the rest of the races.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 16:26
With norris’ level of starts, I doubt he’ll win many races unless mclaren is light years ahead, and there’s still piastri.
MadMax (@madmax)
24th July 2024, 17:07
Max could have been P2 in Austria, not crashing into Norris. He could have won Silverstone, not destroying his floor in qualy and forgetting tire mgmt in his first stint. And he could have made P3 in Hungary, not crashing into Lewis.
So yeah, failing for one stretch over several races already.
Patrick (@anunaki)
24th July 2024, 19:39
Well he couldn’t get passed Lewis all races so I’m not sure why you think he would be 3rd.
An Sionnach
24th July 2024, 19:52
Well, his problem was he was impatient. He caught Lewis with plenty of laps left to make that move for the highest finishing position he could get, but didn’t wait. Was he hoping to catch one of the McLarens after that? I hope not. There was a chance he could get past Lewis with a bit more (or any) patience.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 22:15
Considering how impatient he’s been, I think he indeed was aiming to get one of the mclarens; I don’t think it was possible, but I don’t see how else to explain the impatience.
An Sionnach
24th July 2024, 19:54
Lando’s lunges in Austria were a joke and he pushed Max off the track. The stewards’ decision was ridiculous. Max made a similarly stupid move in Hungary and got what he deserved for it.
Edvaldo
24th July 2024, 19:45
He’s not losing this.
First because Red Bull is still all around stronger than Mercedes and Ferrari and i don’t see Piastri taking points off him too many times despite Mclaren apparently being the superior car.
Second because his points advantage is way too large.
Third because Norris is not winning the remaining races. He won once, he won’t just turn on an dominate out of a sudden.
I absolutely fail to understand why Max’s supporters (here and on other boards) are freaking out as it’s over.
He may even wrap it up one or two races early.
David BR (@david-br)
24th July 2024, 19:59
I agree, McLaren have shown they don’t have what it takes as a team to win the drivers championship. Even assuming their drivers finish first and second, alternating between themselves, with Max third, they’d need roughly 11 races to catch up. Precisely how many are left after Spa. They’d have to commit to one driver, Norris as he’s 40 pts ahead, but they won’t. Or won’t until it’s too late. Still,, they should win the constructor’s championship.
An Sionnach
24th July 2024, 20:10
It’s not over and it depends on many things. We’ll have to see what happens this weekend. If the McLaren is consistently as good as this for the rest of the races and the team isn’t stupid, they should be able to do it. Piastri was just handed a win when he was the second best car-driver combination on the day. Will he play ball and help Lando to the title? It is in the team’s interests that he do this. If that happens, Max has to rely on mistakes from the McLaren pair and the team. When it comes to strategy, all McLaren has to do is respond to the pit stops of other teams and not allow Lando to give his rivals super undercuts any more. I don’t think that McLaren can continue to let panic and poor decision making ruin their season.
Will the other cars catch up with McLaren? Didn’t the Red Bull upgrade seemingly fail in Hungary?
Will Max continue to crash into other drivers as many detractors are suggesting? As far as I’m concerned Max was clearly at fault in Hungary, but Lando was primarily to blame in Austria and what was the hold-up with the investigation for the track limits penalty?
I can understand the struggle to judge some of these situations, but not brazen partisanship.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
24th July 2024, 22:19
I disagree about piastri being handed a win: was norris faster in the last stint? Ofc, but in hungary that’s not enough, give the undercut to piastri as it should’ve been and piastri would be ahead with no way for norris to pass him.
The fastest car doesn’t always win at these tracks, one of the better examples would be ricciardo at monaco, who won with a mgu-k issue and was several seconds off the pace in 2018.
An Sionnach
25th July 2024, 5:09
Well, Lando did hand him the win because he was ahead. I think he should have swapped immediately and then pressed Piastri. I’m not sure if he’d have been able to get past, but I’d like to have found out. If Lando could overtake him in the same car he would have deserved the win.
SteveP
24th July 2024, 21:58
Maybe because they recognise that when all he has is a car that is roughly equal, or only marginally better than a rival, he fails to beat them.
Getting past Hamilton should have been an easy thing with significantly newer tyres and a softer compound, but instead of making it to 3rd he went backwards to 5th and was lucky to escape a penalty.
An Sionnach
25th July 2024, 5:17
You have to be joking. Max has shown he can win on similar or slightly slower cars. Let’s see what happens. Technically he’s an amazing driver, but he will need more than just driving talent when his car is significantly behind. What I think is a potential weakness might be tested. Prost and Lauda would drive calmly and maximise their points in this situation. I think Schumacher would have, too. To be a complete driver you need to do more than just drive the car. I don’t think there’s such a driver on the grid at the moment unless it’s Max. A couple of the other drivers do well when it comes to considering everything, though. They’re both from the same country.
SteveP
25th July 2024, 7:07
Technically, in a car that was at least equal and with newer tyres of a softer compound his potential for cornering at speed was better, and yet he finished 5th.
As Q3 runs showed, the RBR at Hungary had roughly equal pace to the McLaren, which LH noted in the cool down room is notably faster than the Merc. What happened to what should have been an easy pass? Max happened.
Mayrton
25th July 2024, 10:47
That is what I suspect will happen. He is now in the phase that the failure of his car & team is fresh. Once he accepts it as a given he will then switch back to ‘optimise what I have within the circumstances present’. He has had a lot of years prior to 2021 that were similar and he distracted a lot out of what was given to him. Whether it will then be enough at the end of the season will cease to be important to him.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
24th July 2024, 19:52
I’ve never seen a headline on RaceFans to which Betteridge’s Law of Headlines more appropriately applies.
David BR (@david-br)
24th July 2024, 20:01
@us_peter :)
True, 100% certain Verstappen will not keep his cool. Doesn’t mean he can’t win though.
Mayrton
25th July 2024, 10:53
I do not agree. Once he comes to terms with the order of the field he will switch back into the ‘optimise what we have’ mode. He has done it for years ramping up to 2021. He now in time feels he might be able to turn around the trend within the team. Once he sees the momentum isn’t there anymore at RedBull he’ll accept and move on. I still feel Austria was a pure media created issue. In reality there just was a minor touch. And he gained points on Lando. Hungary was really a bad outing of Verstappen in where him losing his cool got the better of him. Maybe he is human after all. I am sure he’ll bounce back.
David BR (@david-br)
26th July 2024, 16:05
It seems a weird dynamic all round at Red Bull. I was surprised by his race engineer’s ironic comments, they suggested a more general annoyance with Verstappen. The team has gone quiet in terms of the takeover attempts but Newey is off, maybe to a rival team, and the Verstappen-to-Mercedes rumours are still around. Losing Verstappen and Newey would be huge. Then Marko publicly announcing that Verstappen had received a parental block on his late-night sim racing doubled down on the sense that the team is kind of fed up with him for some reason.
But sure, he’ll adapt, he’s smart. I think, though, that this is a Max pattern. You’re right, if he accepts that they need to ‘regroup’ he’ll calm down. But it’s that threshold of frustration when he thinks a win is within reach with just a bit more effort that tends to push him into rasher decisions. Not saying that isn’t typical to most highly competitive drivers. But we saw it in the latter quarter of 2021 and again creeping in Austria and Hungary.
If the P1 pace continues, he’ll be fine at Spa (probably). If the pace is off, which seems unlikely, then having to push through the field could be more problematic. But Spa is probably his best circuit; I can remember seeing drive the track onboard in some sports car and it was staggering.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
24th July 2024, 20:31
When has a point been on offer anywhere and Max has kept his cool?
By comparison, Ocon is the coolest cucumber known to racekind. What an amiable and friendly guy this Esteban is!
w0o0dy (@w0o0dy)
25th July 2024, 10:57
Yeah Ocon is a great example… Crashing into teammates, running then into walls, fighting the race leader when getting lapped… Yeah excellent example… Not.
SteveP
25th July 2024, 13:58
Yeah, because Max absolutely no history of crashing and crashing with teammates, has he? Oh, well…
David BR (@david-br)
26th July 2024, 16:09
@w0o0dy As Lewis said to Max in the cooldown room at Interlagos, why didn’t he pass Ocon on the straight? Leaving aside whether he should have done or not, it was obvious Ocon was going to fight the corner; you have to anticipate moves based on the driver concerned and make smart decisions.